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Monsters vs. Aliens
EMAILPRINTDreamWorks Animation

Mixed or average reviews
Based on 35 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 64 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie >
Movie Info
Genre(s): Animation
Written by:
Conrad Vernon (story)
Rob Letterman (& story)
Glenn Berger, Jonathan Aibel
Wallace Wolodarsky, Maya Forbes
Directed by:
Conrad Vernon
Rob Letterman
Release Date:
Theatrical: March 27, 2009
DVD: September 29, 2009
Running Time: 94 minutes, Color
Origin: USA
Summary
RATING: PG for sci-fi action, some crude humor and mild language
Starring Reese Witherspoon, Seth Rogen, Hugh Laurie, Will Arnett, Kiefer Sutherland, Stephen Colbert, Renée Zellweger, and Rainn Wilson
When California girl Susan Murphy is unwittingly clobbered by a meteor full of outer space gunk on her wedding day, she mysteriously grows to 49-feet-11-inches tall. The military jumps into action and Susan is captured and secreted away to a covert government compound. There, she is renamed Ginormica and placed in confinement with a ragtag group of Monsters: the brilliant but insect-headed Dr. Cockroach, Ph.D.; the macho half-ape, half-fish The Missing Link; the gelatinous and indestructible B.O.B.; and the 350-foot grub called Insectosaurus. Their confinement is cut short, however, when a mysterious alien robot lands on Earth and begins storming the country. In a moment of desperation, the President is persuaded to enlist the motley crew of Monsters to combat the Alien Robot and save the world from imminent destruction. (Paramount)
Also On Metacritic
GAMES: Monsters vs. Aliens (Xbox 360)
Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database Official Studio Site
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
Village Voice Robert Wilonsky
The grandeur of the effects--the honest-to-God spectacle of the thing--elevates Monsters vs. Aliens to something approaching art. It's not a masterpiece, but it's most certainly a milestone.
Read Full Review >Slate Jessica Winter
The richly multilayered picture tends to have a gently immersive effect, akin to a stroll through the world's most expensive diorama.
Read Full Review >Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea
Full disclosure: I saw Monsters vs. Aliens in 2-D. No dorky plastic glasses, no alien ooze flying at my head. More full disclosure: I liked it.
Read Full Review >Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman
The movie may best be appreciated by people who know the references. All five monsters come from low-budget science fiction films of the 1950s.
Read Full Review >Christian Science Monitor Peter Rainer
My favorite voice/animation combo, however, is Stephen Colbert's very terrestrial president of the United States.
Read Full Review >TV Guide Perry Seibert
This is a lean 90 minutes, packed with laughs and age-appropriate thrills -- not to mention a solid lesson for girls about self-respect.
Read Full Review >USA Today Claudia Puig
Dazzling colors, winning characters and energetic visual effects all work in concert, with the 3-D animation serving to intensify the experience.
Read Full Review >Los Angeles Times Betsy Sharkey
In fact "nice" is the adjective that seems to surface most in trying to pin down the film's most salient quality, which means that while the film is enjoyable enough, it is unlikely to become a classic for us, or a "Shrek" sort of franchise for DreamWorks.
Read Full Review >Chicago Reader Andrea Gronvall
Children won't get the references to atomic-age monster movies, but the film offers more than nostalgia: there are slyly funny performances by Seth Rogen as an omnivorous blue blob and Stephen Colbert as the U.S. president, who faces down, and then flees, an alien invasion.
Read Full Review >The Hollywood Reporter Kirk Honeycutt
There is a nice mix of action with tender moments -- especially among the misfit monsters
Read Full Review >Variety Todd McCarthy
A film of chuckles, smiles and light amusement rather than big laughs, galvanizing excitement and original invention.
Read Full Review >The Onion (A.V. Club) Tasha Robinson
On some level, the latest DreamWorks CGI project isn't a movie so much as a gag-delivery system wrapped in special effects. The story is crammed with incident, yet completely trifling; there are a ton of personalities, but no real characters.
Read Full Review >Boston Globe Ty Burr
If you have to see Monsters vs. Aliens - and if you're a parent, you will have to - make sure it's the 3-D version.
Read Full Review >ReelViews James Berardinelli
Monsters vs. Aliens suffers from the common 3D problems: dim lighting, poor focus in fast-paced action sequences, and too many distractions for the movie to grab the viewer.
Read Full Review >Rolling Stone Peter Travers
"WALL-E" had more charm, more soul, more everything. But there's enough merry mischief here to satisfy, even if you’re way past puberty.
Read Full Review >Film Threat Eric Campos
The 3D visuals are an enormous part of MVA's experience and they also help to cover up the lackluster “comedy.”
Read Full Review >Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum
The movie works hard -- desperately hard -- to be all things to all audience segments. And the visible effort erodes the sense of gaiety, of unfettered fun.
Read Full Review >NPR Bob Mondello
After a while, you can see the setups happening -- and once you do, the careening gets predictable. Which gets old, really fast.
Read Full Review >Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek
Even in 3D, as the picture is being shown in some theaters -- Ginormica is a disappointingly flat character.
Read Full Review >The New Yorker Anthony Lane
As I took off my gray-lensed 3-D spectacles at the end of Monsters vs. Aliens, I felt not so much immersed as fuzzy with exhaustion. What I had seen struck me less as a herald of shining possibility than as a thrill ride back to the future--back, that is, to an idea of the future, and a stale one at that.
Read Full Review >San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle
The movie is reasonably entertaining, though it helps to be 6 years old.
Read Full Review >The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Rick Groen
Despite the 3-D gadgetry, there's a musty odour to the script.
Read Full Review >The New York Times A.O. Scott
The movie is curiously unmemorable, partly because nearly all of its humor depends on your having seen something like it before, even if you haven't.
Read Full Review >Washington Post Ann Hornaday
Has bells and whistles, superb technical sophistication and dazzling visual effects, sound, fury and Reese Witherspoon. What it doesn't have is heart. Like so many vehicles that have popped out from the DreamWorks Animation snark tank, Monsters vs. Aliens is too clever by half.
Read Full Review >New York Daily News Joe Neumaier
This action-comedy will seem fresh only to 8-year-olds -- though it may give parents an excuse to introduce some of the '50s horror movies it parodies.
Read Full Review >Austin Chronicle Kimberley Jones
The misfits, as ever, must take a back seat to the morality, and the result – while in no way migraine-inducing – traffics in rote truisms.
Read Full Review >Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern
The biggest battle in Monsters vs. Aliens is banality vs. originality, and banality carries the day.
Read Full Review >Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow
Will pop your eyes without tickling your funny bone.
Read Full Review >Chicago Tribune Michael Phillips
It's tough to get on board with these monsters. They don't get the banter they--or we--deserve, and the screenwriters lean on wearying stereotypes.
Read Full Review >New York Post Lou Lumenick
Dreamworks Animation's clunky and wildly unimaginative Monsters vs. Aliens really doesn't have a clue what to do with the [3-D] technique.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 6.8 (out of 10) based on 64 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Keith P gave it a10:
I like Monsters vs Aliens. This movie is hilarious. I give it an A+.
J T gave it a4:
With such a funny cast, it's surprising that the laughs in this film are minimal. I doubt even children would enjoy this movie.
Jay H gave it a7:
Great fun, highly entertaining. Beautifully animated, and wonderfully imaginative. Children and adults with both be entertained. Simple and sweet, as well as a good message.
Evin C gave it a4:
Boring but Seth Rogen's two whole lines are funny.
Daniel V. gave it a1:
Oh em gee, I hated this movie. Bad story, extremely cliche. I also hated it when who ever that was, said, "Oh em gee"..... out loud.
anonymous gave it a3:
A complete mediocre film, if there is a power outage and your TV goes blank, don't worry the plot only gets worse. Characters are forgettable if not just plain stupid. Predicable in every way. Show it to 5-12 year olds, other then that don't waste your time, see a Pixar film, with REAL character development.
David T gave it a9:
Loved it. Great movie to take the kids to, and I wasn't bored watching it either.
