MONSTERS VS. ALIENS
3 out of 5 stars

"the united states seems to be the only place aliens like to invade in movies." - general t.w. monger


i have to say that i was a bit disappointed with this one because it wasn't as witty or funny as the shrek saga. i excepted better from dreamworks, but it was cute... ;)

the monsters are actually quite animated in terms of their personalities, and we learn about them and their character traits through the eyes of one susan murphy. susan is just an ordinary woman living in modesto, CA, and she's engaged to local weatherman derek. now, derek's a bit of a selfish jerk, but susan is sooooo infatuated with him, she doesn't see the selfishness at all... little does she know that she gets hit by a large meteorite on her wedding day, and during the ceremony, she starts to GROW bigger and BIGGER... pretty soon, the u.s. govt captures her, and basically throws her into a prison full of other monsters: 1) the missing link: half fish-monkey-man who likes to terrorize ppl @ beaches, 2) B.O.B.: a blue gelatin looking blob with an IQ of -283728, 3) dr. cockroach: mad scientist turned insect who has dreams of taking over the world, 4) insectosaurus: uhh... half guinea pig-insect whose BFFs with link. so when the u.s. govt need their help with an alien invasion, they are thrown into the action and need to try and save the humans from the alien robot probe causing destruction in san francisco!

of course, this is a movie for children, so the overall message is to accept yourself and to accept your friends for who they are. (even if they are monsters!) like i said, it's cute, but dreamworks has done some more creative/wittier movies, and this one just fell off that "wagon"... i did like some parts of it though like when dr. cockroach has to break the color security code, and it's just like DDR... (you can't help but chuckle to yourself) or when the president of the united states (voiced appropriately by stephen colbert) tries to communicate with the alien probe via synthesizer! so silly! :P