Monsters vs. Aliens (Blu-ray)

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DreamWorks covered all the bases with "Monsters vs. Aliens": It's got instant references in the title alone to "Monsters, Inc.," "Alien," "Aliens," and "Alien vs. Predator." To say nothing of "Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever," which probably clinched it in terms of its super-huge box office in 2009. But wait; that's only the beginning.

It appears that everyone involved with the making of the picture was a lover of old-time monster-movies, because they packed "Monsters vs. Aliens" with references to just about every old sci-fi/fantasy monster movie ever made. I guarantee this: For adults, the movie is fun the first time through. I just can't guarantee that it would be too much fun after the initial viewing because the plot and characters are paper thin.

Here's the setup: A young woman named Susan Murphy (voiced by Reese Witherspoon) is about to be married to a selfish, narcissistic weatherman, Derek Dietl (Paul Rudd). However, on her wedding day, a meteorite hits her, causing her to grow to a gigantic height. OK, it could be worse; at least her clothes grow along with her. The military immediately sedate and capture her, incarcerating her in a secret facility where they've been holding various other "monsters" for the past fifty-odd years.

The general in charge of the facility is W.R. Monger (Kiefer Sutherland, doing a fair George C. Scott impression). Susan's fellow inmates are B.O.B. (Seth Rogen), a gelatinous snack-food resembling a mound of Jell-O; Dr. Cockroach, Ph.D (Hugh Laurie), a formerly human scientist who accidentally turned himself into a repulsive household pest; The Missing Link (Will Arnett), a large fishlike creature; and Insectasaurus, a really big insect. They're a friendly lot, though, and after a moment's fright, Susan gets to like them.

For a major conflict, an evil alien spaceship comes to Earth, its evil captain, Gallaxhar (Rainn Wilson), looking for an element he needs to do whatever evil deeds it is that evil captains of evil alien spaceships do. The President of the United States, President Hathaway (Stephen Colbert), a big goofus, tries to appease the outer-space miscreants, but to no avail. So the general recommends the government do the only thing it can against a more-powerful enemy: Send in the monsters. And so on and so forth.

Here's the thing: The animation is gorgeous, and there's enough color, action, and adventure to satisfy most children. Regardless, for adults the only real pleasure may be counting all the older films this new one conjures up. The fact is, "Monsters vs. Aliens" really isn't so much a movie in itself as it is a collection of other movies. Among many other things, you'll find reminders here of not only the movies listed in the first paragraph but "Superman," "House of Wax," "Independence Day," "Twister," "Beetlejuice," "The X-Files," "Attack of the 50 Foot Woman," "Close Encounters of the Third Kind," "Dr. Strangelove," "The Day the Earth Stood Still," "E.T.," "I, Robot," "Star Wars," "The Clone Wars," "The Blob," "The Fly," "Bullitt," "Ghostbusters," "Mars Attacks," "The Creature from the Black Lagoon," "Godzilla," "Super Woman," "Wall-E," "This Island Earth," "The Great Escape," "2001," "Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow," and "Mothra."

And that's just for starters. I mean, the filmmakers even set their movie in the little town of Modesto, California. Why? Because George Lucas was born there. That's how obscure some of the references are. Add to that a soundtrack score by Henry Jackman reminiscent of Modest Mussorgsky's "Night on the Bare Mountain," and you get a movie you'll swear you've seen a dozen times before. Well, that was the filmmakers' intent, so you can't say they didn't succeed.

Be that as it may, there is no serious story line here, just a group of good Earth monsters battling a gang of bad space-alien monsters. Worse, there are so many characters running around in so short a film, the scriptwriters (five of them) never have time to flesh out anybody properly. Unlike, say, "Monsters, Inc.," where Pixar developed two main characters so well we came to love them, we don't care much about any of the people or monsters in "Monsters vs. Aliens," not even the main character, Susan (whom the general nicknames "Ginormica"). And worse yet, despite the famous voice talents involved, only a couple of them--Hugh Laurie and Kiefer Sutherland--do anything to distinguish themselves or bring any real variety or life to their characterizations. I'd be willing to bet that most viewers would have no idea who was voicing most of the parts, or care, without a list of names in front of them.