'Monsters vs. Aliens' review

"Monsters vs. Aliens" (Credit: DreamWorks Animation)

Cool, monsters fighting aliens! Oh, the plot? That's it, mostly, as a team of friendly beasts (including Susan, a normal woman-turned-giant, voiced by Reese Witherspoon) defends the earth from supernatural invasion.

The buzz: This is a home run for anyone who judges animated movies by their celeb voices, with Seth Rogen, Hugh Laurie, Will Arnett, Rainn Wilson, Paul Rudd, Kiefer Sutherland and Stephen Colbert in the cast. If not, well, audiences should be grateful that Dreamworks' 3-D action comedy is something different than the usual tale of a talking dog and a funny hamster and their journey to blah blah blah.

The verdict: If the difference between a movie and an ad is substantial character, excitement and story, then "Monsters vs. Aliens" is officially a toy commercial. Rogen (as a dim-witted monster) and Wilson (as an evil alien overlord) score some laughs, a Golden Gate Bridge-destroying action sequence is pretty sweet and at least the threatened apocalypse doesn't turn into self-parody à la Nicolas Cage's "Knowing." But the five-headed, zero-brained writing team stuffs in so many lame one-liners that the movie plays like a magician whose buzz-killing banter ruins any good will from his tricks.

Did you know? After she's captured by the government, Susan is told not to think of her incarceration as prison but as a hotel...that she can never leave because it's locked from the outside. Reassuring, no?