Review: 'Monsters Vs. Aliens' Far Out Fun

'Monsters vs. Aliens' (PG)(out of four)

Take my advice. If you can't see "Monsters vs. Aliens" in IMAX 3-D, maybe it would be better to just wait for it to come out on DVD.

Seeing this monstrous work of genius the way it was intended to be enjoyed gives it, well, another dimension that you won't get from a one-dimensional showing.

After oohing and aahing at the 3-D effects, you'll likely revel in the sheer satire of the movie's send-up of 1950s monsters and aliens classics, including "It Came From Outer Space," "Creature from the Black Lagoon" and "Attack of the 50 Foot Woman."

Susan Murphy, voiced phenomenally by Reese Witherspoon, is a nervous bride to be, who on her wedding day, is pummeled by a meteorite. In the middle of the ceremony of her marriage to a network television anchor wannabe (Paul Rudd), she becomes a giant woman. Scooped up by the government, she's sent to a secret camp where other monsters are kept, and her name is changed to Ginormica.

It is there she meets B.O.B., a mass of blue gelatinous goo who falls in love with Jell-O molds, and whose lack of a brain makes him fairly clueless, and hilarious, too. Seth Rogen as the voice of B.O.B. steals the show, hands down (although his hands do morph in and out).

Also detained by the government are a mad scientist turned nocturnal insect, Dr. Cockroach (Hugh Laurie), a reptilian creature from some lagoon called Missing Link (Will Arnett) and a non-speaking oversized flying bug Insectosaurus.

It turns out that Susan was at the wrong place at the wrong time since the meteorite that dropped on her contained a solution very valuable to an alien named Gallaxhar, who looks eerily like a multi-eyed cartoon Grinch. Gallaxhar (Rainn Wilson), in true sci-fi fashion has plans to take over Earth and the entire galaxy, for that matter.

After the president of the United States (political satirist Stephen Colbert) is unable to negotiate with Gallaxhar, their only hope is to get the monster prisoners to go up against the aliens. (Note to movie creators: was it necessary to have the president pull a gun and shoot at the aliens? It seemed oddly out of place.)

You can imagine where this goes from here. A fight with a giant robot sent by Gallaxhar has the monsters tearing apart the streets of San Francisco, and then becoming stowaways on their spaceship.

The script is tight enough to hold it all together for its brisk 90-minute run time. There's enough action to keep the toddler set glued to their seats, and plenty of high-brow satire to satisfy Mom and Dad.

Look for "Monsters vs. Aliens" to become a definite addition to the DVD library, where it can take its very rightful place next to "Attack of the Killer Tomatoes."