California girl Susan Murphy [Reese Witherspoon] who is understandably excited over her impending wedding is blind to the central flaw in her fiance, the newscaster Derek Dietl [Paul Rudd]. He is self-centered and has no hesitation in putting his career ahead of their life together.
Imagine his reaction when a meteor strikes and makes Susan nearly 50 feet tall. He cannot think of anything else but his own career -- he wants to get an exclusive interview with her to boost his career.
But he is sidelined in no time as the plot thickens in the fast-moving 3-D movie Monsters vs. Aliens, which has created quite a bit of buzz and is expected to set a March record when it opens on 3000 screens in North America this week and in many major markets
At least 250 IMAX theatres worldwide will be releasing the film; in its first foreign outing, the film opened to a strong $6.75 million in Russia over the weekend. [It was released first in Russia because of the huge piracy market there].
This is the first 3-D film from DreamWorks Animation, the studio that gave us in recent years such huge hits as the two Madagascar films as well as the Kung Fu Panda.
Until recently, most 3-D fare produced for non-IMAX movie screens was an afterthought, converted from 2-D, Conrad Vernon who directed the new film with Rob Letterman has said. But Monsters, however, was designed and filmed with 3-D in mind.
The film gains more momentum when the American president [Stephen Colbert] releases the monsters when an alien robot invades the planet. The Monster Squad knows that it win their freedom by defeating the aliens, particularly the multi-eyed, octopus like Gallaxhar [Rainn Wilson].
One of the highlights of the film has Susan slipping sports cars on her feet and dashing through San Francisco's famous steep streets.[And in the days when India is cropping up in several films including Slumdog Millionaire and Rachael Gets Married, this movie too has an Indian connection, though a fleeting one. When the president demands a meeting with the America's top scientists, a phone call instantly is placed to India.]
Witherspoon says she took up the film because of its appeal to many segments of the audiences, 'It has got a great story boys like, action and adventure,' she says in the production notes of the film. 'But it also has got this great message for girls -- about really finding your true self, what you really value about yourself...'
For director Vernon and co-producer Lisa Stewart, Witherspoon's stature meant a lot. 'We thought it would be great and a nice contrast to have a petite girl play a giant woman,' Vernon says in the press notes. 'Susan is living vicariously through her fiance. We liked that idea and turning it around ...So when she becomes the most powerful woman in the world, she realises that she doesn't really need him to lead an amazing life she had always wanted.'
Casting Hugh Laurie [the hit medical drama on TV, House] as Dr Cockroach, PhD, the scientist whose self-experiments have gone awfully wrong and led to him locked up working on something dangerous, was also very critical to the film. Vernon says he had admired Laurie's work long before House, especially in the British television series The Black Adder with Rowan Atkinson.
Playing a brilliant bug appealed to Laurie soon after he glanced through the script. He loves animated films, the actor says, because he enjoys 'the freedom of messing around and trying to create something in a voice.'
Besides, 'you wear your own clothes.'
Seth Rogen, who plays BOB, has been heard in the hit animated film, Kung Fu Panda. His character in the new film is quite different that of the lighting quick Mantis in Panda, he says. 'Mantis was all about a quick temper and awesome kung fu abilities,' he muses. 'It's really great to be able to switch things up.'
In the new film, Rogen [one of the most popular comic actors in America with such hits as Knocked-Up to his credit] plays a character that is like a seven-year-old. 'I've got this humongous cotton candy and there's the fun house and roller coaster,' he adds.
Among the other well-known stars featured in the film is Kiefer Sutherland who plays General WR Monger, a grizzled war veteran.
Though Monsters vs. Aliens doesn't carry the emotional sweetness of some of the best-known animation movies from DreamWorks including Shrek, it has many eye-popping sequences especially the assault on the Golden Gate Bridge.
At the New York preview at the IMAX theatre, young audiences loudly acclaimed the scenes such as the galactic blast that shoots the rocks straight into the audiences.
With the high hopes Monsters has generated, the 3-D films could continue to be attractive propositions to the studios and theaters. At least 12 other titles will follow this year, wrote The Hollywood Reporter 'including such milestones as Up, Pixar's first foray in the format; Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs, a rare chance to see that disaster-prone Scrat get flattened in 3-D; and Avatar, James Cameron's return to feature filmmaking after a 12-year hiatus that will attempt to do for live-action futuristic thrillers what his Titanic did for sinking ships.'