The Monster Mash
My review of Monsters vs. Aliens is now up I have to admit I don’t always quite know how to review movies like this. I’m neither an 8 year old kid nor the parent of one, which makes me well beyond the target audience. I can make an attempt to summon my own inner eight year old, but even that only goes so far (and even then, as I recall, it was somewhere around 8 or 9 years old where I started to become more critical of the films I watched). This is a pretty common problem in movie reviewing; critics tend to be urban-dwelling men somewhere between their late 20s and early 50s (there are exceptions, obviously), which produces an overall bias against films that are female and child-centric. I suspect that Monsters vs. Aliens, like most of the films put out by Dreamworks Animation, is probably not much of a movie by any standard, but it’s tough to say for sure when you don’t have much access to the intended audience.
Eight year olds, dude.
— JA · Mar 27, 02:42 PM · #
I am a father of 2 small children (5 and 3) and I must say that I completely agree with your points in the review about the difference between Dream Works and Pixar productions. My kids do seem to enjoy both equally but that isn’t the only standard by which to jusdge the films. For starters I’ve noticed that their behaviour can become quite obnoxious after watching a Dream Works effort (not surprising when you see the behaviour and language modelled in them).
— Steve · Mar 28, 10:58 AM · #
How did you not go see the 3D MvA? I saw it in Georgetown with 3 under-10s yesterday, and the 3D made the film.
It’s as if you just listened to a Britney Spears on the the first ipod in 2002 and decided to review the song, not the system.
You should see it the right way and trick someone into paying you to review the 3D.
— tom · Mar 29, 11:56 AM · #
Tom — There were two preview screenings in DC, one in 3D on a Saturday morning, one in 2D on Tuesday night. For various reasons, the Saturday show didn’t work, so I ended up seeing the 2D show on Tuesday night. Thing is, I’ve seen any number of 3D releases, and the good movies (Coraline) are still good, the not-so-good ones (Beowulf) are still not so good. 3D adds a bit of gimmicky techno-spectacle, but it doesn’t change the story, characters, dialog, etc.
— Peter Suderman · Mar 29, 05:54 PM · #
I couldn’t disagree with your review; just whether the movie itself deserved a review.
There was a short article in last month’s Atlantic on 3D as the thing that save theaters, and I think it was the Times that had another one today tied to MvA’s success this weekend.
From now on every kid’s movie that’s on 3D, we’ll go see in 3D and pay the extra price. And I would definitely pay to see Bond 3D or Bourne 4 3D. Or Transformers 2 3D.
— tom · Mar 29, 10:18 PM · #
Agree with your comparison of Pixar and DreamWorks – sussed it when i took my son to see the first Shrek film – found it crass and winking, and overly reliant on cheap pop-culture references for its laughs. Just one point – “Ice Age” is not a DreamWorks production – it was made by 20th Century Fox Animation.
— Peter Lyden · Mar 29, 11:25 PM · #