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James & I went to see Monsters Vs Aliens 3D at the Cineworld in Weymouth, while we were staying in Dorset with my family at Easter. The weather forecast for the rest of the afternoon was gloomy & what better way to enjoy a trip to the seaside than to relax in front of a fun film!?

This was my first 3D film with the new RealD technology, so I’ll talk about that first. My memories of going to see 3D films still involved the cardboard glasses with red & green flimsy plastic lenses that were so dreadfully uncomfortable throughout the entire film! The new style glasses with their stiff plastic frames were comfortable and you could actually see (almost) properly through them, which made it hard to believe that they were going to actually work.

Being the geek I am, I immediately whipped out my iPhone while we were waiting in the cinema for the film to start, and looked the technology up on wikipedia, whispering the details to James¹. Anyway, As soon as the 3D trailers began, I started to get excited, waggling the glasses up & down my nose to try and observe the effect. Needless to say, technology has come on in leaps & bounds since the days of the old 3D method, and the 3D effect you get from the polarised glasses is brilliant - it had me jumping in my seat as objects leapt off the screen at my face. You really do feel as if things are jumping out right to your nose!

Of course, this was much annoyance of our neighbours - really, who is that interested in a blank screen that they get wound up about some talking before the film; the adverts hadn’t even started yet! ↩

The film itself was absolutely brilliant, and I expected nothing less from the Dreamworks Animation gang! As always (just like with Shrek), they managed to make the film appeal to all ages - the kids in the cinema were loving it, and the adults enjoyed it even more! The storyline is a touch predictable at times, and (of course) the good guys come out on top, but it’s a very enjoyable film - and one you should watch while it is still at cinemas, even if you don’t have a child to take as your excuse!

The film is based around a young woman named Susan, and starts on her wedding day, as she is getting ready to marry the love of her life - weatherman Derek Dietl. However, something rather large comes in the way of this (not quite true?) love and the wedding falls to pieces fairly spectacularly. Having rather outgrown the sleepy town she lives in, Susan goes on to join a team of Monsters - some of whom maybe slightly familiar to the older viewers (The Blob, anyone? Or The Fly? How about Attack of the 50 Foot Woman?).

With Dreamworks’ new take on these old characters, you can’t help falling a little bit in love with the Monster gang as they go about their adventures, succeeding only through a mixture of skill and pure luck. Add in the rather sinister yet strangely adorable aliens, and the film is a fun mixture of personalities brilliantly animated & brought to life by the fabulous actors providing their vocal chords (does a blob have vocal chords? Who knows).

The cast were brilliantly suited to the characters - Reese Witherspoon, Seth Rogen and Hugh Laurie shine particularly bright. With the usual sly pokes & references to other popular films that Dreamworks excel in, even taking the piss out of themselves at one stage, Monsters Vs Aliens had James & I giggling from start to finish. If you haven’t seen this film already, I suggest you go while you still can - and I would definitely recommend paying the extra few quid & seeing the 3D film - if you’ve never seen one before then you won’t be disappointed!

Originally published at Zoe's Blog. You can comment here or there.