Wednesday, May 21, 2014

Monsters University (2013) - Review


Jeez Pixar, what happened?!  You used to make quality movies.  Anyone remember a little gem called Toy Story?  That's one of the greatest animated movies of all time!  Monsters Inc, Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, the Toy Story sequels, all great stuff.  Then Cars happened.  Larry the Cable Guy happened, rather, and it all went down the drain.  Ever since then, Pixar has been incredibly hit or miss.  I mean... Brave?  Up?  Cars 2?  Some mediocre to bad stuff in there (mediocre being Up; I know people love that movie, but I just don't get it).

And the same is true about Monsters University.  It's not a bad movie, per se, just incredibly formulaic and cliched.  Never once in the movie will you be surprised, except maybe at the fact that this movie got made in the first place.  And besides that; it's a prequel!  If there's anything more boring than a prequel, it's a prequel to an animated movie.

I had the exact opposite reaction while watching this
I never once found myself caring about any of the characters or any of their problems and one of the big problems is that we ALREADY KNOW WHAT HAPPENS.  We know it all turns out fine for the protagonists, so who cares?  Okay, sure, it's not like they were going to throw us any curveballs; even subtracting the fact that it's a prequel, they would have turned out fine either way.  But it certainly doesn't help that this is just a lesser version of the original with more stock characters and generic, forgettable jokes.

Speaking of the jokes, there's one funny one.  One.  In an hour and a half long movie, I smiled once, and I'm going to ruin it.  One of the character's mothers is driving the group around and she lets them out at school.  She says "I'll just be in the car listening to my music if you need me," and they get out.  As they shut the door, you can faintly hear death metal blasting inside the car.  It's actually a pretty funny joke for a kids' movie.  And that's all ya get; no more laughing or caring for you!

But at least it's not Cars 2.  Or worse yet... Planes!

No comments: