Monsters and Crowe and Bears. Oh My.

Saw two films this week and nearly forgot to mention one I'd seen a couple of weeks ago. Yes, it's been that busy around here. At this pace it's going to be a challenge to see a lot of films at the theater.

Anyway, a couple of weeks back I saw the Dreamworks animated movie Monsters vs. Aliens. The theater had it in 3D so, of course, I had to go for it. The early word on this film was that it was Dreamworks first effort that could truly hold its own against most of the Pixar efforts.

MvA is somewhat of an amalgam of "classic" B-movies. There are hints of Attack of the 50 ft. Woman, The Blob, The Day The Earth Stood Still, The Fly and more. At first I was a bit concerned that this would end up being as stunted as Shrek's endless needling of popular Disney characters. Thankfully the references are paper-thin and unimportant to the plot.

The characters are an odd mix with some working more than others. The stand-outs are B.O.B. (a brainless, jello-like creature whose name stands for Benzoate Ostylezene Bicarbonate) and Dr. Cockroach (a brilliant scientist who went a bit too far in an attempt to gain the positive attributes of a cockroach). The main character is Susan who, once transformed, is referred to as Ginormica. Her accident causes her to grow to the specific height of 49' 11 1/2". Get it? Her character is intended to drive the plot but it doesn't quite work.

Lastly there are the two characters that totally don't work. You have The Missing Link, a 20,000 year-old ape-fish creature and Insectaurus, a grub turned huge by nuclear radiation. The bottom line is that they just distract from the movie and feel forced.

The look of the film is solid but nothing special with the 3D effect failing to save the day. Both elements have been done much better in other films. The story is also a bit overdone and drags in a few spots. The voice talent is also noteworthy in that you really have a hard time connecting any stars to the characters.

All in all it was an okay experience that fell short of my expectations. There certainly was nothing here to make Pixar shake in its boots.

The next movie was State of Play. This is a fairly forgettable, and yet solid, effort featuring an all-star cast including Russell Crowe, Ben Affleck, Rachel McAdams, Helen Mirren and Robin Wright Penn.

The film focuses in the rising career of a young congressman (Affleck) and a time-worn investigative journalist (Crowe) who are brought together by a series of "seemingly" unrelated murders. I quote seemingly because very little in this story is surprising even though that's supposed to be its big draw. In fact, one of the main plot points flat out doesn't seem to work at the end as Affleck's character appears to act at odds with his own motivations.

In a bit of a surprise, Helen Mirren fares poorly here. She just doesn't do a very good job at portraying the editor-in-chief of a Washington Post-like paper. The rest of the cast does a good job though.

The story itself just feels incomplete, rushed and disjointed. We don't find out enough about the back stories of the main characters. Their actions may or may not fit their personalities but we can't be sure. We're never sure, for example, if Crowe's character is past his prime or indifferent because of the bad economics of print media. Too much is left to total interpretation and sheer guessing. And entire plotline involving Robin Wright Penn feels completely unnecessary.

Yet for all these problems the movie still manages to keep your attention. You keep thinking it's going to be worth the pay-off and that says a lot about the stars driving it. In the end it doesn't give that pay-off but it's still not a wasted experience. This will probably be a popular rental for a while.

Lastly I caught earth, the first movie in what we're told will be a series from Disneynature. earth is a typical look at our world's habitats and various animals. It's narrated by the ever-wonderful James Earl Jones.

My biggest issue with the movie is its own billing, "earth tells the remarkable story of three animal families and their amazing journey across the planet we all call home." Uh, actually, no. It really doesn't. There's a family of polar bears, elephants and humpback whales. However, we actually don't see very much of them throughout the entire film. We get bits and pieces of them surrounded by an effort that suffers from trying to cover too much material on one film.

There are some amazing moments to be had. A number of time-lapse images are noteworthy both for their spendlor and their originality. There are also quite a few "you have to see it to believe it" moments like seeing 3 million caribou moving enmasse. The camera struggles to pull back far enough and the result almost feels like a Hollywood CGI effect for the sheer breadth of the herd.

For those old enough to remember them, earth harkens back to some earlier Disney efforts of a generation ago that also tackled the nature realm with their own brand of stylistic humor. No one does that better than Disney and it's brought back to life here.

I couldn't help thinking that this movie would be best served by being seen in an Imax theater allowing one to be completely surrounded by the vistas.

earth is well worth seeing but it won't get anywhere near the stratosphere of March of the Penguins.