Movie review: Too much action, not enough story

"This is a scary movie," said one child during my showing of "Monsters vs. Aliens." After a quick consolation from a parent, that was the last peep from the entire audience. I don't know if the silence was due to the nonstop action on screen or due to a strange mixture of a more mature humor with Saturday morning cartoons.

Concerning the nonstop action, I did find it a bit much. And I think my young companions did, too. The arc of a story -- the ups and downs of plot, which must include breathers for the audience to think about the characters, to worry about their exploits, to reach higher levels of anticipation -- must be in place. Aristotle taught us that.

And though 99 percent of an audience doesn't think about the arc, they know when it's not there. Five-year-olds know when it's not there. Just witness the children more interested in the sleepy newspaper reviewer than in the film's climax playing out on screen and shaking the rafters with the booms of the soundtrack.

DreamWorks is touting its 3-D technology as the way of the future. I still think it's just a gimmick to bring in audiences, as is paying high fees for famous actors to do the voices -- which has always seemed to me the most inefficient use of budget ever conceived; Hollywood is full of unique voice actors that would thrill children. Though eventually, story is -- and always will be -- the bottom line.

"Monsters vs. Aliens" begins at the wedding of Susan Murphy, a pretty young bride engaged to a full-of-himself TV anchor. It seems what she's really interested in is marrying this anchor so she can go to Paris and he can give her a certain lifestyle. (Which isn't funny and kind of off-putting for the adults in the audience.)

As she's taking a moment to gather her thoughts before the ceremony, a glowing asteroid falls to earth, almost smashing her. She seems OK but something has certainly infected her with an obvious growth hormone -- she quickly grows to 49 feet tall.

Lickety split, she's hauled off to a secret military outpost, a la Area 51, and housed along with other known monsters, who are all a bit dimwitted and nice. There she will stay, forever hidden away from humanity.

Though when a seriously nasty alien comes looking for the stuff that was in Susan's asteroid and threatens Earth with immediate annihilation, a desperate president calls the Monsters into action to combat the alien. If the monsters can defeat the alien they will win their freedom, if they lose, well ...