My offering to you today is a movie review. On Friday evening, I had the occasion to partake in the newest installment in the Monsters Inc. franchise with the family (sans almost two year old) and a family friend. This movie is entitled Monsters University.
In one sentence, I can pretty much sum up what this movie is all about. It is Revenge of the Nerds Meets Monsters Inc. It has all the stereotyped characters (the dumb jocks, the band of misfits, etc, etc), clichés, and virtually the same storyline as one of the Revenge of the Nerds movies (exactly which one escapes me at the moment) with the characters from the original Monsters Inc. characters inserted in that story. As an adult, I found it to be hackneyed and unoriginal. There were a few laughs to be had, but in general, it lacked the clever and delightful nature of the original Monsters movie.
But, that's an adult view and this is a film aimed at entertaining children. In that respect, I can tell you that my nine year old stepdaughter seemed to enjoy it with her friend. I heard them chuckling further down the row a few times and the post viewing meal at Subway contained numerous replays of the movie's events. My four year old, however, seemed less enthralled and more interested in frequently touching the aisle lights on the wall next to our seats. As the movie moved towards its totally foreseeable climax, he did seem to take a bit more interest in the happenings on the screen.
Overall, I'd say this flick would probably represent decent entertainment for the younger crowd. The familiarity (and likability) of the characters should provide ample amusement for its intended audience. As for adults, however, this comes off as a lame attempt at a sequel and, as stated previously, basically involves plucking the storyline from one film and the characters from another and merging them into an all too familiar "geeks overcome their limitations to steal the spotlight from the cool kids" saga. Given the time since the release of the first movie, I thought the project's creators could've done much better with this sequel. I eagerly wished to go next door to check out the new zombie flick starring Brad Pitt but the times didn't work out and my wife seemed to think that some transgression against family togetherness. So, I suffered through a boring and stale retread for the sake of my children's entertainment. There are worse things in the world.
If you're an adult, I'd give this movie one Fleeve on a scale of four. For children, I'll be a little more generous and give it 2.5.
Until next time, this is Steve, over and out.
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