It always surprises me to hear that "Monsters, Inc." isn't loved by everyone. Some people even consider it to be one of Pixar's lesser movies but personally I love it. It's cute, it's funny, uses an entertaining premise, it's wonderful to look at and has some likable characters and a great voice cast in it. I therefore also wasn't opposed to a sequel, or prequel in this case, to "Monsters, Inc.". The only thing that bothers me is that it had to take 12 years to finally arrive.

It's definitely good to see this isn't just another throwaway sequel/prequel, made to cash in some more on an already familiar and well established franchise. There definitely went some serious time and effort into making this movie. It doesn't only result in yet another wonderful looking animated Pixar movie but also one that's entertaining and good to watch on its own right, regardless of whether you're familiar with the first "Monsters, Inc." movie or not.

The story in itself is pretty simple and straightforward but you of course have to remember that this foremost is still a children's movie. No need to over-complicate things or feature too many needless distractions and side-plots in it. It's actually good to see how well focused this movie is on its one and main plot line and doesn't even allow any generic and predictable things to happen. It for instance isn't overly sentimental in parts, it doesn't feature a love story, no real villain and it isn't constantly busy trying to send out messages to its young audience.

The movie really didn't disappoint me. I was entertained by it. all throughout and it offered more than a few laughs. The comedy isn't just in its writing or dialog but often more so in its animations and visuals. It's a more of a physical comedy in that regard and its settings and characters allows the movie to do plenty of creative and effective things with it its physical comedy.

What I besides love about the move is that it isn't ever trying to impress you with anything. It's a very humble movie, that isn't trying to show off with its strange and unique looking worlds and characters. It's treating its subject and characters like its all something completely normal. I liked this approach, since it definitely added to the movie flow and consistency, since it never allowed the movie to slow down for anyone or anything because it wanted to show and impressive you with a new, spectacular looking location, or awesome, newly introduced character. That's also what I mean by saying this movie feels like a very well focused one. Its main concern is to tell you its main story and even though the movie features lots of different characters in it, it's mainly focusing on those who are important to its main story, or for letting it move along. It's a really well constructed movie with its storytelling.

Just as its predecessor, it's also a very cute movie, which sounds like a strange thing to say about a movie featuring a bunch of monsters. But all characters are truly cuddly looking ones (well, most of them) and I loved their unique and detailed character design. This movie features plenty of new characters in it, as well as some familiar faces from the previous "Monsters, Inc." movie, all voiced by some great actors.

The colorful animations of course also help to ensure that this is a great and cute movie to look at, at all times. It shouldn't come as a surprise to you that the animations by Pixar are absolutely wonderful again to look at. Especially the characters and their facial expressions look better than ever and I also loved the fact how there is always something happening in the background of this movie. It's incredible, the amount of detail that went into making this movie, which is showing you all the more the time, craftsmanship and love went into the making of this movie.

Perhaps not as good and certainly not as fresh as its predecessor but just as fun and maybe even more so!

8/10

Watch trailer

You have comedies and then you have some comedies that are...well, not even comedies really. But what's even worse about this movie is that it's not just a lacking comedy but also a terrible mess of a movie!

Something went terribly wrong here. Don't know what really happened but it seemed to me that at some time during production they ran out of either time or money, or both and had to rush it to completion.

The movie is horribly constructed and the movie never has a really pleasant or natural flow to it. As a matter of fact, it feels like entire scenes are missing at times, that were supposed to set the mood or help to buildup a certain plot line for a certain character. Now often stuff just happens, without a half decent buildup to any of it. This means that a person can be the one moment happy about something, while in the next he/she is suddenly sad of fed up with the same thing or person, just to give an example.

The way characters respond to situations and each other is often crazy and terribly confusing. People constantly change opinions of each other, without giving you an apparent reason as to why a certain character suddenly makes such a 360 degree turn.

It is a big part of the reason why none of the characters ever work out in this movie. None of them are set well enough up and also therefore are never quite likable and involving enough to follow around, throughout this movie. On top of that, Rebecca Hall was an absolutely horrible lead in this. She might be a good actress, just not for this type of movie, in this type of role. She acts in the sort of exaggerated and over-the-top comedy way, that you might get away with in a Will Ferrell movie but this is simply not a Will Ferrell type of comedy at all.

It's truly a comedy without any comedy. Only thing you could say the movie its approach and style is good for is that it helps to keep things light. But really, I just don't see how anyone could get any laughs out of this movie, simply because there are absolutely no real comical situations in it, or any clever and witty type of dialog.

And I also just really don't get why you would want to cast Bruce Willis in your movie when you are going for a comedy approach. He's still great and has plenty of charisma and screen presence to him but just not in this movie. He feels terribly out of place and seemed to be constantly struggling with both the script and the dialog. And you might think; 'well, at least Vince Vaughn still shows up in it. He probably still adds plenty to the movie its comedy.' But really no, he doesn't. His role is pretty small and besides too insignificant, to leave an impact of any kind.

It's quite amazing how many great actors showed up in this but perhaps it's no big surprise since it got directed by Stephen Frears, who still has a pretty big and good name in the industry, especially when it comes down to comedies. This movie is however perhaps his biggest misfire, as of yet!

It seemed, especially during its second half, like the actors and film-makers themselves had given up on this movie as well and literally had no idea what scene they were doing, what their lines were supposed to mean and how it would fit into the movie. It really feels that messy and horrible all.

It's truly more terrible then you could ever imagine!

3/10

Watch trailer