【英语时差8,16】立体视觉效果奇佳、但剧情平平的「怪兽大战外星人」（在线收听）

The super-duper 3-D big-screen Imaxed-out extravaganza that is "Monsters vs. Aliens" has bells and whistles, whiz and bang, sound and fury. It even has Reese Witherspoon.

What it doesn't have is heart. . .or much of a story.

Witherspoon voices a character named Susan Murphy, who on her wedding day is waylaid by a meteorite and turned into a giantess. She's then whisked to an undisclosed location that houses a double-secret team of government-created monsters, whom she teams up with to battle the alien who sent the meteorite to Earth in the first place. That squidlike villain, voiced by Rainn Wilson, has four eyes, several slurpy-sounding tentacles and a yen for a substance called Quontonium, which. . . well, let's just say it's a substance uniquely designed to keep the story going.

Most of the characters, Dr. Cockroach for example, simply don't have endearing qualities that capture audiences' sympathy. One exception is B.O.B., a forgetful blue gelatinous blob that not only elicits the movie's few laughs, but earns each one. As voiced by Seth Rogen, the lovable piece of goo develops his own personality and sense of humor, especially when he falls hard for a green Jell-O mold. "Monsters vs. Aliens" may be entertaining to see once, but the plot and characters are unlikely to make a lasting impact.