Terrible. Just terrible. I just wasted two hours of my life on this depressing, weird and inappropriate movie "fir kids". Sucked.

Depressing, confusing rubbish. The cinematography is lovely (although I will forever hate the "you're-part-of- the-scene" jerking and weaving camera technique), CG effects are stellar, and the actors absolutely deliver, but the storyline is from Mars. I'm going for a pun and referring to the Roman god, Mars, because this movie is at war with everything - the original story, imagination, adults, siblings, giving instead of always taking...! If you're not one hundred percent paying attention to Max, you're against him. I kept wondering who was this move made for? Who is the audience? It's certainly not the little kids who are introduced to this venerable story in library readings or by loving parents, other family or similar. I have loads of fond memories reading this to my eldest nephew because he loved nothing more than to wrestle and we had great times growling and howling as we read the book together and then ran and wrestled to our hearts' content. So how on earth this story was taken and made into the complex, depressing, socio-anthropological "remark" that it is and only made me think of the dreaded "Lord of the Flies," story... I don't know! Fortunately the DVD cost me only $5 and it's going into the trash. Not even going to donate it to some charity. Rubbish it is, into the rubbish it will go. P>S> The DVD extra having to do with getting a dog to bark and run was MUCH more fun and rewarding to watch. That bit felt more like the childhood the book captured - lost in a world separate from the real one, than the movie did.

Max is a rambunctious brat. He's imaginative and often wears a wolf costume. He plays around with his sister Claire's friends but they make him cry. He's angry at Claire and trashes her room. His mother Connie (Catherine Keener) is struggling and is dating Adrian (Mark Ruffalo). Feeling uncared for, he runs away wearing his wolf costume. He boards a small boat which then sails the high seas to an unknown land inhabited by large wild beasts. Max convinces the creatures that he is the king with magical powers who could even keep out the sadness.Director Spike Jonze has filled out a pretty thin story with a good sense of wonder and a lot of childhood angst. The kid fits the role quite well. I think the creatures are terrific especially as they smash things. It is the confused child's struggles that is the heart of the movie. It may not be for little kids but it is a fine movie about something deeper.

This movie is amazing, he tells the story of a problematic boy who suffers mainly from lack of attention. At one point he enters the land of monsters where every monster is a feeling, at least that's what I could understand. He goes on to not fear them little by little, when he returns to reality he is stronger emotionally. Each day in the world of monsters his behavior is improved with the emotions. Super ego, Lies, Fear, lack, anger, all this is working within a preteen. I think every child should watch this movie. The soundtrack is very playful, the performance of Max Records is perfect. We drown both in history that it seems that we are there living the scene.