DreamWorks Animation’s latest, Monsters vs. Aliens, is an attempt to combine the world of Monsters, Inc. and The Incredibles to make an action-packed comedy where… monsters battle aliens. The movie is also in 3D, and thank God for that; its visuals are its saving grace.

In Monsters vs. Aliens, a planet explodes, sending a meteorite to Earth. No, Kal El is not on board, but the meteorite does cause one soon-to-be-married bride named Susan Murphy to grow into a gigantic woman and get shipped away by the government to a special holding area for monsters. Her roommates include a scientist-turned-cockroach, a half-man, half-reptile creature, a gigantic, furry insect and a gelatinous blob that sounds a lot like Seth Rogen. When aliens invade to reclaim the power that Susan has absorbed, however, these monsters become humanity’s last chance for survival.

Read the full Monsters vs. Aliens movie review.

Monsters vs. Aliens, the easy pick for the weekend, took in $17 million on Friday, setting itself up fora $50-55 million box office weekend. Not too bad for a less-than-stellar-looking DreamWorks Animation film.

The big surprise on Friday was The Haunting of Connecticut, the rather crappy horror rip-off starring Virginia Madsen. The haunted house movie scared up close to $10 million on Friday, making me thankful that I saw it for free on Wednesday. Look at $20-25 million for the weekend.

And then there’s John Cena. Poor little boy. Just when he thought his Hollywood career was starting to take off, it crashes and burns. Audiences apparently learned their lesson with The Marine, as Cena’s follow-up, the much-better-looking 12 Rounds, stole less than $2 million from theatergoers on its opening day, meaning it will be lucky to make $5 million over the weekend.