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BATTLE FOR TERRA |
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| April
27, 2009 by Tom Sharp
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Last week, I signed
up for & won a pass to see BATTLE FOR TERRA at a free advanced
screening, but didn’t realize it conflicted with plans I had already
made. So, I gave the pass to a
co-worker of mine. I’d seen
the trailer, and thought it would be interesting, as I told my friends who
were with me at the time, “It isn’t often you get to see humans be the
bastards” in an alien invasion movie. The day after the
screening, the co-worker was mad at me for sending him to see, as he put
it, “an elementary kid’s movie!” I still wanted to see
it for myself, for free if possible, so when I was able to print out a
pass from another source for a screening in Austin, I didn’t waste any
time, and wound up spending part of my Sunday afternoon at the Regal
Metropolitan to see the 3D animated film. When I arrived at the
theater, a bit late, I saw a few familiar faces in the crowd that I’ve
seen at other screenings, only this time they had kids with them.
I was worried, since I usually wait until the last show of the day
on a school night before going to see anything from Pixar.
I know how kids can be in a movie theater, especially these days. But, for this one,
the crowd of children was pretty well behaved.
No crying, no big exclamations, not a whole lot of talking, and
they applauded when the movie ended. The story is a pretty
simple one – a species of intelligent aliens live in harmony with nature
on their planet when an invading force arrives.
First, their ship blocks out the sun.
Then recon ships are sent out and kidnap citizens from the alien
culture, and, finally, an attack against the population. During the recon
mission, Mala’s father is kidnapped, and, in an effort to get taken
herself, she winds up forcing the invading ship to crash land, and rescues
the pilot, a human named James. Thanks
to James’s robot sidekick, she learns about humanity’s history,
including the colonization and destruction of Mars and Venus and why they
have come to the planet they dubbed Terra. She return with James
to the human ship, called the Ark, and winds up being used in a test of
the human pilot’s loyalty after a war-mongering general overthrows the
civilian council and plans to go ahead with the eradication of the
Terrians. Turns out humans
can’t breathe in their atmosphere, and Terrians choke on oxygen. A massive
terraforming device is used, and the Terrians are forced to defend
themselves using the ships and weapons that their Elders kept hidden from
the rest of the population after the last war they had among their own
kind. Through the movie,
there are a few “gotcha” 3D moments, but this could have been a
regular CGI film, and it may have been better.
There was very little shading or shadow to the characters, no
wrinkling of clothes or skin. The
aliens are smooth and hairless, and most of the humans are either bald,
crew cut and clean shaven, or wear helmets so that you can’t see facial
features at all. The message is simple
– know your surroundings, use your natural environment, and don’t
invade alien planets. The cast list is
impressive, just for the names, but the voices are from folks who don’t
usually do voice work for animated films, so some of the supporting roles
aren’t to distinctive. James
Garner as one of the Elders and Brian Cox as the general were definitely
the standouts in the cast. But, my co-worker was
right; this is an elementary kid’s movie.
But I don’t think that’s a bad thing, and I’ll tell y’all
why – after the movie ended and the credits rolled, I heard two young
boys in the row behind me arguing about the actions a particular character
took to make up for earlier decisions that had been made.
Good to know my nephews won’t be alone as they grow up to be the
next generation of scifi geeks, that’s for sure.
Tom Sharp |
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