Thursday, December 17, 2009

Battle for Terra

I like to see other studios besides Disney come out with movies.  Not that I have anything against Disney or Pixar, but it seems like their dominance doesn't leave room for other studios to compete.  Granted, Battle for Terra is not as good as most of what Pixar has had to offer, but it's a decent movie that was overlooked by most.

Even though the animation and storytelling may not measure up to, say, Wall-E, Battle for Terra explores interesting questions not typically tackled by sci-fi kids movies.  More than just a space opera, Battle for Terra poses the following scenario: what if Earth becomes uninhabitable (of course by evil pollution and war; I won't get started on this subtext of scaremongering that we see in too many kids movies) and mankind is forced to seek another planet on which to live, then, upon finding a suitable planet, realizes that said planet is already inhabited?  That is the start of Battle for Terra.  As it turns out, the atmosphere of the newfound planet, which the humans name Terra, is poisonous to the humans.  They have a means by which they can make it breathable, but it would mean killing the current inhabitants. 

Of course, the humans proceed with the plan.  Apparently, humans never learned their lesson after bringing smallpox to the Americas.  So it's up to a crash landed human and his new friend, the liberal-minded Terran to team up and save the planet and the humans.

Again, this is not a bad movie, and it's nice to see some alternative to the Pixar domination, but not quite as good as it could have been.

Bottom line, 2 stars.





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