Exhilarating Terra a Winning Battle
Terra is under attack. Headstrong Mala (Evan Rachel Wood) bares witness to the initial onslaught, her own father Roven (Dennis Quaid) taken by these mysterious invaders back to their celestial craft leading many in her small village to assume these strangers are nothing less than Gods.
The battle is joined in Roadside Attractions/Lionsgate Films' The Battle for Terra
But she knows differently, and through a sequence of exhilarating events she even manages to capture one of these creatures, an odd figure that walks upright on two legs and calls himself Capt. Jim Stanton (Luke Wilson) who claims to be originally from a devastated green planet on the other side of the Solar System named Earth. With the help of his mechanical aid Giddy (David Cross), Mala saves this earthling from certain death, the two forging a somewhat uneasy friendship going beyond their physical differences.
Hoping to save the youngsters father, the two inadvertently discover the technologically advanced human beings, now led by the warmongering General Hemmer (Brian Cox), are planning to wipe out the indigenous Terrian population in order to take control of the planet for themselves. Suddenly on the opposite sides of a war neither wants to fight, Mala and Jim must decide whether or not their newfound friendship trumps their responsibility to their own species, the fate of all Terra resting on the outcome.
While not exactly surprising or offering anything we haven’t seen before (it’s sort of a Star Wars clone with a bit of “Battlestar Galactica” and Enemy Mine thrown in for good measure), the new animated adventure The Battle for Terra is nonetheless an exciting and entertaining spectacle. It is an interplanetary parable that fits perfectly inside our modern political discourse, the film offering up both ecological and philosophical talking points without letting them overwhelm the exhilarating adventure surrounding them.
Director Aristomenis Tsirbas, a former visual effects wunderkind who’s worked on live action pictures as diverse as Titanic, Hellboy, Conspiracy Theory and Dogma, thought up this story over a decade ago, going so far as to craft the 2003 award-winning short film Terra to try and make these reverse War of the Worlds ideas a reality. From the seeds of that first effort this animated winner was formed, writer Evan Spiliotopoulos (Pooh's Heffalump Movie) coming up with a screenplay that embraced the director’s early concepts while still crafting a fully-formed three act structure fit for the entire family.
Don’t get me wrong. There aren’t really any surprises, and when the leader of the Terrians (beautifully voiced by James Garner) reveals his species’ own sordid history of technological malfeasance and war I can’t say I was all that shocked. More, the filmmakers tend beat their themes of tolerance and environmentalism into the ground every now and then, and as things move towards their somewhat inevitable climax subtly admittedly goes right out the window.
The thing is I can’t say I really minded that fact. The animation is crisp and immersive, and while the script never rises to Pixar levels (and is actually kind of hurt by the fact that WALL•E is still so fresh in most of our minds) it’s still solid enough it puts a lot of the DreamWorks output (including even Monsters vs. Aliens) to shame.
Most importantly this movie moves, the tension building splendidly as Mala and Jim inch closer to their eventually inevitable confrontation. Tsirbas feels like he’s in complete control here, and while the majority of his background is in the realm of live action his confidence dealing with animation is readily apparent.
I can’t imagine The Battle of Terra will change lives or anything, but while sitting in the theater I can’t help but think the majority of viewers will be suitably entertained. As slam-bang family entertainment goes this is one film I can easily get behind, and while it doesn’t quite reach the stars it does enter into the ionosphere and that’s one accomplishment I can easily applaud.
Film Rating: êêê (out of 4)
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