Movie Review: Planet 51

LITTLE ROCK — In terms of animation, Planet 51 is out of this world.

The computer-generated renderings, co-produced by Spain’s Ilion Animation and the United Kingdom’s Handmade Films, is stunning in its detail and creativity. Set on a planet called Glipforg that’s 20 billion miles away, the action takes place in a cheery community populated by small green bipeds whose surroundings are a mix of Jetsons futurism and 1950s Americankitsch. Machinery, such as Cadillac-finned cars that float on air, rival the look of Pixar’s Wall-E in their gleaming complexity. The lighting of interiors and landscapes is breathtakingly accurate. Subtle reflections in windows are beautifully and believably rendered.

Then there’s the story and the characters, which are about as dull as a dirty penny. With no one to care about, and nothing of interest happening, it doesn’t take long to get bored with the proceedings. Those looking for laughs can find most of them in the brilliantly edited trailer. It was no surprise that a guy at a recent Saturday morning screening took a little snooze (complete with snores) about halfway through the 90-minute film.

The story concerns American astronaut Capt. Charles “Chuck” Baker (voice of Dwayne Johnson), a handsome, full-of-himself hotshot who lands on Glipforg under the impression that he’s the first - and certainly the most fabulous - organism to arrive there. Wrong.He and his robot probe, the appropriately named Rover, soon find out that Glipforg is heavily populated with happy creatures whose worst fear is the arrival of space invaders who will eat their brains (the populace, it must be said, is overly fond of alien-invader movies such as a series focused on evil Humaniacs. So it’s no surprise that Chuck’s arrival is not well-received, especially by fierce General Grawl (voice of Gary Oldman) and his troops - they’re convinced Chuck will take over their minds and turn them into zombies.

Chaotic chases ensue and time is running out for Chuck, who has to get back to his mother ship (known as his “flying saucer” to the terrified Glipforgians) before some sort of undisclosed timetable will force it to leave without him.

Help comes, rather unwillingly at first, from young Lem (voice of Justin Long), who shows an amazing amount of humanity for an alien (at least that’s what he is to Chuck, who seems pretty dim for a spaceman).

This concept of embracing rather than fearing the unknown is admirable, but it would help if Chuck or Lem were empathy magnets. They aren’t. Nor is cute but boring Neera (voice of Jessica Biel),of whom Lem is enamored. The rest of the characters are pretty much indistinguishable except for lovable Rover, a wheeled combination of Dug, the dog from Up, and Wall-E. The best that can be said for Planet 51 is that it’s a shiny calling card for a talented animation team that will undoubtedly use it to get bigger and better projects.

MovieStyle, Pages 36 on 11/20/2009

Print Headline: Coldly beautiful