Strong visuals, concepts make for a winning 'Battle'
Aristomenis Tsirbas' "Battle For Terra" strives to be both a great work of 3-D animation and a superior piece of science fiction.
It achieves neither lofty goal, yet this bold and imaginative movie - replete with astonishing visuals - throws out one challenging concept after another, and crams enough ethical dilemmas into its story to keep sci-fi students arguing for weeks about its implications for peaceful coexistence in the world, if not the universe.
The twist in "Terra" is that the invading aliens, a role usually played by conquering monsters, are humans from Earth. Us.
The planet Terra is populated by strange tadpole-like creatures that "swim" around in the atmosphere. They closely resemble the classic noseless E.T.s popularized in UFO sightings, except they possess elongated floppy things on the back of their heads, like characters in the "Star Wars" cantina scene.
Mala (voiced by Evan Rachel Wood) learns the liabilities of being a freethinking liability in a society where thoughts and actions are rigorously dictated by government decree. When she tries to create a simple telescope, the town fathers, led by the elderly Doran (James Garner), slap her down.
"Inventions against our teachings are not approved!" they say.
"Then, maybe, our teachings are wrong!" Mala shouts. Oh, oh.
Before we find out just how fundamentalist Mala's society can get toward acts of independence, Terra suddenly becomes the target of an invasion by a force from space, X-wing-like vehicles that suck up Terrarians with lightning-fast tractor beams.
The Terrarians shout, "Please take me!" because they imagine the intruders to be gods taking their friends to a better place.
But they turn out to be humans who have already burned through three planets (Earth, Neptune and Mars), and now want to take over Terra. There's just one hitch: To make the atmosphere breathable for humans means it will become poisonous for Terra's residents.
With shades of "Romeo and Juliet" in the wings, Mala rescues an injured Earth fighter pilot named Jim Stanton (Luke Wilson). She helps him with the understanding that he will help her find her father, sucked up into an Earthling attack ship.
At first, Jim doesn't trust the strange creature. But as he gets to know Mala and her people, the less convinced he becomes that Earthlings have a moral right to take over Terra, much to the disgust of the ruthless General Hemmer (Brian Cox, alias the first Hannibal Lecter), an iron-fisted, white military leader who has little tolerance for democratic procedures or criticism from his civilian bosses, a black man and a white woman. ("I call for action and they vote!" he bellows.)
There are several rather mature and challenging scenes in "Battle For Terra," especially a nerve-racking test where Jim, in classic comic-book form, is forced to choose between saving Mala or his own kid brother Stewart (Chris Evans) by pumping either oxygen or Terra air into their sealed cubicle.
The digital animation in "Terra" is impressive in the vast imaginative vistas of otherworldly architecture and arenas of animal life. The humanoids, however, are block-like entities devoid of details and emotive features.
Even as the dialogue becomes preachy and the plot grows contrived, "Battle For Terra" works hard to be a thinking person's animated sci-fi movie.
"Wall.E" it's not. But it's way, way better than the clunky "Star Wars: The Clone Wars."
"Battle For Terra"
Rating: 2½ star
@x BTO factbox text bold with rule:Voices: Evan Rachel Wood, James Garner, Luke Wilson, Brian Cox, Chris Evans
Directed by: Aristomenis Tsirbas
Other: A Roadside Attractions release. Rated PG. 85 minutes.