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Print"Planet 51" is a victim of bad timing.
It arrives in a year when it is one of 20 animated movies submitted for possible Oscar consideration. That field, which will be narrowed to three to five nominees, has never been richer with such titles as "Up," "Coraline," "Monsters vs. Aliens" and "9."
"Planet 51" seems ordinary by comparison, hobbled by references that will fly over younger moviegoers' heads. Some of it is clever but just who is the target audience?
Five-year-olds who will understand how Planet 51 spoofs small-town America in the 1950s? Their parents or grandparents who will get the American astronaut landing in an alien suburbia populated by little green men, women and children?
- Starring: Kristen Stewart, Taylor Lautner, Robert Pattinson
- Rating: PG-13 for some violence and action
- Web site: 'Planet 51'
In their town of Glipforg, it rains "rocks and dogs," with real rocks dropping from the sky. Everything is rounded off, with circles, spheres and saucers forming the building blocks of houses, or hovering Weeble-like cars or dogs.
This is where an American astronaut, Chuck Baker (voice of Dwayne Johnson), lands, sending the paranoid citizens into a panic. "Are you here to take over our world and eat our brains?" Lem (Justin Long), a high school junior and nerdy planetarium worker, asks. Chuck takes refuge with Lem and his pals, aficionados of comic books, "Humaniacs" monster movies and conspiracy theories about a secret base housing evidence of alien invasions.
This comedy adventure is the first film from Ilion Animated Studios and its strengths are the look of Glipforg and its voice talent. In addition to Johnson and Long, Jessica Biel speaks for the next-door neighbor Lem is crushing on, Gary Oldman for a military commander, Seann William Scott voices Lem's best friend and John Cleese is a brainy professor.
The sci-fi story has messages about outsiders challenging the party line (Lem is fed malarkey about the size of the universe and location of intelligent life) and not being afraid of the unknown.
Its funniest line, which accounts for the suggestive humor in the rating, appears when the American accidentally drops his towel and reveals his alien anatomy.
The inhabitants, with their antennae, smooth skin, ears that flare horizontally, no noses to speak of and occasional long hair resembling a bunch of green bananas, aren't scary. They're just not that intriguing or heartfelt or memorable, either.
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