ENTERTAINMENT: Humans on alien ground

2009/11/26

Tengku Elena Tengku Mahamad

NOW SHOWING PLANET 51

Directed by Jorge Blanco
Starring Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson, Jessica Biel, Justin Long, Seann William Scott MOVIE makers have been producing quite a number of movies on aliens over the past few years. This year alone, we had Aliens in the Attic, Monsters vs Aliens and District 9. Now comes Planet 51. A typical alien movie would have the green extraterrestrials invading our planet Earth. But this time, it’s the other way around.

This animated action comedy revolves around an astronaut named Captain Charles “Chuck” Baker (voiced by Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson) who lands on Planet 51 thinking that he is the first person to step foot on it. It is inhabited by little green aliens living in a typical 1950s American town and whose only fear is that it will be invaded by aliens such as Chuck! The aliens think that Chuck is trying to control their minds with the help of his robot companion “Rover” and his new friend Lem (voiced by Justin Long).

Chuck has to return to his spaceship in less than 72 hours before it flies back to Earth without him. The problem is, the alien armies have surrounded the ship. This is where the cat-and-mouse chase begins.

The lively animation in terms of colours and characters are appealing and somewhat on par with Pixar and Dreamworks. From the cleverly-rendered aliens to the beautiful landscapes, the visuals of Planet 51 is definitely a feast for your eyes.

But even if the visuals are breathtaking, without a good storyline and interesting dialogues, it cannot save the movie from being dull. The way it is presented — in a monotone way — makes Planet 51 very slow and draggy.

There are a few funny conversations but the movie might be better if it had more witty dialogue.

The voice actors is a good lineup of well-known celebrities: Johnson (Chuck), Long (Lem), Jessica Biel (Neera) and Seann Wiliam Scott (Skiff). Each did well with each of their characters but there was something rather odd with Johnson’s animated character — his dirty blonde hair! It didn’t really match his voice.