"Battle for Terra" Review - Written by TonyD

“Battle for Terra”
2007 (but released here 2009)
*** out of ****
Director: Aristomenis Tsirbas
Cast: Evan Rachel Wood, Luke Wilson, Brian Cox


What if I told you that “Wolverine” is NOT the best film in wide-release this weekend?

Oh wait, I did. In my review of it.

There is another film however that is TWICE as good as “Wolverine” is. It is exciting and filled with adventure. I don’t exaggerate when I say how much fun this film is, and how enticed I was within the first five minutes of the film. When I walked out of the screening, I felt like I’ve been a part of one of the animated films soon to be left unrecognized by the end of the decade, and I’m glad I took notice of it. This film, of course, was “Battle for Terra” (or called just “Terra” in countries outside of USA).

So the story of “Battle for Terra” goes like this. The planet Terra is filled with peace and fun, but danger lurks as the last inhabitants of planet Earth seek oxygen and resources. The “Earthlings” invade their planet, killing anyone and capturing others. The father (Dennis Quaid) of rebellious girl Mala (Evan Rachel Wood) is one of the many kidnapped by the Earthlings, lead by General Hemmer. (Brian Cox) However, Mala comes across an oxygen-deprived Jim Stanton, (Luke Wilson) an Earthling trying to capture other Terrains (inhabitants of Terra, if you couldn’t figure it out). Mala makes a deal with Stanton that if he can get her father back, he will be able to get back to his ship.

However, that’s only half the problem. Mala and Stanton find out that General Hemmer is deciding to wipe out all of the Terrains by releasing their oxygen into the air, allowing the last inhabitants of planet Earth to live there and use up the Terrain’s resources. Because the planet Terra is filled with peace and happiness, the planet and its inhabitants have no concept of war. However, they have to learn how to fight fast, because the Earthlings’ ship is losing oxygen as fast as possible, and there may be no way that the Earthlings could survive much longer.

There were a lot of things going through my head about the film after “Battle for Terra” ended. This film seemed to speak a lot out of the pages of a history book, detailing any conflicts that we had with other countries and resolving them by wiping them out completely. “Battle for Terra” asks the question, “whose side should we take?” We are given two sides to take – the Terrains and the Earthlings. We look at the Terrains to be a civilization in peril, but we don’t want to root for them. We want to root for the Earthlings, because we are greedy and don’t think about anyone but ourselves and are scumbags and want to use up all of the world’s resources just for ourselves. In a nutshell, “Battle for Terra” is social commentary. For Christ sakes, even General Hemmer LOOKS like George W. Bush.

But my review will be boring if I was just describing all of the morals of the film. Honestly, I quite liked “Battle for Terra” for the morals, but I was drawn in automatically by the action sequences and the animation. The animation, while it is no Pixar or Disney, is good enough so that you can sit through it. The action sequences, however, are so much fun that once they end you just want to see more. Thankfully, most of the film is nothing BUT action sequences, and when there are lines of plot, they are carefully divided so that they don’t get in the way of the action…

Unlike another summer movie that came out this weekend…

I digress though. It’s not everyday you see a movie that gives you the jitters that “Battle for Terra” gives you. I’m not talking about the bad type of jitters; I’m talking about the kind of jitters that let you know that you are watching something special. If my biggest problem with the film was the character development (which it is, but I’ll get to that later), my favorite part of the film is how the script reflects the character’s emotions. You don’t only feel like you are in the action sequences, but you feel like that as you travel around with these characters, you get a feeling as to what kind of danger they are getting themselves into. It is the kind of script that only good writers know how to write…

Unlike another summer movie that came out this weekend…

The one thing stopping me from giving this film a full-out four star review, minus a few plot-holes that needed to be filled in, was the character development. Most of the development felt very one dimensional, and by the time that the film ended I felt like I didn’t know a lot of the characters that I got to meet. I was able to understand the group of people that I met, but I wasn’t able to figure out what the separate characters themselves were like. What makes some of these characters go against their beliefs of world peace or genocide?

I’d start talking about the cast voices now, but what is there to say when you are too busy paying attention to the awesome action sequences to notice what the cast is saying? (Just kidding, but this film was so good that most of the dialogue that was said I couldn’t take in. I was drawn in that much.)

I was one of the only six or seven people in the theater. At the end of the day, a feeling in me says that was a good thing. People are going to have a hard time to appreciate a film like “Battle for Terra” for the same reasons some people had a problem appreciating “Wall-E”: it is too smart to be a family film. Even though it takes a shot to the nuts of the Bush administration (since this film was made probably back in 2005, and made its way through the festival circuit in 2007), a ballsy move by the filmmakers allows for a lot more thought. In the end, “Battle for Terra” is just a fun film to take the family to. It will make the science-fiction lovers and fanboys cream their pants. For everyone else, you don’t deserve to see this movie.

Go waste your money on some other slop that came out this weekend…