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    Titan A.E.

    Reviewed by
    adamwatchesmovies@

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    "Titan A. E." has some interesting ideas but there are too many characters that simply aren't interesting and the plot isn't involving enough to make you care. The premise is that Earth has been destroyed by the Drej, an evil race of aliens. The remnants of humanity are now scattered across the stars, doing their best to survive among the multitude of other species found in the infinite galaxies. Our hero Cale (voiced by Matt Damon) is the son of an inventor who promised to deliver a way to fight back against the Drej, but disappeared right after Earth was destroyed. When he meets a crew of explorers, including Captain Joseph Korso (Bill Pullman), love interst Akima (voiced by Drew Barrymore) and the aliens Preed (Nathan Lane), weapons expert Stith (Janeane Garofalo) and inventor Gune (John Leguizamo), they embark on a journey that is full of danger, but is humanity’s only hope.

    With the earth being destroyed and humanity clinging on only the smallest shreds of hope in a galaxy where the friends are scarce, the stakes here are high. Somehow though, there's not a lot of tension because the characters aren’t really developed. The main villains hate humans and want to destroy Earth for no reason. They’re literally just bad guys that show up, attack Earth Death Star-style and are never explored any further. Do any of the other alien cultures object to their behavior? Did the humans stumble upon some kind of weapon that could be used against the Drej? You never find out. When it comes to the crew of the ship that comes looking for Cale, they don't have much personality beyond the surface. The nerdy looking Gune, the one with glasses, is socially awkward and wacky. The strong aggressive female Stith is... strong and aggressive. The human female is (predictably) the love interest, which means she is cold towards our hero at first but warms up to him as the plot moves on. My problem isn’t the romance angle. I don’t fault the characters for being attracted to each other almost immediately because all of these aliens are pretty ugly. It’s just that this movie’s story is pretty bland and that the characters are just way too familiar to get you very invested. Take the reluctant protagonist. He’s told that he holds the key to saving humanity! He could be a hero and get out of the dumpy space station where nobody likes him! Is he excited at the idea? Not at all. His “too cool” attitude means he’s always making snarky remarks until he finally gets into the spirit of saving the world (but only after some pretty big disastrous developments) It’s not all bad. If you look in the credits you might notice that Joss Whedon worked on the script and once in a while you can recognize some hints of what this movie could have been. It’s just bogged down with too many typical 90’s sci-fi moments and tropes.

    On the plus side, there are some alien worlds that are pretty creative and make for some cool moments. On the planet Sesharrim, these hydrogen-filled plants and it’s bat-like inhabitants work really well for example. There are also some exciting chases scenes throughout. Most impressive by far are the scenes set in the ice rings of the Andali Nebula. They play with the idea that the place is filled with reflective surfaces and that there’s so much debris that at any second they could all be crushed very well. The visuals are quite good and there are many moments where they look genuinely inspired. The film uses computer animation extensively and most of the time I thought it blended well, but once in a while, it clashed badly. It looks like most of the teams working on the film were really talented and one just wasn’t very good at all because there is one particular scene towards the end where the CGI looks downright awful.

    Overall I have been saying mostly mixed things about the film. The ratio of good to bad segments is about 3:2 It makes the movie more of a disappointment than an actual bad movie because I can see what people like about it. My biggest problem is that there are many plot conveniences or moments that don’t make any sense. I have to ask once again how come there are no consequences to this alien race wandering around and destroying alien home worlds without provocation? Why is it that with the dozens of different alien species we see, none of them have banded together to fight off such a huge menace? Why is an incredibly crucial artifact, one so important the fate of the human race depends on it, given to a four year old without any instructions? Why, when there is a secret plan that could really create some turmoil within the crew, are only a few members aware of it? Why is it that the Drej use prisons that don’t keep anyone in or out of them?

    Visually the movie has a lot going on and it gets props for not pulling its punches and actually showing characters get hurt, bleed and die but often that's all it has going. While young audiences that may not question the plot so much will enjoy the film, adults will find it flat. I really wanted to give the movie a shot, having seen it once and not finding it particularly special, but even upon repeat viewings, with lower expectations I just kept finding more problems with it. The music used in the film for example, is downright terrible. Just generic 90’s pop over and over. No big orchestral score to get us pumped for the action at all. I’m going to give the film a 2,5/5. Higher than my previous rating because honestly, the movie is fun to watch, it’s just not particularly memorable. (2,5 / 5, May 16, 2014) (2/5 Dvd, January 11, 2013)

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    adamwatchesmovies@  5.12.2014 age: 26-35 2,867 reviews

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