Reno Reviews BATTLE FOR TERRA

ENGLISH - (PG13) - 14 May 2009 - Sci-Fi/Animation
Distributor: LionsGate
Running time: about 85 mins.
Director: Aristomenis Tsirbas
Producers: Ryan Colucci, Keith Calder
Writers: Evan Spiliotopoulus (Screenplay); Aristomenis Tsirbas (Story)
Casts: Brian Cox, James Garner, Evan Rachel Wood, Justin Long, Dennis Quaid, Amanda Peet, Luke Wilson, Chris Evan
Plot: When the peace-loving inhabitants of planet Terra come under attack from the last surviving members of humanity adrift in an aging spaceship, the stage is set for an all-out war between the two races for control of the planet. A rebellious young Terrian, Mala (Evan Rachel Wood) together with an injured human pilot, Jim (Luke Wilson) must somehow convince their leaders that war is not the answer and help the two races coexist before it's too late.

THE VERDICT:

Reno Ooi says:

WARNING FOR SPOILER! Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, Star Trek, Terminator Salvation - these sci-fi movies are dominating top on the list of movies of the year. Well, sci-fi movies are now also on the bottom of the list as well. I proudly present to you: Battle for Terra. I find this first official review of mine to "GreenTeaMovie" quite easy, because this movie is easily concluded in one word - SUCKS and I have to say that I leave the cinema in great disappointment.

The good news is the idea of the story is good - Human have no place to live, they have to destroy other species on the planet called Terra to build a new colonization. But, one human had conflict in doing so because he owed his life to a Terranian (the species living on Terra). So, in the end, the human sacrificed himself by turning against his own kind and ended the war between Terra and human. It sounds heroic, and indeed heroism is the only good thing that was portrayed well in the movie.



If you get really frustrated when watching the movie, take a moment and close our eyes, listen to the music. The background music and theme music from the music is still OK. It's soundtrack is fine, and I think you'll enjoy the music as well and calm down your negative feeling for the movie.

Here's the bad news. The movie is opened by introducing the Terranians - a species looked like earthworm, but with hands, and can fly. Good creation...but not so good because everyone looked the same except the different colour clothes they are wearing. I find it hard to distinguish the main Terranian characters because they just look all the same! (I had to differentiate them by their voices). The problem is even imminent when every men looks almost the same! Are Homo sapiens lacking of genetic variation as well? Obviously the people behind this movie should learn more about creating different characters before wasting money producing this movie. I would advice them to look among themselves and realize that physical appearance variations exist among human beings, even between siblings!

The dialogue in the movie is just too childish! I think even a normal 7-year-old kid will find the lines been immature. More over, try this, Terranians and human beings speak different language - acceptable. But, there's one scene which I think is one of the stupidest scene in the movie:

TERRANIAN: You speak our language! (in amazed look)
HUMAN ROBOT: Yes, I do. Because I'm programmed to speak different language.
TERRANIAN: Teach me! (begging)
HUMAN ROBOT: Okay. (then shooting laser into the teranian's eyes)
TERRANIAN: Wow! I feel so many words in my head...(wondering a moment) what language I'm speaking? I can speak your language! (looked excited)

Thirdly, about the illogical story line in the movie. You don't need a Spock's Vulcan mind of "logic/illogic" kind of thinking to watch a sci-fi movie. I can accept the alternate universe in Star Trek, but I cannot accept the concept that combustion can occur under circumstances without oxygen! One scene we watched that the heroic human asphyxiated and cannot breath in Terra because of lacking of oxygen, the next scene of war you can see fire and combustion happening here and there in Terra.

And there's one more scene when the human robot illustrate how oxygen looks like to a Terranian... a tri-atom particle. I bet even a Chemistry E student knows that oxygen is O2 and it is made up of two atoms! This is only the beginning and there are just too much scene in the movie where they tend to put science in the movie but they convey it in the wrong way.

Enough say for this "Battle of Terra". You need a higher level of clearance of any logical sense in your mind when watching this movie. Pretend yourself as a child. Pretend that you don't know anything about oxygen. Pretend that all Teranians are speaking English, but they are not speaking English. However, keep this in mind: if you bring any kid along to watch this movie, please correct the facts in the movie after cinema because you don't want the kid to fail his or her Science subject.

THE RATINGS.....
CAST - 1.0 stars
STORY - 1.5 stars
CINEMATOGRAPHY - 2.5 stars
EFFECTS - 2.5 stars
an overall>> 1.5 stars
GreenTea-O-Meter: 6.6