Science fiction is to me what astronaut Mike Dexter is to Liz Lemon of 30 Rock: an opportunity to fool yourself with a big grin on your face. Needless to say, Battle for Terra pulled me in like a tractor beam in overdrive.
Turns out this bad boy is animated, and was released in 2007. I didn't see that coming, certainly not from the film poster, which draws the eyes to an advancing spacecraft resembling a B-wing starfighter of Star Wars. To make a long story short, I was expecting something more in the vein of Avatar (2009) rather than Gnomeo & Juliet (2011), but what we have instead is a mixture of both.
Mala (Evan Rachel Wood) and Senn (Justin Long) are inhabitants of a planet called Terra. They are a people that embrace life and venerate peace. They also float, which would make sense if they lived underwater like SpongeBob SquarePants but they don't – like us on Earth, they live in an atmosphere of air. And they speak English, just like the humans whom are soon to invade their idyllic existence.
The story makes references to stuff that play on people's mind today: our destructive ways, our eventual fate, making contact with aliens. But it's neither a commentary nor an allegory as it uses these elements simply to craft a sci-fi adventure. It has no pretences, and that is its saving grace.
(Running time: 85 minutes)
