Aristomenis Tsirba, Roadside Attractions (12/02/10)

Battle For Terra may find itself hindered by a storyline which bears a striking resemblance to the one used by Avatar  to obliterate box-office records and bust every block in its path. Even a couple of the characters in the film seem to have been extracted from James Cameron’s sci-fi epic. I have no idea who was first to the pole as both films have been several years in the making. Not that Avatar is especially original in the plot department as its story riffs on themes common to other movies e.g. Dances With Wolves as well as borrowing from the history of pretty much every imperial power of the last few hundred years.
 
Consequently, Battle For Terra could well be overlooked by audiences with a ‘been there, seen that’ attitude. This would be a shame as the film is pretty good in its own right with CG animation that is, at times, quite stunning. Terra does not have the budget of Avatar i.e. the domestic output of a central European country or the required marketing hype but it does well enough without all that and at eighty-five minutes is in no danger of out staying its welcome.
 
We start on the planet of Terra itself, a serene, cerebral idyll full of pink skies and happiness. Here, the delinquency of youth goes no further than bunking off from school and taking to the air in flying machines that would make Leonardo weep with envy. Careful piloting is required to avoid bumping into the harmless, whale like creatures which lumber through the atmosphere above the planet’s surface.
 
The Terrans themselves are an odd looking bunch. If you replaced the head of a midget with a giant spermatozoa then added the sort of eyes found on the inhabitants of Madagascar then would pretty much be there. Terra is a theocracy run by spiritual guides who keep the peace. In the event of a crisis huge blimps fly overhead broadcasting reassuring messages that everything is in fact going to be alright. Perhaps our government should adopt this practice in order to make Britain a calmer place and its citizens a lot less jittery. It would certainly provide a counterpoint to a media which yells ‘apocalypse’ whenever a new strain of flu is discovered.
 
The peace on Terra is abruptly shattered with the arrival of an alien force in the shape of us. Having blown up Earth and its neighbouring colonies of Mars and Venus the human species has tracked through the universe looking for a new planet to screw up. Terra appears to be the best bet even if does mean completely changing the composition of the atmosphere and hence choking the life out of its native inhabitants.
 
The warlike General Hemmer (voiced by Brian Cox) immediately gets to work blowing things up and advocating the eradication of the Terran race. No negotiations or treaties but just boom, boom, bang. Amidst the destruction, a young Terran named Mala (Evan Rachel Wood) rescues Jim (Luke Wilson) a downed human pilot and his Wall-E like robot interpreter. Mala hopes that by befriending the new arrivals she can make them see sense and when Jim escapes back to the mother ship she goes with him as a over optimistic ambassador.
 
Things look less than hopeful on the giant star ship as the doves represented by the scientists and politicians are at the mercy of the hawks led by Hemmer and his military forces. Eventually, the Terrans are left with little choice but to stand up to the invaders and meet their brute force with whatever aerial fire power they can muster, leading to a spectacular but desperate dogfight in the skies over Terra.
 
Avatar aside, science fiction fans will spot other ‘references’ in Battle For Terra with the Star Wars saga being the most obvious influence. The design of the star fighters, the dialogue during the final battle and even the look of the corridors on board the human’s revolving spaceship all owe a debt to George Lucas’ lucrative baby. This is possibly excusable as the greatest space opera of them all is so deeply entrenched in the collective psyches of modern filmmakers that it must be hard to shake off.
 
In common with practically all recent animation Battle For Terra comes in glorious 3-D, the supposed saviour of cinema (yet again.) The film’s director Aristomenis Tsirbas uses the technique in the best way possible, to enhance the depth of the animation rather than for eye-popping gimmickry. It is the look and the colours of Battle For Terra which have the most impact and allow one to forgive the simplistic storyline or the trite dialogue. The latter is performed as best they can by a cast of established character actors, including James Garner and Danny Glover.
 
Battle For Terra could be the solution for families with small children who might find the action in Avatar a little too intense, although ‘Terra’ by no means skimps on the death, destruction and sacrifice in its final reel. There is a positive eco-friendly message behind the film but the audience will not feel bludgeoned over the head with calls for peace and love. Children who have already seen Avatar will still enjoy reliving the tale in this more digestible form. Besides, if there is one thing that children do not seem to mind (much to the delight of the film companies) it is hearing the same story over and over and over again.
 

review: Alan Diment

battleforterra.com