I wanted to like this movie. I really did. It had all the elements of a movie that I would enjoy: state-of-the-art animation, space ships, explosions, and aliens.
What it lacked, however, was good writing.
Word around the animation campfire is that directors Bluth and Goldman were forced to make some cuts for length. Apparently, they cut out some pretty important parts - resulting in the plot and characterization being mangled. Either that, or the writing really did stink that bad.
For example, the villainous Drej were hellbent on destroying all the humans. The reason for this is never fully explained, other than a vague comment that they were "afraid of what humans would become." Without a substantial motive for genocide, the Drej become nothing more than mindless evil minions who destroy species for fun.
Also, the dashing Korso (Bill Pullman), who was originally presented as a good guy, was revealed to be a backstabbing double-crosser. That I could believe. But to have the character do a one-eighty near the end of the movie, and to have him make the ultimate sacrifice in order to save the heroes... That screams deux ex machina, and made the character unbelievable.
Plot holes and inconsistencies abound. Cale's (Matt Damon) father apparently vanished into the void after hiding the massive Titan ship. Stith (Janeane Garofalo) is magically transported to the Titan's bridge after being almost blown up. And many people have noticed very peculiar similarities to other movies, such as Star Trek 2: The Wrath of Kahn or Independence Day.
The sound track is pretty good. I went out and got it after seeing the movie, and I wasn't disappointed. The movie is full of rock and nice driving beats. Some parts of the movie seemed custom made to fit the music, however, with mixed results. One of the more stunning sequences that is set to music is the "dance" with the wake angles. While this part of the movie could have been cut without sacrificing any of the plot, it was really neat to watch.
The movie is animated in a strange style, flat cell animation on top of CGI backgrounds. Sometimes this worked, and sometimes it was rather jarring. Also, Cale's face is very non-descript. They could have replaced his character design with any number of Disney's male characters, and I would never have noticed the difference. I think the time of the "strong-jawed, bright-eyed and floppy-haired youth" cliché has come and gone.
All that being said, I would go see it again. It's neat eye candy. And if you're willing to turn off the part of your brain that asks questions, you might even like the plot.
Personally, I'm looking forward to the director's cut. I want to see what we missed.
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