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Planet 51 is a 2009 Spanish-British-American movie 3D computer-animated science fiction comedy film directed by Jorge Blanco, written by Joe Stillman.
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 Dwayne Johnson deserves better than this...
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Plot
Lem is just an average teenager working on getting the girl and furthering his career at the local planetarium - except that he's an alien. At least to U.S. astronaut Captain Charles T. Baker who lands on Lem's planet hoping for a quick flag plant and a hasty return to earth and his millions of screaming fans. But on this alien planet the media has tagged spacemen as brain-eating, zombie-creating monsters, causing Baker to run for his life and into Lem's house. Now it's up to the green native to get the clumsy astronaut back to his spaceship before military dictator General Grawl and mad scientist Professor Kipple manage to exterminate the Earthly visitor.
Bad Qualities
- The humor is pretty hit-or-miss. While a good amount of it is funny, plenty of it is unfunny being pop-culture references/jokes and innuendos. There are also some moments of gross-out humor, like the cork joke.
- Blatant product placement: particularly, there is a scene of Twix candy bars, as well as an iPod-looking device and many obvious references to other science fiction movies, such as Star Wars and the Terminator.
- The action scenes are so lame to the point where even the action scenes from other bad and mediocre alien movies have done better. The stuff that happens in the scenes is very generic and can be seen in many other films.
- Misleading poster: In the film's poster (as seen above), it shows that Chuck Baker is the main character, but he's actually a side-character while Lem is actually the main character.
- Lem's story is just a generic teenager story and it could be cut out.
- While the animation is decent, it has some flaws. Like first off, every background character has the same walking animation, which is lazy. In some scenes, some of the characters don't move at all, which is also lazy. The alien planet is far too earth-like. For example, the grass is green and the sky is blue, a boring visual that could have been avoided by choosing any other color.
- The premise is too familiar with the "Buzz Lightyear: of Star Command" episode "Strange Invasion."
- Neera is a pointless and bland female protagonist who has zero involvement with the story and is only used as Lem's love interest for him to blush over, and she rarely appears in the film to begin with, as the only part that she is a main character is the climax and that's it.
- Stunt casting. Most of the voice cast is consisted of celebrities who are only in the film as a promotional material and not actual voice talent, and some of the roles they were given don't suit the characters at all and feel very out-of-character. An example is Dwayne Johnson as Chuck Baker, who feels miscast as the character despite his great performance.
- Some inappropriate and suggestive moments for a kids movie, such as a character saying the word "ass" in one scene and a few peeing jokes that are seen on-screen for a few seconds. There's also a few butt shots of the aliens that are quite risque and just look gross overall.
- There's also the inclusion of the song Greased Lightnin' from the movie Grease, which doesn't suit the film since the song contains some foul language.
- The designs of the aliens are horrible and look disturbing, as they're way too human-like and buff with muscular proportions and weird hair, with their skin having a awful green-color that doesn't mesh well with how they look, and for whatever reason, the male aliens don't wear any pants and yet the female aliens wear skirts, which gives the aliens an uncanny valley vibe and they actually look more like cartoony Shreks and less like aliens themselves.
- Overuse of movie cliches and tropes that have been done better in many other films, such as the "misunderstanding" trope and the "absent girlfriend" cliche.
- The films contains an unnecessary dance scene that serves no purpose in the film and is just 5 minutes of filler, as it depicts the characters dancing to the song Greased Lightnin', which already doesn't suit the film (as mentioned above) and tries way too hard to be hip and cool as an attempt to ride off the success of Shrek due to it being a dance-party scene that's very similar to the climax and ending of Shrek 2, and it shows.
Good Qualities
- The animation is pretty decent, despite the flaws as mentioned above. The overall artstyle is actually pretty interesting. Certain scenes can look stunning, such as the scene where the main characters are in space.
- Good voice acting, despite talents being wasted, such as Dwayne Johnson as mentioned above.
- Some funny moments here and there, like the scene where Chuck first encounters the aliens. Also, lines such as "I can shoot myself" are funny.
- Great soundtrack, especially the 50s music.
- The characters, while not that interesting, are likable enough. Also, Rover is a funny and cute character.
- The concept of a man who discovers a planet inhabited with aliens who behave exactly like humans sounds somewhat original and unique.
Reception
Planet 51 received mixed-to-negative reviews from critics, and currently holds a 22% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 108 reviews, with a general consensus that states: "Planet 51 squanders an interesting premise with an overly familiar storyline, stock characters, and humor that alternates between curious and potentially offensive." On Metacritic, the film has weighted an average score of 39 out of 100, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews." On IMDb, the average score is 6/10.
