PLANET 51 (2009)

In PLANET 51, an astronaut named Chuck Baker arrives to a planet where everything is almost exactly the same as Earth. Does he wonder how this is possible? Not really, which is odd. He's clearly not a genius (he even takes his helmet off without being sure that there will be oxygen!), but still. He and the inhabitants refer to each other with the term "Alien." This is a great setup for social commentary on people who think that having different points of views on the same idea equals having different ideas, but there's no subtlety. This planet is modeled after 1950s America, even down to the fear of a foreign invasion. This is clearly meant to be a satire, but it's surface-level. I think the plot would've been better if it didn't take place in present day (this planet is just "behind"), because Chuck would've also been someone brainwashed by political propaganda and sci-fi B-movies and, therefore, the clashes would've had more depth. Instead, he's a pandering pop-culture-reference machine. Chuck meets a young man named Lem and their friendship is supposed to be the emotional core, but I didn't see/feel any real connection between them. By the time they started making big gestures and sacrifices, it didn't feel earned. There's a subplot about Lem's crush on his neighbor Neera. I can understand that he feels too nervous to ask her out at the beginning, but this continues throughout the plot, even after getting confirmation that Neera likes him back. That being said, the animation is very good for a 2009 non-Hollywood production, and a good chunk of the jokes work. Dwayne Johnson's performance is good. Gary Oldman doesn't stand out, but it's not his fault that his character is a big pile of nothingness. I don't know what John Cleese was going for (or maybe he was directed badly?).

5/10
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