Planet 51

Some of the promotional material would have you believe that Planet 51 is about a human astrounaut that lands on an alien world and is hunted out of fear and ignorance. In reality, Planet 51 is about Lem, a teenage alien (we're never given a name for the species) whose life gets turned upside down when a visitor from another planet lands in his backyard.

That reversal is Planet 51's strongest point. Astronaut Chuck Baker (Dwayne Johnson), although a pivotal part of the story, is never the main focus. Lem (Justin Long) is the protagonist here. He's enthusiastic about space, has a job at the local observatory, and is madly in love with the girl next door, Neera (Jessica Biel). He's the only character in the movie that's real, despite being an extraterrestrial. Chuck Baker, humanity aside, does not represent us. He is a cartoon, both in appearance and in character.

Planet 51 has a good premise that paves the way for a lot of fun jokes, but it's ultimately just a fish-out-of-water story that ends up feeling entirely too familar, primarily because the alien world just isn't that alien. The world resembles America in the 1950s, complete with music from that era. That's an intentional joke, but it's also the film's biggest obstacle in truly embracing its theme of how aliens would percieve us if we were to land on their world.

The aliens are frightened of this space creature, but I honestly don't understand why. I can count the number of differences between us and them on one finger. Heck, we even speak the same language, which is a fact that is addressed but never explained. It's lazy, even for a movie primarily aimed at children.

But that's the catch, isn't it? Planet 51 was created with kids in mind, so are my points even vaild? I think so. The movie contains plenty of ideas that would obviously soar over a child's head. Planet 51's version of the canine is a clear tribute to the xenomorph from the Alien series. Not only does it look the part, but it urinates acid and even has a smaller tongue living inside of its larger tongue. A child wouldn't understand that reference, unless you're raising them on horror/sci-fi. Clearly the movie was intended to be enjoyable by adults as well, so that's what I'm judging it as. These complaints are geared towards my peers, not the youngsters.

You'll smile throughout and you'll laugh often, but at things you'll almost always see coming. Aside from the unique theme, everything here is taken out of one filmmaking playbook or another. Lem may be partially fleshed out, but it's done according to the intelligent, love-stricken, socially-inept archtype. Chuck Baker is a poor man's Buzz Lightyear and his pet/robot Rover is a poor man's Wall-E. And despite facing overwhelming odds, the ending is stereotypically, unexplicably happy. 

Planet 51 isn't terrible, just disappointly uncreative with such a neat premise. The roles of Lem and Chuck could literally be reversed and, with a few minor scribbles in the screenplay, the movie would play out exactly the same. But your kids will love Planet 51. And you will tolerate it.

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