This is an enjoyable animation, adults as well as children will enjoy, and as usual, the animation quality is top notch, and knowing how the characters portraying the voices look in real life, you can tell a great deal of attention to detail was done.

The plot of the story is that a peaceful civilisation have wake up one day and find this giant space ship blocking the light of their sun, soon afterwards, the aliens invade their land, capturing several of them, including the father of our heroine.

During this mission, one of the aliens loses control of his aircraft chasing our protagonist Mala Evan voiced by the lovely Evan Rachel Wood( Mickey Rourke’s daughter in The Wrestler), in the process he is injured and she takes him to her home to tend to his injuries, and it turns out the alien is a human, i.e. we are the aliens invading another civilisation/planet.

The twist on the frightening alien civilisation taking over our land is unique this time, as we are seeing things from the point of view of the peaceful aliens, who the humans have ear marked to take over and named “Terra”.

It turns out Earth is no longer habitable, in fact it’s resources have been depleted by man’s wanton desire(a stark warning, for global warming), and humanity have already “terraformed” our closest planets, Mars and Venus, but it turns out that the colonies wanted independence, and a war broke out that wiped out all three planets, so the remnants of humanity have been in space looking for a permanent home. The planet nicknamed “Terra” is chosen as adequate, but there is a problem, it’s atmosphere is poisonous to humans, and the only solution if humanity is to take over the planet is to convert it’s atmosphere to one of oxygen, but that would mean making the atmosphere poisonous to the local indigens.

The unassuming hero for humanity Stewart Stanton voiced by Chris Evans(Push, The Fantastic Four) whose craft was damaged is now faced with the very civilisation he has sent to annihilate. It also stars the voice of Brian Cox(X Men 2, Troy) as a no-nonsense pragmatic General Hemmer, and the voice of Danny Glover(Lethal Weapon, The predator 2) as the leader of the last colony of humanity, President Chen.

The star quality emanating from the voices, do a very good job, passing over the various emotions, desperation, survival, extinction, all themes very relevant in the current era.

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Posted By Blogger to Movie reviews on 10/06/2009 08:52:00 PM

The lead is played effectively by Gerald Butler( Dracula 2000), and the lovely Lena Headley(The Sarah Connor Chronicles) plays his queen Gorgo, David Wenham (Faramir in Lord of the Rings the two towers)plays Dilios, as well as Michael Fassbender(Azazel in Hex) as Stelios, and Rodrigo Santoro(Scarface the world is yours) as the arch nemesis Xerxes.

I was impressed by the direction, and the beautiful pictureque scenery. It seems everybody in there were in tip top physical shape, as I don’t recall a movie where everybody had a six pack. The ability to pump your blood in the mood of the spartans ultimate war with impossible odds against the Persians is what makes this enthralling.