Rated PG for mild sci-fi action and some suggestive humor.
Directed by Jorge Blanco, Javier Abad and Marcos Martinez (First time directors)
Starring Dwayne Johnson , Justin Long, Jessica Biel, Gary Oldman and John Cleese
Right stuff…wrong planet. It’s not only the tag line; it’s how I felt about the film.
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 that’s the opinion of U.S. astronaut Captain Charles T. Baker (Dwayne Johnson) who lands on Lem's (Justin Long) planet. Baker was 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 (Gary Oldman) and mad scientist Professor Kipple (John Cleese) manage to exterminate the Earthly visitor.
The trailer looked great, the premise was great, even the cast was great; unfortunately the rookie directors were never able to get this off the launch pad. It wasn’t bad…just forgettable.
Sometimes while watching a film like this I get the sense that everyone knows kids are going to love it so they don’t really have to try that hard. They figure, “Come up with a decent idea, throw in a couple potty-humor jokes and we’ll call it a day.” And trust me Planet 51 has plenty of potty-humor – including a cork joke to protect from the probes. (Insert eye roll here.)
On the positive side, the film deals with bigger issues like judging others by their appearance and acceptance.
Even though technically the film had a lot of holes, my family was able to enjoy a fun and fairly entertaining movie. It’s worth it…but only if it’s free.
SHOULD KIDS SEE IT?
Aside from some “potty humor” this one is fine for everyone.
Conversation Starter
Three Simple Questions (with Answers You May Be Looking for):
- What are some of the messages or themes you observed in this movie?
- How do you suppose we—as serious Christ-followers—should react to this movie?
- How can we move from healthy, Bible-based opinions about this movie to actually living out those opinions?
