Film review: Planet 51

Published on Thursday 3 December 2009 17:57

PLANET 51 (U) ** DIRECTED BY: JORGE BLANCO, JAVIER ABAD, MARCOS MATRINEZ VOICES: DWAYNE JOHNSON, JESSICA BIEL, JUSTIN LONG, GARY OLDMAN

PUTTING a reverse spin on ET, this inoffensively bland CG animated feature from Spanish studio Ilion imagines what might happen if a human spaceman landed on an alien planet that had evolved along similar lines to ours. Said spaceman is buffed-up, flag-waving American astronaut Chuck Baker (Dwayne Johnson), who lands on the Planet 51 only to discover its green, sub-Shrek inhabitants are living a kind of parallel 1950s Americana existence, replete with monster movies, picket fences and a military force paranoid about external threats. As a result, Chuck is immediately considered a danger to Planet 51's future by everyone except 16-year-old science geek Lem (Justin Long), who hides him in his bedroom and gradually learns to come out of his shell as a result of their time spent together. ET is further invoked in a direct steal of its Halloween scene, but there's none of that film's charm or warmth, and the period jokes – mostly nicked from Back to the Future – fall flat, leaving only bright colours and frantic action to distract the kids.