Perfect cast and a good story

Crappy film

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

Blistering performances.

My rating is not awful, because of the animation or the art direction. Technically the movie is done well, but it's because of the premise. Imagine this scenario, the so-called blackeyed grey aliens (demons) that many people claim to have encountered or been abducted by have already infiltrated. So to make their takeover more palatable they are now the victims, and the Battle for Terra (earth) is actually now in progress. Humans are the spoilers of the planet, which of course all worshippers of Gaia believe, so the awful humans that were created in the image of God must be purged or hybridized. So the infiltrators are the heroes, the humans are subdued, and those left get to live happily ever after with the anti-Christ. This movie has some similarity to Avatar. Humans bad, demonic looking alien creatures good. Get rid of the humans, save the planet all ends well... not according to my copy of the book. I don't recommend it for kids. +++

I've never put a review up on a film that I didn't finish watching before now but I really felt I had to warn people about this animated film.I was gripped until the end of the opening titles, it has a reasonably big name cast of voice actors and the atmosphere was good and foreboding.As soon as the opening shot on the surface of the planet comes on it is immediately clear how cheap this production is. All of it, the characters, the scenery, the textures, lighting, animation is all thoroughly second rate. Acceptable for a kids TV show from 10-12 years ago but a feature film? Definitely not. The clearest example was when the Earth guy's ship crashes, it tumbles down a slope. It is just a solid block and looks like a toy, no debris, smoke or bits falling off (or any kind of deformation of the mesh). The close up shot reveals a battered and mangled wreck..... really naff.If you take a look at other CG films of a similar era, say Wall E and Kung Fu Panda, both released a year after granted, you will see how bad this is. Finding Nemo from 2003 is far superior in every aspect and that had been out 4 years previously.But its not all about looks and style right? (Although they're pretty important in an animation) Story, character development, plot, surely they could rescue it? No. I switched off when the Earth guy has his revelation "But she defended me.... from her own kind". The story telling and handling of the main themes is really ham-fisted and laboured. If I was 7 years old I might not care but there are plenty of other children's films that are able to engage my inner kid and be entertaining to adults.Just avoid this as far as possible, and if your child really wants to see it save it for a night when you need to hire a baby sitter and pay them to sit through it with them, trust me it will be money well spent.

The animated film Battle for Terra went by a complicated production process, and when it was finally released in the United States (which happened 1 year ago), it did not have a very good economical answer.So, I dare to speculate that its late release in cinemas from my country (Argentina) is due to the huge box office success of the film Avatar, with which Battle for Terra has various similarities.The screenplay from Battle for Terra is deeper than I expected.To start with, the classic subject of the "culture crash" is supported by complex ethic disjunctives between the violent human people and the serene aliens.Further, the screenplay offers valid comparisons between the points of view of invaders and invaded.Sure, the human keep being the overt villains from the story, but when their reasons do not merely obey to the economical benefit (as in Avatar), but to the survival of the species, the moral lines become more diffuse, inviting to the reflection and denying to bring easy answers.The truth is that I did not expect to find those ambitious concepts in what seemed to be a simple family movie, and that is the main reason I liked it.However, I cannot deny this movie has various fails.To start with, the characters should have been better developed; the actors who bring their voices to the characters lack of emotion and energy, something which frequently happens when they record their dialogs out of context and months (or years) before the story has adequately materialized.There are a few moments which feel a bit redundant, and, on the one hand, the animation lacks of identity and attraction, but on the other hand, there is an elegant simplicity in the plastics from this film, because it avoids the caricature movements and "extreme" attitudes we have seen on pieces of crap such as Open Season and Madagascar 2.Despite its fails and the fact that it is not very memorable, I had an interesting experience while watching Battle for Terra.I do not dare to say it is better than Avatar...but it is fair to admit that, with less resources, it told a more sophisticated and occasionally more satisfactory story.In summary, I think Battle for Terra has enough positive elements to make it worthy of a recommendation.

I have a saying, which says (d'oh) that films that doesn't work, doesn't work because one or more rules of scriptwriting is ignored/forgotten.Now this might seem quite basic, but writing a story and forgetting one of the hundreds of important rules are very difficult.I think this film would do better if: *a trickster type character could be in this film. I liked most of the characters, but they were all so sad and serious all the time. I LONGED for laughing. Humour would make the serious parts more serious, not just drab, like now. *it is not a children's film. The themes and philosophies need a mature mind to be interesting, and kids will not be interested in the characters and the story if they don't catch it. *the main character (girl alien) didn't really learn anything as the film moved on. One rule says that a film's main character is the one who goes through the most change. In this case it would be Jim, the earthling who saved the day in the end. Things that are unique and good about this film: *The conflict is not with an obvious answer. Mostly films have one insert image of an object or something early in the film, and if you spot it, you most probably can tell how it will save the day in the end. Luckily this film kept getting more interesting as time passed. *A rich world with fantastic inhabitants, only somewhat scarce in some landscapes (animation-wise).I give it a 7/10