Voices By: Dwayne Johnson, Justin Long, Jessica Biel, Gary Oldman, John Cleese
Director: Jorge Blanco (first feature film)
Running Time: 1 hr 27 min
Release Date: Nov. 20, 2009
Budget: N/A
Critics’ Thumbs Up: 24%
“…jolly and good-looking…” Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times
“…flagrantly unoriginal.” Stephen Holden, The New York Times
For a fun and unique concept, this animated family film written by the co-writer of Shrek is, on the contrary, humorless and generic. Reminiscent of a G-rated District 9, Planet 51 plays with the concept of “us versus them” when an American astronaut (Johnson) lands on a planet already populated with a race of little green creatures that act and live just us. Though the voice performances from these appealing actors are solid, the dialogue is lazy and corny. Plenty of alien pop culture references pop up with shout-outs to such films as E.T., but those are obviously lost upon the young children for whom this amateurish film is marketed.
