Titan A.E. Review

by Jenni Grant

I first saw the trailer for Titan A.E. with the movie Pitch Black. That movie was something of a dissappointment for me. Not because it wasn't good...but because it wasn't quite as good as I had been hoping it would be. That seems to be happening to me a lot in the movies lately. So I was almost worried after the preview, when I lifted my chin back up off the ground and smoothed the goosebumps away.

"That looks incredible..." I thought. "Please, please don't let it suck."

After having seen the sneak preview this morning I can say with great relief say that it is even better than I had hoped.

Titan A.E. is the classic tale of the reluctant hero. Fifteen years after the earth has been destroyed by the evil Drej, Cale finds himself pulled out of his life as a salvage collector and into the search for his father's invention, an invention that will reunite the scattered remains of humanity. He meets the girl, the mentor, the amusing and useful aliens. I wouldn't say that there's an original theme in this movie, but they've taken a known pattern and made beautiful cloth of it.

Considering the mix of computer and cel-style animation, the images never felt unbalanced, and many of them were truly breathtaking. The blending of the two forms was definately handled better here than in previous animated movies that used both. The only time that I found it to be jarring was during the very visible scene in the trailer when the spaceships take off from earth.

The voice talent was well cast..talented celebrities that don't read as being celebrity voices during the movie. Even Jon Leguizamo, who's generally far over the top and noticeable went unrecognized as the voice of Gune, an alien engineer who has some of the better lines in the flick. As for the lines, Josh Whedon's touch is very obvious in the screenplay, especially towards the end.

The best thing about this movie though is the "geek cred". If you're reading this review...well, you'll probably understand how cool it is that one of the people I went with recognized the Death Star (or a remarkable facsimile) on the edge of one of the scenes. There were many moments during the film that a good 2/3rds of the crowd at the preview just sat through quietly while those of us wearing comic book/computer/role playing t-shirts and/or thick glasses hooted loud and proud. (Especially Gune ..."I don't know what it does..but it has a button..I really want to press the button" god..I love Gune).

I'd give it five beakers, but for some reason they added a completely unnecessary musical interlude that made no sense to the movie and in fact seriously weakened one of the points on which the plot balances. It's aesthetically gorgeous..but the movie would have been better without it.

Go see this flick...and since I'm certainly going to see it again, maybe I'll see you there.

Titan A.E.

Four out of Five Beakers