Battle for Terra Review

There are small spoilers in this review.

PLOT: A peaceful alien planet faces annihilation, as the homeless remainder of the human race sets its eyes on Terra. Mala, a rebellious Terrian teenager, will do everything she can to stop it.


THE GOOD: Animation. Battle for Terra has some really good animation for a movie that's not made by Pixar, Dreamworks, or Sony. I was a little disappointed with a lot of empty space in the film. You can tell that if a bigger studio with a bigger budget had animated this film, there would have been a lot more detail. I also didn't think the humans looked all that impressive and the Terrians looked like floating sperm, but I did like the world of Terra.


Aristomenis Tsirbas. The man wrote the story, did the production design, did the cinematography, and wrote the story. This movie is his baby and I think he deserves some kudos for the hard work he's put in.

3D. I'm really surprised that a small movie like this got a 3D release, but I'm glad it did. The 3D looked just as good as most of the other stuff. All of the snow scenes were really great to watch. If you are going to watch this film in the theatre, do so at a 3D showing.


THE BAD: Messages. If we don't start taking care of our planet, we're going to start going to war with each other. And war, in all cases, is a bad thing. That is what BfT tries to preach to us. I'm all about doing what's best for the environment and understand that war is bad, but did I really need to sit through this to figure that out? They wanted to convince us that humans are bad and it made me a little depressed walking out of the theatre. What's with all this self-hatred crap that people are trying to push on us lately? The film definitely had an agenda and an axe to grind. There's a line in the movie that I think George Lucas should sue over, but captures the film perfectly: "It's a trap!"


Voice acting. Flat acting from every single cast member. I felt no emotions behind the characters. It was almost painful to listen to. Sound design wasn't that great either.

Pacing. The pace really drags in spots. Even some of the action sequences are boring. I could have fallen asleep in this movie if I wanted to.


THE END: I was quite disappointed with Battle for Terra. It was too slow and boring and it treats the audience like five year olds. The animation was good and the 3D made up for it a little, but overall I would say that this movie sucks. Avoid it if you can.


DISCUSS: What did you think of Battle for Terra? Have you been enjoying all the 3D movies lately? What movie(s) would you like to see re-done for 3D? Does the message in a movie have an impact on what you think of it?