Planet 51

Planet 51 is not your typical alien movie. This puts a twist on it and makes a human the alien on their planet. Yes it is an animated movie but, its not so ridiculous that adults can’t enjoy it themselves.

Lem played by  Justin Long a very un-extraordinary alien that is until and alien of another kind lands in his back yard. Captain Charles Baker played by Dwayne Johnson is an astronaut who landed on a uninhabited planet or so he thought. He very quickly realizes he is not alone when he lands and sees the inhabitants have a barbeque. He then does what almost other aliens do hide. 

Just like every other movie the government wants to capture and examine the specimen. This causes all types of chaos  on planet 51. General Graw played Gary Oldman is the psychotic over zealous military leader hell bent on capturing Charles Baker. This leads Lem and Charles on a wild adventure and getting caught in the middle in Neera played by Jessica Biel. Neera is the love interest which Lem is to shy to approach but Charles does his best to change that. By giving Lem love advice that gets him nowhere. But the adventure that Lem and Charles go on does turn Lem into the “man” I mean alien Nerra finally takes not of.

In the end this is a very predictable movie. The guy alien gets his girl alien the hero prevails after the usual  mishaps. Like getting caught and narrowly avoiding having his brain removed. Followed by almost escaping only to be thwarted by the evil General Grawl. With the even more sappy scene  of the hero saving the villain after the villain tried to kill him but, he is to noble to let that happen. And what type of movie would it be if the hero didn’t get to “escape” the alien planet but only after making some kind of huge difference.

So the wrap up is this a “cute” movie not the type you see unless you have kids or a girlfriend dragging you along. It gets a 6 for storyline for being so predictable. A perfect 10 by default on the special effects for being a cartoon. And acting gets a 6 because there is no real acting just how well the voice can convey emotion.