TERRA
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"Terra" isn't sugar-coated -- the humans are hardly paragons of virtue, but neither are the Terrareans. "Terra" is a work of art.
Variety.
SCI-FI-LONDON are proud to host the UK premiere of the movie at our special Oktoberfest!
Mala (Evan Rachel Wood) is a precocious girl living on the beautiful planet Terra, a place where peace and tolerance are celebrated.
Unbeknownst to Mala and her fellow Terrians, the last inhabitants of Earth have exhausted the resources of their planet (and three others) and are now searching for a new home. The ‘Earthforce’, headed by General Hemmer (Brian Cox), want to use a Terraformer to make Terra habitable for humans but poisonous for Terrians.
When the Earthlings embark on an invasion of Terra, Mala's father, Roven (Dennis Quaid), is kidnapped. Hoping to save her father, Mala captures and hides a crashed human pilot named Jim (Luke Wilson). While Mala nurses Jim back to health, the two forge a friendship and a plan that could save both the human race and the Planet Terra. Soon, however, they realise that peace will not be secured unless they can combat both the Terraformer and dark political forces that will stop at nothing in their drive to achieve power for power's sake.
Full Variety Review
The inhabitants of "Terra" (a planet in a galxay far far away) are an endearing group, and their world is the fully realised offspring of dreamy imagination and CGI. U.S. production is as original and convincing a feature as the better Japanese animes of recent years. While it may be too violent for the youngest kids, the sci-fi invasion story, high-tech wizardry and high-profile vocal cast should make for substantial mainstream traffic. Adoration by animation acolytes? Affirmative!
Helmer Aristomenis Tsirbas and scribe Evan Spiliotopoulos have created a galactic utopia, but not one without costs: Freethinkers like Mala (voiced by Evan Rachel Wood) are an endangered species. The planet -- around which the tail-heavy Terrareans motor as if underwater -- is ruled by mullahs who enforce fundamentalist policies regarding behavior and belief.
As a result, the population has become a bit infantilized; when invading Earthling forces are spotted entering Terra's atmosphere, the fliers are assumed by some to be approaching gods. What the Earthlings want -- having used up three planets already -- is Terra itself.
Combining elements of "Planet of the Apes" and "The Day the Earth Stood Still," "Terra" is also part inter-species "Romeo and Juliet." Mala, whose father (voiced by Dennis Quaid) is abducted by aliens (us humans!), saves and protects crash-landed pilot Jim Stanton (Luke Wilson), hoping he'll take her to her father and secure his release. Thus allied, Mala and Jim must hide from both the Terrareans and the Earthlings, who plan to convert the Terra atmosphere into one inhabitable for humans but poisonous for Mala and her people.
What helps make "Terra" a good ride is that Tsribas and Spiliotopoulos have addressed many of the implausibilities such a story naturally comes saddled with, such as the language barrier, which is corrected by the R2-D2-inspired Giddy (David Cross), a combination robot/Berlitz course.
"Terra" isn't sugar-coated -- the humans are hardly paragons of virtue, but neither are the Terrareans. And the story's resolution won't make "Terra" the feel-good cartoon of 2008, although it is a work of art.
Tech credits are superb, including the sound, which is used in such a precise way as to give palpable weight and substance to Tsirbas' amazing architectural creations.
SCI-FI-LONDON are proud to host the UK premiere of the movie at our special Oktoberfest!
Saturday 4th October, 11.00am - Apollo West End
Tickets (credit cards only) 020 7451 9944