We don't get a lot of animated movies that focus on outer space. There is so much to do with the themes of the setting that it's kind of a shame that most of them turn out bad as they do. The latest animated movie I have watched that involved outer space in some way was "Escape From Planet Earth", and it was honestly a challenge to sit through. There were so many times watching this movie that I was groaning and very close to yelling in frustration at the screen that I lost count. This movie really infuriated me that now looking back, I wonder why I didn't give up watching this movie and just move on to the next film. It's such a disaster that I'm struggling to find something good to say about it.
On the far off planet of Baab (yes, just go with it) the intergalactic hero Scorch (Brendan Fraser) has been traveling to galaxies and doing heroic missions working alongside his brother Gary (Rob Corddry), the head of mission control of BASA. After another successful mission, Scorch tells his fans that he's headed off to the "Dark Planet", a planet that's known for its aliens disappearing there and never returning. Much to his brothers' reluctance, Scorch heads off to the Dark Planet which is essentially Earth and finds himself captured by the US Government and shipped off to Area 51. Realizing his brother is in danger and the head of BASA, Lena (Jessica Alba) isn't cooperating, Gary heads off to Earth and is also shipped off to Area 51 where he meets three other alien creatures that were captured named Thurman (George Lopez), Doc (Craig Robinson), and Io (Jane Lynch) who've been cooperating with the head of Area 51, General Saunderson (William Shatner) to build a device that could potentially destroy planets. Essentially, he's building a Death Star ray. Realizing that planets are in danger, it's up to Gary to help get the aliens and his brother out of the site, off of Earth, and back to their home planets.
This movie was such a chore to sit through from beginning to end. Almost nothing of this film actually captivated me or tried to make me care. In fact, it just made me angry. Really angry. The story was so confusing, generic, and ridiculous to follow. This film was essentially another alien stranded on Earth story we saw so many times and the writers didn't put any new spin on it. It also has so many subplots involving the General as well as Gary's wife and young son that by the end of the movie I didn't care about anything. Also, one joke of the movie involving the aliens really made me mad. There's a scene where those three aliens explain that they essentially created the internet, social media, and touchscreens in this movie so the government can license the technology to larger companies and the aliens also mention that they even invented computer animation and shows one of them outside the headquarters of Pixar. At that point, I nearly gave up I was so mad. Not only did they show that I could be watching animated movies from a company that clearly knows how to tell better stories than this, but them saying that they invented computer animation just really made me flip my lid. The animation is also a joke. Even from the very opening shot, I knew we were in trouble. There's a scene where Scorch is running through snow and he doesn't even create footprints. The animators of the movie were so lazy that they didn't even bother animating them, and it just astonished me. How lazy can you get if you don't even bother animating footprints for characters? Oh and speaking of the characters, they're so bland, boring, and just tiresome. Not one of them works. The closest are those three aliens, but even then that stupid joke where they invented modern technology kind of made me disconnect from them. So, is there anything positive I can say about this movie? Well, I can say the voice actors tried. They tried to make this work, but most of them like Lopez, Lynch, and Shatner have been in better-animated projects that it's embarrassing to see their talent wasted in this movie.
If you couldn't tell, I don't recommend "Escape from Planet Earth". At all. The story is a mess, the animation is lazy, and the characters are so bland that I really was angered by this movie. There are better movies involving aliens on Earth out there like "E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial", and I recommend seeing those instead. Don't bother on this garbage.
