Movie reviews

Movie reviews this week looks at the animated feature film Battle for Terra.

This is an enjoyable animation, adults as well as children will enjoy, and as usual, the animation quality is top notch, and knowing how the characters portraying the voices look in real life, you can tell a great deal of attention to detail was done.

The plot of the story is that a peaceful civilisation have wake up one day and find this giant space ship blocking the light of their sun, soon afterwards, the aliens invade their land, capturing several of them, including the father of our heroine.

During this mission, one of the aliens loses control of his aircraft chasing our protagonist Mala Evan voiced by the lovely Evan Rachel Wood( Mickey Rourke's daughter in The Wrestler), in the process he is injured and she takes him to her home to tend to his injuries, and it turns out the alien is a human, i.e. we are the aliens invading another civilisation/planet.

The twist on the frightening alien civilisation taking over our land is unique this time, as we are seeing things from the point of view of the peaceful aliens, who the humans have ear marked to take over and named "Terra".

It turns out Earth is no longer habitable, in fact it's resources have been depleted by man's wanton desire(a stark warning, for global warming), and humanity have already "terraformed" our closest planets, Mars and Venus, but it turns out that the colonies wanted independence, and a war broke out that wiped out all three planets, so the remnants of humanity have been in space looking for a permanent home. The planet nicknamed "Terra" is chosen as adequate, but there is a problem, it's atmosphere is poisonous to humans, and the only solution if humanity is to take over the planet is to convert it's atmosphere to one of oxygen, but that would mean making the atmosphere poisonous to the local indigens.

The unassuming hero for humanity Stewart Stanton voiced by Chris Evans(Push, The Fantastic Four) whose craft was damaged is now faced with the very civilisation he has sent to annihilate. It also stars the voice of Brian Cox(X Men 2, Troy) as a no-nonsense pragmatic General Hemmer, and the voice of Danny Glover(Lethal Weapon, The predator 2) as the leader of the last colony of humanity, President Chen.

The star quality emanating from the voices, do a very good job, passing over the various emotions, desperation, survival, extinction, all themes very relevant in the current era.

Labels: Battle for Terra, Brian Cox, Chris Evans, Evan Rachel Wood, film review, film reviews, films, Movie Review, Movie Reviews, movies

The Wrestler is a heartrenching tale of many a wrestler through the world of the professional wrestling circuit, it tells the story of Randy "The Ram" Robinson, a wrestler who was one time at the top of his game, but now battling on the small time circuit to make ends meet, along with his weekday job at a meat market.
Some of the wrestling scenes involved in this circuit are not for the faint hearted, some of it involves being stapled numerous times, (the scene where the staples were being removed was extremely discomfitting), a fork used to on the forehead, being dropped on to a table full of glass to name a few.

I heard Mickey Rourke due to his extremely realistic performance is to be invited to one of the key invents from WWE where he will wrestle, and I must say the performance is mesmerising, you instantly believe from his visage alone he has led a life where the world has pounded non-stop on his body, from the steroid injections to maintain his performance, to trying to make amends with his daughter Stephanie played superbly by Evan Rachel Wood, and trying his luck with a local stripper, who only sees him as a customer at first, but his lovable heart makes her realise he is one soft hearted ram. Marisa Tomei plays the love interest, and I am not alone wondering how she has the body of a teenager even though she is approaching middle age.

Mickey Rourke does a superb performance capturing the mannerisms and attitudes of many a wrestler, if you are a fan of WWF through the early 80's through the 90's you will recognise a few of the cameos and their references.

You will find yourself rooting for "The Ram" throughout, and you will literally be pleading with him not to get in the ring that inevitable one more time.

It is a superb movie that does a little justice behind the scenes of many wrestlers from a by gone era, the haunting score and lyrics of Bruce Springsteen's "The Wrestler" brings it home.

Labels: Evan Rachel Wood, film reviews, Marisa Tomei, Mickey Rourke, Movie Reviews, The Wrestler