Planet 51 030910

A planet of aliens apparently going through the 50’s (when the world went kind of alien nuts) is turned upside down when an astronaut lands on the planet. The aliens become convinced that aliens are invading their planet which means the astronaut must be dissected. This complicates the life of the young teen alien who befriends him.

This movie had several really clever lines and did a great job of making spoofs of sci-fi cliches. Pretty much any big name alien movie you can think of is mocked and by someone who clearly loves them. One particularly funny thing is the occasionally brought up joke of who really is the alien, the human or the aliens who live there. Then you find out that pretty much the entire production crew was hispanic. I mean, everyone but the voices. It was racistly funny. Hilarious.

Now the bad. There was barely anything original other than a few jokes. There was the role flip of the human being the alien but beyond that, nothing happened that was new. It was the same alien movies with the one change. Dwayne Johnson is usually very funny but his job of voicing the astronaut should’ve been given to Patrick Warburton because he’s awesome. There was a hippie guy too, always protesting the military’s involvement, and the hippies seemed to be mocked because it was expected not because the director or writer actually find them funny or worthy of derision. They are and should be.

D+. Little kids will like it but you’ll want to rent something else. This was made by Warner Bros and Pixar’s title of the brilliant animators is safe.