Susan Granger’s review of “TITAN A.E.” (20th Century-Fox)
Apparently, Bill Mechanic, chairman of 20th Century Fox, wanted an animated movie for 13-14 year-old boys, a group that hasn’t shown much interest in cartoons other than comic books. So this is the result. Set in the year 3028, the Earth has been blown apart by a vicious alien race made of pure energy called the Drej. The hero, predictably, is a cynical teenager (voiced by Matt Damon), a rebellious drifter who works on a grungy salvage station. His life is changed when he finds his father, a brilliant scientist who built the Titan (a mysterious spaceship that has the power to create a planet), has left him a genetically encoded ring with a map. With “I happen to be humanity’s last hope,” he’s off on an adventure on the Valkyrie with its captain Korso (Bill Pullman), who once worked with his father, along with fighter pilot Akima (Drew Barrymore), plus the sarcastic First Mate Preed (Nathan Lane) and Gune (John Leguizamo), the Peter Lorre-like navigator – with the ruthless, villainous Drej in hot pursuit. There are plot-holes enormous enough to fly a space craft through, perhaps because so many writers were involved – and the formulaic concept reminded me of the old TV series “Battlestar Galactica” with a touch of “Wing Commander” thrown in. And what’s with Stith (Janeane Garofalo), a kangaroo-like weapons expert? Animator Don Bluth combines 3-D and 2-D which is visually disconcerting – except for two sequences. One involves the Ice Rings of Tigrin where one spaceship chases another through giant, reflective crystals and the other with vibrating, brightly colored hydrogen trees. On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Titan A.E.” is a weird, action-packed 4 – unless you’re a teenager. Then, perhaps, it might just be a cool sci-fi trip set to edgy, electronic rock music.
