Escape from Planet Earth
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Escape from Planet Earth is a 2013 Canadian-American 3D computer animated science fiction comedy film produced by Rainmaker Entertainment and distributed by The Weinstein Company in the United States and Alliance Films in Canada, directed by Cal Brunker, with a screenplay which he co-wrote with Bob Barlen. The film was released on February 15, 2013. It earned $74.6 million on a $40 million budget.
Plot
On the planet Baab, dashing astronaut Scorch Supernova (Brendan Fraser) is a national hero and master of daring rescues. However, Scorch does not work alone; his nerdy brother, Gary (Rob Corddry), head of mission control at BASA, often lends quiet, behind-the-scenes support. When a distress signal arrives from a dangerous planet, Scorch ignores Gary's warnings and sets out on a rescue mission. Scorch soon finds himself caught in a trap set by an evil enemy, and it's up to Gary to save him.
Why It Sucks
- Generic and unoriginal story, with the premise mostly being a ripoff of Planet 51.
- Shanker is completely weak as a villain and it makes Lena look like the actual villain. He is also basically a humanized version of Grawl from Planet 51.
- Several plot holes and inconsistencies: particularly, when Gary first meets the two humans they don't seem to understand him, but when they try to find Scorch's ship and meet them, they are suddenly able to talk to them. Also, when they return to their home planet Baab, Lena is absent for some reason.
- Weak humor, with plenty of it being obnoxious fart jokes.
- The script of the film has gone through several re-writes in production, and it shows.
- Blatant product placement: particularly, there is a scene at 7-Eleven; another example is in a scene where it is mentioned that Shanker has made deals with companies such as Apple Inc., Google, and Pixar.
- Several sequences seem to serve no reason to be in the film at all, and thus come across as filler. Examples include:
- The romance storyline between Shanker and Lena.
- A couch gag scene where the prison aliens cause a food fight around the cafeteria.
- The ending marriage between Scorch and Gabby.
- The action scenes are so lame to the point where even the action scenes from Planet 51 are better.
- Scorch is an annoying and unlikable jerk who does not even care about his own brother.
- Mediocre character designs, with several of them being unoriginal:
- The alien designs are basically both the aliens from Planet 51 and the titular protagonist from MegamindGMW if they were mashed together.
- The guys in the hazmat suits very much resemble the CDA agents from Monsters, Inc.GMW.
- Most of the designs for the humans, aside from Shanker, are uncanny.
- The imprisoned aliens are rather pointless, as they barely do anything in the whole entire movie.
- The concept of aliens inventing various technology for Shanker to rip off and sell to humans is an insult to mankind.
- Overuse of unnecessary cartoon sound effects that feel out-of-place.
- Laughable dialogue, particularly the overused catchphrase "Scorch Me Baby".
- Unecessary pop-culture references; particularly how, Close Encounters of the Third KindGMW and E.T. the Extra-TerrestrialGMW are referenced.
- False advertising: The city (which appears in the theatrical poster and the cover of the DVD release) that the characters are in never appears in the movie.
- Pointless cameo of Simon Cowell.
Redeeming Qualities
- Decent animation.
- Decent voice acting.
- Great soundtrack, composed by Arion Zigman.
- In particular, "Shooting Star" by Owl City is actually pretty good.
- One of the aliens is a nice nod to classic space aliens.
- Some moments here and there are funny.
Reception
The film recived mixed-to-negative reviews from critics. This film currently holds a 35% rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 43 reviews with an average of 4.62/10, but lacks a consensus.
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