

TITAN A.E. (2000) / ** 1/2

Directed by Don Bluth and Gary Goldman. Screenplay by Ben Edlund, John
August and Joss Whedon, from a story by Randall McCromick and Hans Bauer.
Starring Matt Damon, Drew Barrymore, Bill Pullman. Running time: 98
minutes. Rated PG by the MFCB. Reviewed on June 30th, 2000.

By SHANNON PATRICK SULLIVAN

Today's recipe: Two cups "Star Wars". Mix one pound "Star Trek II: The
Wrath Of Khan". Add generous helpings of "Heavy Metal". Bake for about a
hundred minutes, garnish liberally with computer animation, and voila! One
"Titan A.E.", ready for theatres.

I wanted to really enjoy "Titan A.E.". Hell, I wanted to be blown away by
it. I've always loved science-fiction as a genre, but it's one that's
proved notoriously difficult to get right. For every "Star Wars" there's
a hundred films like "Screamers". Now comes Fox Family Films' latest foray
into the world of animation, rather surprisingly the first wide-release
animated sci-fi film in quite a while. Let me be clear: "Titan A.E." is
a lot of fun, and certainly a visual spectacle. But oh, it could have been
so much more.

The setting is the thirty-first century -- although except for the level
of technology, the thirty-first century looks an awful lot like the
twenty-first. As the film opens, Earth is destroyed by the Drej, energy
creatures who want to eradicate humanity "because of what we might
become". A scientist, Sam Tucker (Ron Perlman), has created the "Titan", a
ship which promises to be humanity's last hope for salvation. Sam and the
"Titan" barely escape the planet in time, but in the process he and his
young son, Cale, are separated.

Fifteen years later, humanity has been scattered across the stars, and is
slowly dying out. Then Cale -- now an embittered maintenance worker -- is
visited by Korso (Bill Pullman), an old friend of his father's who saves
him from an attack by the Drej. It turns out that a ring Sam gave Cale
before they left Earth holds a map to the long-lost "Titan". A reluctant
Cale joins Korso and his crew on board the "Valkyrie" to track down the
"Titan" and save mankind before the Drej catch up.

Visually, "Titan A.E." is dazzling. There are some sequences which
literally take your breath away, like Cale piloting the "Valkyrie" through
what look to be star-birthing nebulae, with phantom-like creatures called
wake angels drifting behind. And the ice rings in which much of the final
half hour of the movie is set are awe-inspiring -- giant crystal 
structures which are at once beautiful and deadly. These are settings 
which would have been impossible to create using conventional animation.
While they may be somewhat gratuitous (the wake angel scene in particular
feels like the animators pretty much just showing off, since the entire
story grinds to a halt for five minutes to accommodate it), I really
didn't care, because they were that incredible to watch. It's for 
moments like these that I watch new releases in the theatre rather than on
video; the small screen could never do them justice.

One of the more unusual decisions in the movie is to use three-dimensional
computer animation for the scenery but two-dimensional hand-drawn
animation for the characters. This looked awkward to me in the trailers,
but ultimately I have to conclude that it works, and the melding of the
two is seamless enough to dismiss any thought of incongruity. Indeed,
given that computer animation of people for the most part still looks ugly
and ungainly, I'm pleased by the choice.

But apart from the visuals, it's hard to find much to boast about in
"Titan A.E.". The story is hopelessly derivative -- the rebel element is
similar to "Star Wars", the nature of the "Titan" itself is an almost
direct lift from the second "Star Trek" movie, and Cale is an echo of
characters from across the genre, Luke Skywalker to Paul Atreides. Even
the choice of rock music for the soundtrack is old hat, recalling "Heavy
Metal" -- especially since many of the tunes curiously sound like they
originate from the early Eighties.

The climax is particularly guilty of being cliched and predictable (with
the exception of one delightful surprise), going through the motions as
though written by a machine. And the way the Drej are finally defeated is
so obvious and telegraphed that it raises the question of why nobody else
figured it out fifteen years earlier.

What makes it all particularly disappointing is that the scriptwriters
assembled here are a top-notch bunch. Ben Edlund created the wonderful
"The Tick" comic and cartoon. John August wrote last year's well-received
"Go". Joss Whedon is the mastermind behind "Buffy The Vampire Slayer", the
best thing on television today. Perhaps it's not all their fault -- they
were working from a story by Hans Bauer and Randall McCormick, whose
biggest claims to fame are "Anaconda" and "Speed 2", respectively. And
there are some lovely touches in "Titan A.E." indicative of the quality of
the three writers. The encounter with the intelligent guard (who sees
right through our heroes' attempts to break into a slave pen in a great
deconstruction of a genre staple) and the aforementioned climactic
surprise are a tantalising hint of what might have been.

But Edlund, August and Whedon cannot be held totally blameless, because
if nothing else they have produced a script with virtually no recognisable
characters. Cale, for example, claims to be deeply affected by his
father's abandonment, but this never manifests itself as anything more 
than mild annoyance -- it's mostly just paid lip service, in a classic
case of telling, not showing. Consequently, Cale comes across as just
another cookie-cutter hero, and his romance with the similarly bland Akima
(Drew Barrymore, miscast as a "drifter colony bum") is contrived and
poorly-developed. Damon does little to rise above the level of the
material.

Amongst the supporting cast, classy performers like Janeane Garofalo and
Nathan Lane are wasted in roles that give them little opportunity to strut
their stuff. Only John Leguizamo is exceptional, as a bizarre turtle-like
scientist. Also very effective are the visually fearsome, seemingly
indomitable Drej, who make great villains for much of the film. But in
the end, the Drej are much like "Titan A.E." itself -- enjoyable,
great-looking, but pretty insubstantial.

Copyright © 2000 Shannon Patrick Sullivan.
Archived at The Popcorn Gallery,
  http://www.physics.mun.ca/~sps/movies/TitanAE.html

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