Titan A.E. Review
by Scott Renshaw (renshaw AT inconnect DOT com)June 21st, 2000
TITAN A.E.
(20th Century Fox)
Voices: Matt Damon, Bill Pullman, Drew Barrymore, Nathan Lane, John Leguizamo, Janeane Garofolo.
Screenplay: Ben Edlund and John August and Joss Whedon. Producers: David Kirschner, Don Bluth and Gary Goldman. Directors: Don Bluth and Gary Goldman.
MPAA Rating: PG (adult themes, violence)
Running Time: 93 minutes.
Reviewed by Scott Renshaw.
Early in the animated science fiction/adventure TITAN A.E., in a scene that takes place in the year 3028, the earth is obliterated by an alien race called the Drej. Apparently, the Drej fear humanity, and want it stamped out forever. Why exactly do the Drej fear humanity? Who cares?
Flash forward 15 years, where a human survivor named Cale (Matt Damon) is living among aliens and other scattered humans as a laborer. Cale is the orphaned son of a scientist who created a near-mythological ship called Titan, hidden somewhere out in space. He is supposed to be deeply embittered by feelings of abandonment, but why are we supposed to understand that when Damon's vocal performance never suggests anything more than mild annoyance? Who cares?
A spacecraft captain named Korso (Bill Pullman) arrives, and informs Cale that the location of Titan is locked into his DNA. Cale accompanies Korso and his crew on a mission to find Titan, and along the way becomes smitten with Korso's pilot Akima (Drew Barrymore). Why exactly does Cale fall for her, except for the fact that she appears to be the only human female he's ever met? Who cares?
TITAN A.E. is a stunningly crafted piece of film animation. It is also inexcusably lazy and dramatically inept, and there is no earthly or after-earthly reason why that had to be the case. Director Don Bluth has made fine animated films like AN AMERICAN TAIL, THE LAND BEFORE TIME and ANASTASIA, which would be reason enough to hope for the best. But look at the talent credited with this script: Ben Edlund created the wonderfully satirical comic book "The Tick;" John August wrote the propulsively clever GO; Joss Whedon co-scripted TOY STORY, and created "Buffy the Vampire Slayer." Put those three writers together, and the law of averages would almost demand something smart, unconventional and utterly original.
Instead, they pasted together a story so blatantly cribbed from so many different sources that it would be an endless and thankless task to list them all (STAR WARS, STAR TREK 2 and BATTLESTAR GALACTICA are only the most obvious). That's not an uncommon problem with films of this genre; after all, there are certain buttons one is expected to push, and certain hero-on-a-quest motifs one is obliged to include. That doesn't excuse creating a thoroughly unappealing protagonist, introducing an evil alien race whose motivations never make any sense, or filling the script with dialogue that could have come from a Random Cliche Generator. Not a single line stuck in my head within minutes of leaving the theater; not a single character relationship was explored with any care.
Of course, it doesn't help that virtually every voice performance in TITAN A.E. feels as though it were completed while the actor involved was preoccupied with some other mundane task, like making dinner reservations, or trying to get out of traffic. Damon's lackluster work is most evident, but Pullman and Barrymore certainly give him a run for his money; even Janeane Garofalo and Nathan Lane are wasted. Only John Leguizamo, as a high-strung scientist/navigator on Korso's ship, seems at all interested in creating a character, and he does so primarily by talking really fast in a squeaky voice. There isn't a single moment in TITAN A.E. when a performance feels directed. Bluth and co-director Gary Goldman appear to have felt the actors had done their job if they read their lines without stuttering.
There's no question that TITAN A.E. is visually striking, and that the action sequences are well-paced. There are two stunning flights of fantasy in particular that briefly give the film a vivid sense of place: a planet with a sea covered in plants that bloom as hovering balls of hydrogen, and a nebula filled with massive reflective ice crystals. Both effects are computer generated, and the mix of conventional animation and CGI elements continues to push the boundaries of the form. But TITAN A.E. can't survive on its dazzle; it's too grim and mirthless to hold anyone's interest as pure fantasy. This is one long, long 90 minute wait for us to see whether Cale and his cohorts can save humanity. Do they save humanity? Who cares?
On the Renshaw scale of 0 to 10 Titan-icks: 4.
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