North by Northwest (1959) (Movie Review)

  I’ve reviewed a number of Alfred Hitchcock’s movies, and TV programs on my Blog sight, but it occurs to me that after all these years, and all these post … I still have yet to talk about my absolute favorite of Alfred Hitchcock’s classics. 1959’s “North by Northwest” is often held in high regard as one of Hitchcock’s crowning achievements, and a motion picture classic all around. However, it’s also one of the great staples in Action and Adventure cinema, as it helped change the face of the genera, and inspired countless classics to follow. One could argue that the style, mood, and excitement of “North by Northwest” acted as a precursor to what would eventually become the James Bond film franchise. Whenever I watch this movie, I do get a subtle vibe that this could have been a James Bond picture, although if I’m being honest … I find this movie far more engaging and exciting then the majority of the early Bond pictures.

  Something Hitchcock was always fond of was mistaken-identity capers, and while this wasn’t the first movie to utilize the formula, I still look back on “North by Northwest” as the definitive classic “Cat and Mouse” thriller.

Our adventure focuses on an advertising executive named Roger O. Thornhill, who’s mistaken for a government agent by a group of terrorists. He's subsequently framed for murder at the United Nations building, forcing him to flee across the U.S., with both the police and enemy agents trying to kill him. The chase soon becomes a quest, as Roger looks for clues about the agent he’s been mistaken for, and discover what the villains are really after. Along the way, he partners-up with a mysterious young Blond woman named Eve, who may just be a government agent herself, or another enemy spy who’s taking advantage of his helpless situation. As things escalate, Roger leans that the agent he was mistaken for never existed, but sense he was already doing the job … he might as well become the guy he was initially trying to prove he wasn’t.

  For such an old 50’s classic, I still find this film highly engaging and fun to watch. Most modern viewers who are desensitized by breakneck pacing, huge explosions, and constant action may find this film a little slow by comparison … but still to this day, I find this a riveting piece of cinema. Granted the film is slow moving at times, but I find myself so invested in the story and this man’s situation, that I’m not even paying attention to the occasional lack of action. This is where Alfred Hitchcock really shines as one of cinemas most influential directors, because it’s the exciting premise laced with Hitchcock’s film-making that makes this picture so exciting and immersive. Take for example one of the film’s most iconic sequences, in which Roger is chased in an open field by a biplane.

While the sequence on its own is exciting enough, it’s the lengthy build-up to the chase that I find most engaging. You don’t get moments like this in action movies today, but just look at how brilliant this set-up is. Roger is dropped-off on the side of the road in which he’s told he’d meet an important contact, but he doesn’t know if the man he meets is friend or foe, so there’s already a sense of tension building. After waiting for a little while, another man is dropped-off on the opposite side of the road in front of him, and the movie holds on these two men just silently standing opposite one another. Rodger then finds the courage to approach the stranger, and as the camera dollies in on the man, the tension gradually builds. The stranger then turns out to be just an ordinary guy waiting for a pick-up, and just as his ride comes to fetch him, the man notes how odd it is to see a crop-duster off in the distance flying over a field with no crops. We then see Roger slowly putting the pieces together in his head on what’s about to transpire, and once the plane finally attacks, I feel like I’m right there in the moment. Also, for an action movie from the 50’s, this chase culminates into one heck of an explosion, with the plane crashing into an oil-truck on the road. Although, there is this one hilarious shot of our hero slowly running in the foreground, with the explosion behind him, and … it’s not a convincing effect.

  Along with Hitchcock’s direction, another important ingredient to this film’s enjoyment are its three main leads, who are brilliant in their respected roles. Cary Grant was a regular star in Hitchcock’s movies, and the two talents were still riding the high that was 1955’s “To Catch a Thief”. While this would mark their final collaboration, I think this was their best by far, and Cary Grant’s leading charm as Roger carries so much of the films appeal. His snappy comebacks, and rapid way of talking all feel natural, and it convinces me that someone with such a larger than life personality could find himself in a larger than life situation such as this. His wicked opponent in the movie is the enemy spies gang leader called James Vandamm, who’s played with juicy conviction by James Mason. While more subdued then Grants performance, he still matches his opposite with great charisma, and a restrained sense of menace. Lastly is Eva Marie Saint as the mysterious Eve Kendall, who’s the exciting wild card caught between the two. All three have a distinct screen appeal that compliments one another.  

  Yet another great talent I have to mention is music composer Bernard Herrmann, who is a legend when it comes to classic movie scores. 

He composed the music for classics like “Citizen Kane”, “The Day the Earth Stood Still”, “Jason and the Argonauts”, “Taxi Driver”, “Journey to the Center of the Earth”, and even the original TV series “The Twilight Zone”. He was also a regular composer for the majority of Hitchcock’s classics including “Psycho”, “The Man who Knew too Much”, “The Birds”, “Vertigo”, and of course “North by Northwest”. The reason for that little recap is because … I don’t say this lightly … but I think his score for “North by Northwest” might just be my favorite. His score adds so much to the overall exciting fun of the experience, and despite being edged in my mind as a classic soundtrack, I’m shocked it didn’t receive an Oscar nomination. The opening title sequence paired with this score is one of my personal favorites, and it gets me hooked right off the bat. It also leads to one of Hitchcock’s best cameo’s, as he appears just after his own directing card appears on screen. Another one of my favorite little moments is the frame-up at the UN, in which our hero is set-up to look like he put a knife in a man’s back. This is the kick-off moment in which I’m hooked for the adventure to follow, and the excitement of the moment is paired with this awesome overhead shot of our hero fleeing the building.     

  So, do I have any issues or reservations with this film … well … there are two little details that I don’t care for. First of all, fallowing the excitement of the UN frame-up, we cut to a lengthy scene with the FBI, who basically tell the audience that our hero is mistaken for a fake government agent, and I feel this scene spoils some of the mystery that I wanted to see unravel from our reluctant hero’s perspective. It also marked the only time the movie cuts away from our star, which I think was a mistake. Similar to Hitchcock's approach with "Rear Window", this movie puts us in our leads shoes, and cutting to a scene without him spoils the simulation. The second reservation I have with this film are the lengthy romantic scenes between our two leads. While the two have great chemistry, the tone and presentation of these scenes feel more fitting for a romantic comedy, and I feel they steel some of the fire form the films excitement. Granted, the film already conveys a sense of comedy, so it doesn’t clash too much with the established tone. Also, I’m all for some levity in an action film, and there are some amusing little highlights throughout. However, the goofy romance scenes, particularly the ones on the train … for me, just feel like they overstay their welcome.    

  At last, I have to mention the visually iconic climax, in which our two leads scale Mount Rushmore, in an effort to escape the pursuing villains. When it comes to historical landmarks and national monuments utilized in film, this final chase on Mount Rushmore can easily be placed among the top five greatest of them all. The shots, the angles, the build-up, the music, and tension are all solid feats of movie magic. My only problem comes in the form of this rough transition to the romantic epilogue. Again, playing to the film’s romantic comedy angle, we segue from this nail-biting cliffhanger, to this goofy romantic send-off, and it’s not a smooth transition at all. Regardless, this is still one of the great action movie climaxes, and an iconic set-piece that’s famously been spoofed in other movies and TV shows.

  For all my little reservations with the film, I still view “North by Northwest” as my personal favorite of Alfred Hitchcock’s highly influential filmography. It was a huge influence on one of my favorite genera’s, and I couldn’t imagine where adventure cinema would be today without this film. Despite all the tension, and excitement, this is one of Hitchcock’s lighter offerings, and it conveys a healthy sense of fun. Ironic that only one year later, Hitchcock would shock the world with 1960’s “Psycho”, which is arguably his darkest picture. “North by Northwest” went on to receive three Oscar nominations, for best written screenplay, best editing, and for best art director, with the focus on best set-decoration. From then on, the film has become a motion picture favorite, and one that I highly recommend modern viewers check out. It may not be as flashy or as consistently exciting as the action and adventure movies of today, but if you’re a fan of the genera, you owe it to yourself to see one of the influential classics that inspired countless action thrillers to follow.

Thanks for reading my review of Hitchcock’s 1959 Adventure classic “North by Northwest” … and continue to enjoy the movies you Love!           

  

The Predator (2018) (Movie Review)

   Of all the iconic, reoccurring movie monsters from either Sci-Fi or Horror … the Predator creature has always been my personal favorite, and the one I’m always the most excited to see return to the big screen. However, while the Predator has never failed to thrill me in a movie, his overall franchise has got to be one of the most frustrating I’ve ever experienced. While the original “Predator” from 1987 remains a genera classic, the majority of its sequels have been sub-par, as well as stretched over a long period of time. Seriously, putting aside the crossovers in the “Alien” franchise, there has consistently only been one Predator movie per decade, one in the 80’s, one in the 90’s, one in the early 2000’s, and one in the two-thousand-teens. It’s hard to ride any kind of franchise high when your sequels are spaced out like that, and it’s even more upsetting when these sequels can barley hold a candle to the high standards of the first. The closest we got was the 2009 sequel titled “Predators”, which captured the spirit of the first, as well as progressed the series to go into outer-space, and visit alien planets. This set-up some great potential for the series to build on, but for whatever reason, the 2018 sequel simply titled “The Predator” completely ignores the events of the third film, and only keeps in continuity with the first two movies.

  The movie kicks off with something I’ve always wanted to see in this franchise … a dog-fight in space between two armed space-ships. The first of which is being flown by a Predator, who’s actually a fugitive from his own planet, and is being hunted by his own kind. He crashes on Earth, just as an Army Ranger Captain is carrying out a mission to assassinate the leader of a drug cartel. During all the excitement, the captain and his team find the downed ship, and take some items as proof of this unbelievable discovery. 

However, the predator is none too happy with people taking his things, and a brutal fire-fight breaks out. I’ll say this, after three movies and two crossovers that each began with slow-burning build-up, it’s quiet refreshing to finally have a Predator movie that opens with a good deal of action, and a lot of energy. There’s an amazing shot when the clocked predator falls on the ground, and his camo is broken by the blood of a victim dripping on his face. This one shot of the Predators glowing yellow eyes shining through a bloody red face might just be one of my favorite visuals of the whole series. After all the carnage, the Army Captain manages to mail his findings back home, where he thinks they’ll be safe, but is soon apprehended by the feds, and placed on a bus full of PTSD-afflicted soldiers. After loosing his original team back in Mexico, these troops become his new crew. After escaping their captivity, the team set-off to head for the Captains home, in an effort to retrieve the stolen Predator weapons, which are now in the possession of his son. This makes the boy a prime target for our alien hunter, as well as the government officials, and even worse yet … a super Predator who’s hunting the fugitive.    

  Let’s, jump right into the biggest problem with this movie … the human characters once again are completely disposable. 

While the concept of a rag-tag group of PTSD soldiers had some potential, they all act like the same, overly-animated goofball. With juvenile quips, and aggressively trashy behavior. It should be noted that this film was written and directed by Shane Black, who played the character Hawkins back in the original “Predator”, which seemed like a winning idea … unfortunately, he wrote every single character as an exaggerated version of his own character from the first film. The Captain is your by-the-numbers action movie lead, his comrades are completely interchangeable, and the big bad government officials are your typical jerks in suits. It also hurts the tone of the movie, as these goofs continue to joke around after battling alien monsters … like it doesn’t even faze them, and never once do these people feel terrified of what their facing. 

Now, there are at least some salvageable characters. I like the lead female scientist, who’s played by Olivia Munn. I previously liked the actress in her portrayal of Psylocke from 2016’s “X-Men Apocalypse”, and she carries herself quiet well in this film. I also liked seeing Jake Busey in the role of Doctor Keyes, which is fitting sense his dad Gary Busey played the characters descendant Peter Keyes back in 1990’s “Predator 2”. At last, the little boy makes for a fairly good character, and escapes the confines of just being a cliched kid with no defining traits. This boy has Asperger’s, and rather than view it as a handicap, this film spots it as an asset for the boy, which is appreciated. I grew-up knowing kids with different forms of Autism, and the performance from young Rory McKenna is quite good.    

  

  The absolute best thing about this movie by far is the classic Predator, as he’s never failed to thrill whenever on screen. This particular one looks amazing, as the costume, and prosthetic's look superior to any previous version. This one also displays more personality then most others, which makes him feel more like a real character. We also see the Predator do things in this film that the creature has never done before … like using his pointy mandibles as teeth against one of his victims. There’s even a moment in which this predator is forced to use a human gun against other troops … never thought I’d see that. The most serial moment of all is when the Predator hops on board a transport truck, he takes out the guards, which prompts the driver to knock on the window, asking if everything is okay, and the Predator follows up by severing a guards hand, and sticking a thumbs up through the window. That might just be the funniest thing I’ve ever seen the Predator do in a movie ... I mean it’s dumb, and out of character … but I love it for its serial goofiness.

  There’s also an amusing call back when the lead female scientist see’s the Predator for the first time, looks it up and down in aw, and follows up with … “You’re one Beautiful Mother-*&^+er!”. Obviously, it’s a reverse of Arnold's classic line … “You’re one Ugly Mother-*&^+er!”, and it works better than all the other sequels, which have just repeated the line with no twist on it. Not only is the Predator great, but he also compliments all the best scenes in the movie. There’s a very suspenseful sequence in a lab, with the Predator escaping its bondage, and while our lead female scientist tries to escape, she gets caught in the decontamination process, making it impossible for her to quickly escape the approach of the deadly hunter. This scene was riveting, and makes for a terrific moment of vulnerability, in which a human is completely defenseless. There’s another exciting sequence in which the Captain and his son try to hide in a local school, while the Predator is in hot pursuit. I love seeing the classic Predator on the hunt in different locations, and the films small-town community is a descent setting. We’ve seen our alien hunter go open season in a big city back in “Predatory 2”, but this was a nice change up, in which it’s a contemporary setting on a smaller scale.

  Unfortunately, just as this film is building a lot of momentum, the classic Predator is then killed off, and replaced with the new super Predator … which I’m not a fan of. I feel the Predator is already a spectacular design, and can still thrill on its own, but a new one with bigger muscles really adds nothing special to it. At least in the 2009 “Predators”, it established different breads of predators that still maintained the same height and body-mass of the classic … so they didn’t feel too out of place. We also learn that the Predators are assimilating their victims into their DNA, to make them even more superior to any other creature in the galaxy. While this could have been an interesting attempt to develop their culture and motivations, it just comes off as a mess, when its original motivations were simple enough. Also, the first Predator was apparently on a mission to give the human race a gift to protect the humans from these new super-predators, which brings me to another problem I have with this movie … there are way too many scenes of people using Predator weapons, as well as their clocking technology, and it just feels off-putting. Also, the kid using a Predator mask as a Halloween costume … absolutely ridiculous, although it is amusing that the mask is three times the size of the boy’s head.

  This movie also brings back the Predator hunting dogs, which I love as a concept, but I don’t understand why the designs don’t match the dogs from the previous 2009 “Predators”. Those dogs had a completely original look and appearance, while these dogs have heads that resemble the Predators … which doesn’t make any sense to me. Like, we have dogs, but they don’t share our same facial features. 

There’s also a curious choice in the script, that one of the dogs gets lobotomized, which allows the humans to use it as a loyal pet … and I’m not sure how to feel about that. I suppose it’s a little cool to see the female lead bond with an alien dog, but it also snuffs out the suspense when one of them can be trained to aid the humans. On that note, this is the first Predator movie to lack the aggressive, and dark tone of the previous movies, and goes for “pulpier”, summer movie entertainment, which can appeal to the teen crowd. These movies have always walked a tightrope between Sci-Fi and Horror, but this is the first film to drop horror in favor of comedy. It’s not unintentional either, this film is clearly trying to appeal to our generations teen crowd as a goofy Sci-Fi comedy. It’s a little jarring, but I will say that it makes for the most visually appealing film in the series. There are far more colors on display, with less shadows, and some lavish set designs. The visual aesthetics of both the underground labs, and the Predator ships are all top notch, and they look great. There’s even a little Easter Egg to AVP, in which Lex’s self-made Alien-Tale Bow is on display in the lab. Also, Actress Françoise Yip makes an appearance, who previously appeared at the end of “Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem” as Ms. Yutani.     

  I should note that Shane Black had previously wrote and directed “Iron Man 3”, which was likewise addressed in all the marketing, clearly as a means to draw-in fans of the Marvel movies. Once we get to the climax, it’s becomes very obvious that this film was made to appeal to the Marvel superhero crowds. At first, it starts like your proper Predator finale, with the hunter playing a game of cat and mouse with all the troops in the woods, and taking characters out one-by-one. 

Then we get a final battle on the Predator space ship, as it’s crashing through tree’s, characters are jumping around on energy shields, and it suddenly feels like a climax to a different movie. I’m not going to act like this finale isn’t fun to watch … because it is highly entertaining as a big Sci-Fi set-piece … but it is admittedly out of place when compared to the franchises previous installments. All the preceding final battles were very tense, urgent, grounded, and slowly built to a nail biting pay-off, where as this one is very flashy, laced with lots of eye-candy, and conveys a sense of fun excitement. Like I said, I’ll still enjoy it for what it’s clearly aiming to be, and it has some really cool moments. I love when the kid turns on the shield to cut-off the Predators arm, and there’s an awesome moment when one of the soldier’s leaps into the turbines of the ship in order to bring it down. It’s all cool stuff, and as a fan of big, Sci-Fi battles … this leaves me satisfied ... despite not fitting in tone with the franchise at all. Now, I will say that the epilogue is awful … just plain awful. The predator’s gift to man-kind is revealed to be a supper-suit that can connect to people in the same style as an Iron Man suit … which is stupid, and it completely deflates all tension for any further encounters. Also, be sure to close off your movie on a cheesy one-liner … because that’s how to end a Predator movie … with a disposable quip.

   I’m convinced, this movie is to the Predator franchise what “Alien Resurrection” was for the “Alien” franchise. In both cases, they drop all sense of horror and tension in favor of outlandish comedy, heavy CGI action spectacles, and is clearly aiming for trashy entertainment. I should be disappointed, but I have to be honest … I gave up a long time ago that there would ever be a Predator sequel that would be on par with the first. As such, whenever I see a new film, it’s only for the novelty of seeing my favorite creature on screen again, and I hope the rest of the movie can pass as disposable entertainment. In this regard, 2018’s “The Predator” actually surpassed my low expectations. It’s a completely disposable sequel without question, it also has nothing on the first … but it certainly isn’t boring. There’s enough energy, action, visual appeal, and memorable highlights that it can pass as an enjoyable … “In one ear, and out the other” experience. Certainly not a good movie, but I’ve definitely seen worse, and in the end, I’m just glad I at least had some fun with this installment.           

Thanks for reading my review of the 2018 sequel “The Predator” … and continue to enjoy the movies you Love! 

             

 The End

Titan A.E. (2000) (Movie Review)

    Back in 1999, there was one up-coming sci-Fi blockbuster that was on everybody’s mind, and it was a little film called “Star Wars 1: The Phantom Menace”. I was just a young kid at the time, at the height of my “Star Wars” craze, and was beyond hyped for the film. After months of waiting, and waiting … we finally sat down in the theater to see it … and something unexpected happened.

I was suddenly caught off guard by a trailer for a different Sci-Fi adventure film called “Titan A.E.”, which was to premier the following year. Afterword’s, while I liked “Star Wars 1: The Phantom Menace” just fine, and continued to watch it as a kid ... it somehow just didn’t match the expectations I had going in ... but that “Titan A.E.” certainly looked like it could. Sure enough, the following year I watched “Titan A.E.”, and it absolutely felt closer in spirit to what I wanted from an outer space, “Star Wars”-esk adventure. The movie itself under-performed at the box office, and received mix reviews from critics, but that didn’t mater to me, because I was in love with this film. It became one of my first DVD’s of the new decade, I listened to the soundtrack frequently when I played video games, I had the poster hung-up in my room, and I collected several “Titan A.E.” toys, which I mingled with my “Star Wars” action figures. Needless to say, I was viewing “Titan A.E.” as one of my favorite movies … but has it held up after almost two decades? Is it still just as great as I remember, or has it gotten worse, and if so … could I see past my own nostalgia goggles?   

   The movie kicks off with one of my all-time favorite pre-title-card openings from any Sci-Fi or animated picture, and it’s one high mark in the film that absolutely holds up. At the dawn of the thirty-first century, mankind develops a massive space craft called “The Titan”, which has the power to create a planet out of the collected energy from certain quadrants of space. This development frightens a race of aliens called the Drej, who are made of energy themselves, and see the Titan as a threat to their own existence. 

Thus, they rain-down upon the humans without warning … and completely nuke Earth, with only a handful of colonies escaping. While we’ve seen Earth under attack, and planets blowing-up in other Sci-Fi pictures, it had never really been seen on this big a scale before ... at least I never saw anything quite like this at the time. The visuals, the build-up, the tension, the music … it’s like a mini-epic, and it both scared and thrilled me to see as kid. Amidst the evacuation, we see the lead scientist of the Titan bid farewell to his son, as he hopes to launch the ship, but it gets damaged during the invasion, and is herald into the unknown reaches of space ... leaving both his son and the rest of humanity without a home. 

    Fifteen years later, the boy named Cale has grown into a young man, and lives in a refuge station with all that’s left of the human race. After joining a band of pirates, he discovers a map that can lead him to the very ship his father engineered … and more importantly, give the human race a home again. Thus, the adventure is on, as our band of hero’s journey across space to find the ship, and re-colonize the human race before the malevolent Drej get to it first. 

Those are some high stakes for an animated family adventure, and I distinctly remember watching this as a kid, and being completely engaged in the driving goal off our main hero’s. Looking back, the film at times admittedly feels like a cut-and-pace work of other Sci-Fi plots, but I still feel the formula is executed just effectively enough, and with some distinct merits that are entirely its own. The screenplay was written by one Joss Whedon … famous now for writing and directing “The Avengers”, but had his hands in a number of Sci-Fi adventures that revolved around renegades going on missions in space, including “Alien Resurrection” and his “Firefly” series. You can certainly feel his touches in the script, which help give the film some dimension. One little scene I love is when our hero’s try to breakout a friend from prison, but first they have to outwit a guard. In a refreshing turn of events, the guard is actually smarter than your typical cliched lookout that can easily be fooled, and it makes for a nice change-up. 

  There's also an amusing moment when a silly bug-alien gets roped into a chase scene, and it looks like he'll be the obligatory comedic relief ... only to get gunned down. Actually, the film isn't afraid to get a little violent at times, as characters get a little bloody, and there's even an on-screen neck-snap. The movie is also directed by animation legend Don Bluth, along with his longtime partner Gary Goldman. Both are great talents credible for “The Secret of NIMH", "Anastasia” and “The Land Before Time”, but this marked very different territory for the two to work in, as neither were really into Science Fiction, nor had they done anything quiet this adult in tone ... at least sense the early 80's. Regardless, they were eager to take on an animation project that didn’t feel like a Disney knock-off, and both their talents really shine in the character animation. There’s great detail put into the character features, and they convey a great deal of personality through their movements and expressions … if only the script was as good at fleshing out its characters.

   The big difference between “Titan A.E.” and something like either “Star Wars” or even “Gradians of the Galaxy” is that the characters from those films had more of a universal appeal that can reach an audience beyond Science Fiction fans. The characters in “Titan A.E.”, while not awful, are still very one-note tropes you see all the time in Sci-Fi. You got the hero with a bad attitude, the surrogate father figure with a dark side, the brooding pilot who secretly has a heart of gold, the intelligent well-spoken first officer who’s secretly a villain, the clueless scientist, and the cranky weapons technician. In some respects, this film is responsible for introducing me to the concept of anti-hero’s in space, along the same lines as the crews from “Cowboy Bebop”, “Firefly” and the aforementioned “Gradians of the Galaxy”. Also, despite being a one-note crew, I can still coast on Don Bluth’s quality character animation, as well as a solid voice cast. We have Matt Damon during his early rising star status as our main lead Cale. Bill Pullman is in top form as Captain Korso, who becomes the figurative John Silver, betraying our main hero, but still has a soft spot for him. Nathan Lane is spot on as the deceptive first mate named Preed, and it’s a treat to finally have him play a straight forward villain, as opposed to his usual shtick as the ego driven protagonist. 

   I’ve personally never been a fan of John Leguizamo, but he displays a great range of vocal talent and charisma as the comedic relief named Gune. There are also some noteworthy vocal talents in some of the minor roles, including Janeane Garofalo, Tone Loc, Jim Cummings, and my absolute favorite being Ron Perlman as Cale’s father. Even in a minor role, Ron Perlman is one of those talents who can always leave an impression. At last we have Drew Barrymore as the rebellious pilot named Akima, who matches her tough-girl attitude with the passionate hope that things will one day get better. Needles to say, I think Drew Barrymore delivers the sharpest vocal performance. Of course, sense she’s the female lead she has to form a relationship with our hero, and while they don’t have much in terms of romantic chemistry, they do still work as a fun buddy pair with opposite personalities.
      

   The universe of “Titan A.E.” is a vast one, with the potential of further exploration, and it makes me wish the film could be a pinch longer, with more visits to unique alien worlds. There’s a great scene when our hero’s visit a planet populated by mysterious Bat-like creatures called the Gaoul, who are so elusive, that no-one even knows what they look like. Then we have our villains called the Drej, who make for awesome alien designs. If H. R. Giger designed the Stormtroopers, this is probably what they’d resemble. They also make for a unique race, as their made of pure energy, and they convey a sense of both excitement and menace whenever they’re on screen. Their leader, the Drej Queen is likewise another inspiring creature design, and despite not getting much screen time, she still makes for an exciting villain with a commanding presence. Granted, there’s regrettably little else to the Drej, other then cool looking villains, but they still make for unique creatures that genuinely feel as alien as they get.

   The action sequences make for some riveting eye candy, and fit right in with my love of laser gun shoot-outs, and space-ship chases. All the elements culminate together in a terrific, fast-paced speeder-boat chase on the Gaoul’s home world, in which hydrogen trees are used as explosives. There’s also just enough variety to the action, that each sequence can stand as its own separate highlight. 

Perhaps the best set-piece of all is a nail-biting cat and mouse game between two space ships in a large space field of floating icebergs, called the Ice Rings of Tegrin. In my opinion, this whole sequence is the greatest spaceship chase sense the original Asteroid chase from “The Empire Strikes Back”. It captures the slow-moving tension of a submarine hunt, laced with the absorbing eye candy of these giant shards of ice colliding into one another. Also, unlike asteroids, these ice shards have reflective surfaces, making it challenging for the characters to tell a real ship from reflection. Naturally, we get an explosive final battle between the Titan and the Drej mother ship, which balances its bombastic laser cannons with some white knuckled fist-fighting.  

   For as fast paced and action packed as the film gets, it still gives the movie time to just have moments that feel lived-in and real. There’s a great little scene in which Cale meets a family of human refuges who are playing soccer, and using a sports card to imagine themselves on a real grass field. It’s an important moment for Cale to see hope in the human race, as this poor family are using all they have to look past a ship full of rusted spaceship wholes. My favorite scene of the whole feature is when our main lead Cale gets the chance to pilot the ship through a massive gas cloud, all while getting the attention of these glowing blue mantaray creatures called “Wake Angels”. It’s a dazzling sequence, and it completes an arc in which the surrogate father allows him to finally take the wheel … something he’d been denying Cale the opportunity for ever sense the opening of the film. Of course, the scene could have been stronger if it was paired with an instrumental score, as opposed to the song called "It's My Turn to Fly", performed by The Urge. I actually like the song fine, but I also feel a scene of this sort could have benefited from something quieter, and more atmospheric.  

   On that note … lets talk about the soundtrack. I was somewhere between ten and eleven years old at the time I first saw this movie, and for a while, I loved the music in this film. They weren’t traditional song numbers, and sounded closer to the hard rock music the older kids were listening to. Needless to say, the majority of these songs … well, kind of suck. Most of it is that early 2000’s equivalent of “tame heavy metal” for young teens, but it’s not real heavy metal, and thus it has no appeal to either side. Just listen to Lit’s "Over My Head" to get an idea of the time and demographic this music is trying to appeal to. There are some select songs which I have some fondness reserved for, namely Texas "Like Lovers (Holding On)", and Electrasy “Cosmic Castaway”, but even those could be brushed off as dated products trying to appeal to a decade’s demographic. I have to admit, I genuinely love Bliss 66’s “Not Quiet Paradise”, as that song has stuck with me through the years. Also, Creed’s “Higher” was used in most of the marketing for the film, and while everyone seems to have the same feelings for Creed … I can’t help but have a soft-spot for that particular song, and it’s always tied into my nostalgia for this film.    
    

   Visually, the film is gorgeous, and the animation mostly holds up after nearly two decades. This was the age in which 3D animation was beating out traditional 2D artistry, and “Titan A.E.’s” ambitious visual design tried to find a happy merging of the two. The characters remain traditionally hand drawn, but they move and interact with 3D environments, with CGI creatures, vehicles, and digital outer-space elements. 

 Some of the shots have not aged well at all … namely the closing shot with two animated characters standing on a digital rock surface, but a good 85% of it still looks amazing. A part of me wishes this could have been the future of animated pictures, as it advanced the technology, while still keeping traditional 2D animation alive. Although, I will admit, it doesn’t look quite as perfect as the fully CGI animated features of today. The movies design of out-space itself is beautifully detailed, and it’s still one of my favorites in all of Sci-Fi cinema. There’s never a blank canvas, with little dots twinkling in the background … every shot of space is filled with colorful cloud formations, gaseous anomalies, detailed backdrops, vast nebulas, and it’s visually on par with the beauty and wonder of the photos taken by the Hubble Space Telescope. I took an Astronomy class in collage, and I distinctly remember this film was used as an example of how there’s so much more color in outer-space then what can be seen by simply looking up at the night sky.

   In the end, while I wouldn’t write “Titan A.E.” off as an underrated masterpiece, it still has a secure spot ranked among my personal favorite animated pictures … just for different reasons then most others. It’s a movie solely for fans of the Science Fiction genera, or long-time followers of Don Bluth’s animated pictures. Objectively viewing the film as an adult, I will admit that “Titan A.E.” is far from perfect, and the script can admittedly be a mess in spots … but even with that said, I still have a great deal of fondness for the film. 

It’s a movie that left an impression on my childhood, and it fits right in my wheel-house of laser shooting, Sci-Fi adventures through space. The stakes are high, the action is thrilling, the animation is stunning, and it’s still to this day one of my favorite outer-space designs I’ve ever seen on film. There’s nothing more to the movie then strait forward Sci-Fi tropes and eye-candy, but it’s done just well enough that it continues to leave me with a highly satisfying experience. The films universe is multilayered, yet perfectly contained in one movie, and it’s just a rare treat to get the thrill of exploring a vast universe without tying into a larger film franchise. To date, this was the last movie to be directed by Don Bluth, and in my own personal opinion … I think he went out on a high note. Granted, this isn’t a movie that comes to mind when I think of traditional Don Bluth, but it still carries his signature animation strengths, and it adds some variety to his filmography. I often use “Titan A.E.” as a counterpoint to the argument … “you only like it because it has "Star Wars" in the title”. Well, this movie doesn’t have “Star Wars” in the title, yet I personally still love it, and enjoy it just as much as any other “Star Wars” movie.

Thanks for reading my review of Fox’s 2000 animated Sci-Fi venture “Titan A.E.” … and continue to enjoy the movies you Love!