'Battle for Terra'

The Orlando Sentinel (MCT) - "Battle for Terra" is a 3D oddity that's a war movie grafted onto an anti-war message. Naive but ambitious, it comes across as a "Battlestar Galactica" vetted by pacifists, "Clone Wars" neutered for Saturday morning kids' TV.

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Earth and its colonies have been destroyed by the polluting, feuding, resource-looting human race, whose survivors are now confined to a vast, clockwork space ark that is breaking down and running out of supplies. The humans scout a planet that might be suitable for "terra-forming" _ having its atmosphere adjusted to let humanity breathe. But once they do that, the ancient, peaceful and seemingly primitive civilization of flying mermaids who live there will die. Their flying whales and even the gigantic mushrooms they live in will croak, too.

A "Terran" is seized on a scouting mission by the humans. An Earth Force warrior scout (Luke Wilson) crashes and is left behind. Will Mala (Evan Rachel Wood), the daughter of the kidnapped Terran, save the human and free her dad? Can the "us or them" humans be reasoned with?

Gen. Hammer (Brian Cox, well cast) is determined to shoot first and maybe build a nice memorial to the people destroyed later. The Terran leader (James Garner) is more an aged hippy _ "Love and mercy can triumph over hate and violence."

The grown-up themes in the film suggest Japanese anime, with death, sacrifice and suicide touched on in its 80-plus minutes. On the other side, there's the cutesy "helper" robot who serves as intermediary between the races. There's little that's subtle here. Messages are delivered with a capital "M."

The production team tries to have its peace and blow it up, too. For "gentle" people, the blandly written _ a "Pooh's Heffalump" screenwriter _ and blandly animated Terrans have soldiers and weapons aplenty. The third act is one epic dogfight.

The 3D adds little to this animation, which bears more than a passing resemblance to the computer-animated "Delgo" of last year. Visually, "Terra" is only as good as its "Star Wars" tribute battle.

But in making animation that isn't dark enough for older fans and is too message-centric for kids, Team "Terra" has created a film that will probably satisfy no one.

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BATTLE FOR TERRA

2 stars (out of 5)

Cast: The voices of Evan Rachel Wood, Luke Wilson, Brian Cox, James Garner, Danny Glover

Director: Aristomenis Tsirbas

Running time: 1 hour, 25 minutes

Industry rating: PG for sequences of sci-fi action violence and some thematic elements

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© 2009, The Orlando Sentinel (Fla.).