trailer break: ‘Planet 51’

Take a break from work: watch a trailer…


I love the idea of the humans as the aliens — nice about face of the usual. Of course, the aliens aren’t really alien; culturally, they’re not alien at all. But we can expect but baby steps in the evolution of big-budget cinematic science fiction.

This could be the ultimate in colorblind casting: Dwayne Johnson is supplying the voice of the square-jawed Nordic blond astronaut. I’m not sure why the astronaut couldn’t have been square-jawed, dark-haired, and Polynesian, like Johnson, but I guess that wouldn’t have been quite as effective as the stereotype of the Right Stuff jock flyboy.

Planet 51 opens in the U.S. on November 20, and in the U.K. on December 4.

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marshall
marshall
Thu, Oct 29, 2009 3:46pm

Baby steps in the right direction is better than baby steps backwards – but in the end it remains to be seen how the movie plays out as a whole before saying whether this is the case or not.

Kenny
Kenny
Thu, Oct 29, 2009 9:17pm

Culturally identical apart from the lack of trousers you mean….

MaSch
MaSch
Fri, Oct 30, 2009 2:59am

Sorry, kenny, I don’t quite get what you’re …

WAIT a second: You mean I’m being looked at as weird for not wearing trousers? That eplains about everything about my life so far …

Kenny
Kenny
Fri, Oct 30, 2009 9:08pm

Well I’m from Scotland.. so I’m kinda with the aliens on frowning on the trews as it were…

Tonio Kruger
Fri, Oct 30, 2009 11:47pm

I love the idea of the humans as the aliens — nice about face of the usual.

And it’s not like there were ever, say, an episode of The Twilight Zone devoted to that premise…

MaryAnn
MaryAnn
Tue, Nov 17, 2009 8:06am

Sure, *real* SF has deal with that notion before. Blockbuster movies aimed at people who don’t read and don’t watch black-and-white TV? Not so much.

The lack of trousers in the film is bizarre, especically considering that the women wear skirts. They also have feet shaped like high heels, which is really strange.