The makers of Titan A.E. were aiming to make an animated movie that would appeal to kids over the age of six. On that basis, they succeeded.

While lacking a very original story, the movie does pack some impressive visuals and it takes us to some imaginative worlds -- something a lot of live action Sci-Fi movies have failed to do lately. Characters chase each other through a forest of exploding "hydrogen trees" on one planet; another sequence has spaceships playing cat and mouse in the mirrored "ice rings" of another world (it's almost an homage to the room-full-of-mirrors finale of Bruce Lee's Enter the Dragon). Essentially, there's enough here to interest hungry Space Opera fans until Lucas finally cranks out Episode II.

The story takes place 15 years after a race of truly wicked aliens destroy Earth (the titular "A.E." stands for "After Earth"). Our hero is a young man named Cale (who's voiced by Matt Damon and looks like him, too) who discovers he's the savior of the human race. What's so special about Cale is that his absentee father was able to harness the power of God (any similarities to the Christ allegory are, I'm sure, purely intentional) and bottle it inside a lost ship called the Titan. Cale must find the ship before the bad guys do. He's helped along by a Han Solo-type named Korso who calls him "kid" (he's voiced by Lone Star himself, Bill Pullman). There's also the comic relief alien crew member sidekicks (the voices of Nathan Lane, Janeane Garofalo, John Leguizamo) most of whom look like talking dogs who stand on two feet.

To appeal to kids, the filmmakers also slip in a pretty cool rock soundtrack. As a result, the movie pauses every now and then for what basically amounts to a music video. These are essentially scenes in which we watch a space craft fly around for no reason at all except that it looks cool -- and looks even cooler with an electric guitar in the background (kind of like staring at one of those spacey looking Roger Dean '70s rock album covers). The interludes aren't boring, and they help kill time in a movie that's paper thin on plot.

Bottom line: toss Star Wars, the Genesis Wave sequence from The Wrath of Khan and The Lion King in a blender -- this is what you get. Not bad, but leaves you feeling a little empty, nonetheless.

(c) Copyright 2000