Michael English
I watched Planet 51 because I thought that, with a 3.9 review score, it might be a worthwhile diversion even without being an A-list movie. How utterly, utterly wrong I was. Despite good animation and an excellently-built world, the movie fails because it is boring. REALLY, REALLY boring. Whole scenes exist to convey single plot points and one-note jokes. Characters are reduced to their most cursory stereotype. One scene rehashes another scene. And whenever something interesting happens, it happens again. And again. To the point of obnoxiousness. If you've seen the dog that parodies Giger's Alien, you have seen pretty much everything cool or worthwhile about the film. Beyond that, you will be wasting your time.