Starring the voices of Rob Corddry, Brendan Fraser, Sarah Jessica Parker, William Shatner, Jessica Alba, Jane Lynch, Jonathan Morgan Heit, Craig Robinson, George Lopez, Ricky Gervais, Steve Zahn and Chris Parnell.Directed by Cal Brunker.
★★
The animation is no eyesore, but it is also a modest movie. It's not in the realm of anything cranked out by Disney/Pixar, DreamWorks or BlueSky, nor is it as bad as the Hoodwinked movies. It's a decent time-killer in its own right if your tickets are free.
It's the story of two brothers, Gary and Scorch, aliens who go on intergalactic missions. Scorch is the brawn, the chiseled-chin hero who gets all the glory. Gary is mission control, the brains back at base who always has to bail his brother out of his predicaments. Their sibling rivalry happens to be in a bad place when Scorch gets the call to save an alien from "the Dark Planet" aka Earth. No alien has ever come back from Earth alive. Scorch goes alone, convinced he doesn't need Gary's help.
One reason no alien comes back alive is because they all keep landing right next to Area 51. (Seriously, how come they never try to land in Australia or Brazil?) Area 51, in our story, is run by a maniacal general who kidnaps aliens and uses them for slave labor. When Scorch's signal winks out, Gary decides it's up to him to save his brother.
The themes are familiar and the humor is mostly for little kids. There's a running gag where a janitor keeps stepping on his mop so it flips up and whacks him in the face. It reminded me of Planet 51 more than any other film.
