Planet 51 (2009)

Despite a full crop of Spanish creators, the CGI animated flick “Planet 51” is a very American spoof on the 1950s genre of space invasion flicks. The coin is flipped though: The invader is a NASA astronaut, and the victim planet an orb full of green creatures who live similar to the U.S. of A.’s population circa 1959. Dwayne Johnson voices Chuck Baker, the visitor who speaks in hyper sci-fi/jock/hero clichés as he tries to steal back his spaceship. Justin Long is the greenie who helps him, with Gary Oldman as the typical Army general with gun powder for brains. The movie is harmless fun and cute, but every gag is lifted from better sci-fi flicks. Disney could sue over the robot here that blatantly rip-offs WALL-E, melded with Eve. Speaking of that Pixar gem, “51” is as redundant as “WALL-E” is stirring. Good work by Johnson. C+