It’s time for an old sci-fi adventure! After all the year is pretty old by this point. It’s been almost 30 years and so now this could even be called retro. Fortunately I can say that it is retro in a good way. The animation holds up quite nicely and the battle scenes are on point. It’s a strong film all around with solid execution across each field. If you haven’t seen it yet, this is one film that you don’t want to miss.

The film starts off with an alien race called the Drej showing up and exterminating the humans. They blow up Earth and so now there are very few Earthlings left alive. One of these is a guy named Cale, whose father died tragically during the big attack. Cale is now going through a rebellious phase where he’s just rude to everybody and doesn’t care much about his species. Well, this all changes when he is targeted for elimination by the Drej and is saved by another human named Joseph. Joseph has some kind of plan to flip everything around but is Cale really ready to risk his life against tremendous odds? It’s not exactly a safe option here.

Well, to be fair Cale also isn’t given much of a choice. If he didn’t go with Joseph then he would die on the spot and once he’s on the ship it’s not like he can ask them to turn around. Fortunately for Cale, he is a tough guy so he takes this in stride. The film has a whole lot of banter going on the whole time as Cale is constantly taking shots. The thing is, he isn’t really able to back up all the tough talk as humans appear to be far weaker than virtually all of the other species. Defeating Cale appears to be an easy feat for pretty much everybody. I still like his spunk though. Cale plays a good role in why the film is solid.

His character type is one that you’ve seen before. He starts off as a total punk but gradually starts to believe in the mission and even gets heroic. It’s a journey that works pretty well here and that is always crucial for a film like this since a lot of it is built around the main hero. Additionally this means we get quite a bit of nice banter between several characters. One of whom is the main heroine Akima. She’s also rather tough and so she doesn’t back down. This means we get quite a bit of intense dialogue between the two of them. Yeah you can assume this will turn into a cliche romance later on but initially the banter is still fun.

The animation also really pops out at you. I really enjoyed the designs for the Drej. They look like really cool cybernetic fighters which adds to the horror factor. Since they are made out of energy, you also can’t hope to defeat them through normal means. In fact, there are very few ways to stop them at all so it’s clear why humanity lost. While the average Drej fighter feels fairly character-less, they still make for good obstacles.

Meanwhile the music is also really good. The soundtrack definitely has a solid 80s feel to it and a lot of times animated films tend to sound rather standard. This one decided to be different and absolutely succeeded. Each song works really well and they also helped you feel the grand scale of the movie. The universe is at stake after all so it should sound like that. It’s things like this that can really help a film succeed.

Of course the same is true for characters so lets get back to those. Akima is definitely a fun heroine and I appreciated that she was a tough fighter as well. Definitely someone who doesn’t give up easily and was quick on the uptake. I also appreciated Joseph. At times it feels like his character was rushed a little bit when things could have moved slower but he definitely had a massive role in the story. His scenes were all really solid and definitely served as a good contrast to Cale. This guy is a lot more driven for his ambitions, but to a rather dangerous degree.

There were also a few more passengers in the crew but these guys were way slower on the draw. You had the science creature who was a little too annoying at times. He never picked up on any hints and also could take too long to get to the point of where they had to go. He was busy messing around and being mean to Cale the whole time. Then you had the weapons expert and she talked tough but let her guar down when it counted and never looked as impressive as you would have expected. The right hand man was solid though. Now there is a character who was always alert and ready.

Throughout the film you also have a sense of danger that can be rare in these animated films. We’ve really got huge stakes with the universe in the balance and Earth itself was blown up early. It’s not like the villains are threatening to destroy Earth throughout the movie, in this case they already did it. It adds a little more credibility to the villains right away. They also have good aim and actually land hits on the characters early on so you can’t hit them with the Storm Trooper allegations. Yes, this film really did a lot of things that was ight and helped to make the film more fun. It even does have time for humor on occasion which worked well thanks to the film’s solid writing.

Overall, Titan A.E. is a pretty good film. I would definitely recommend it. I always enjoy a good sci-fi so this was always going to be trending in the right direction but then throw in the solid execution across the board and this was a winner. I’d definitely be up for a sequel some day. There is more you can tell with this story and the characters. It’s a charming title all the way through with good pacing and a fun atmosphere. So if you haven’t seen the film yet, you need to fix that as soon as possible.

Overall 7/10