And welcome back with part two of this Final Fantasy-esque review so let's get started.
We open in space where an alien vessel explodes at the orbit of a sap planet Astria, after the explosion most of the ship crash landed on the planet surface. The survivors of the vessel (the Vecarians) are killed off by furious sap-beings (the Selenites). As the opening credits continue we see a tree starting to grow, as the opening credit ends we cut to 600 years later where humans are living in a great tree (Axis). Axis is so massive it extends up as far as the clouds. Here we're introduced to Kaena (voiced by Kristen Dunst) whom as long as she remembers has been having dreams about a "blue sun" at the base of Axis. She and her people spend their lives collecting sap as tribute to their gods to protect however, the sap has now be a bit scarce to collect. Kaena is sitting by herself taking in to the beautiful sight of Sharkens (flying creatures) flying amongst the clouds. Until she's attack by one of the Sharkens and runs away. She continues to get away from the Sharken until she's trapped in small crevice; she bumps into a sharp metal object that seems to resemble a knife. As she tries to dig the knife out, the Sharken uses its tongue to pull her out of the crevice. She manages to get the knife out and cuts free from the tongue and the Sharken flies away. Later we cut to Kaena visiting Ilpo (voiced by Dwight Schultz) who is rather a little crazy due to visiting the "Great Oblivion". Ilpo notices the knife Kaena now owns and starts talking about being attack by a giant creature (the Marauder) and was falling but saved by a worm creature. He then tells her about seeing a man but wasn't a man and then saying something about "above is below, below is above". Kaena hears the summoning horn and heads to the village temple for the sap offering. At the temple the sap is being lifted upward to the "well of the gods" but then a quake happens. The people believe that their gods are angry but the grand-priest (voiced by Gary Martin) tells them that the gods are testing their faith and convinced them to place their lives in the hands of the gods by not moving. This idea will come back to bite them in the ass later. So the people do what he said and not move however, the Grand-Priest plays the chicken-shit hypocrite card by MOVING when a falling rubble is about to crush him. After the quake is over everyone believes that the gods save him, except for Kaena who saw him moved. Kaena confronts him arguing how her parents moved but he deems them as impure. And that their so called gods didn't save her parents when they died. The Grand-Priest tries to talk Kaena down from her blasphemy against the gods but she refuses to listen as she shows the knife she found. Grand-Priest fearing that she's provoking the gods tries to take the knife away but accidentally cuts himself as it slips from his hands. Assuming that Kaena was trying to kill him the Grand-Priest believes that she has become a danger to her people. Kaena runs out of the temple as the Grand-Priest summons the villagers to catch her but she's already made it out of the village. We cut to nightfall and Kaena is found by her friend Zehos (voiced by Tom Kenny) he believes she didn't try to kill the Grand-Priest and tries to convince her to return to village. But she refuses because she believes there's another world at the base of Axis and sets out to find it. Back at the temple the Grand-Priest is approached by one of their gods Voxem (voiced by Keith David) which turns to be one of the Selenites from the start of the film. Voxem is not all pleased with the harvest and tells the Grand-Priest to focus on the next harvest and to forget about Kaena.
A little bit later the Grand-Priest summons the villagers to harvest more sap for the gods. As that goes on the films pads out by cutting to Kaena and Zehos traveling downward of Axis. Later the harvested sap is lifted up to well of the gods as we transition from the village to some kind of Selenite lair where see a Selenite Queen (voiced by Anjelica Huston). She desperately demands more sap but Voxem replies that there may be no more with the sap drying out and the villagers can't any more. Voxem tries to persuade the Selenite Queen to consider the "fusion" but she refuses as long as this "monster" continues to steal their sap. The monster she referring to is this great spherical device that came from the Vecarian vessel 600 years ago. Apparently for the past six centuries this device has been drying Astria of its sap starving the Selenites in the process as they try to kill it. When the Axis-Dwellers appeared they've using them as slaves to harvest sap for them to survive hence the Axis-Dwellers worships the Selenites as gods. Kaena and Zehos reached an area of Axis where beyond the clouds lies the Great Oblivion, Zehos decides to return to the village while Kaena continues on. As Kaena continues downward to the Great Oblivion, she's being stalked by a Marauder which is being controlled by Voxem. He commands the Marauder to kill Kaena and the Marauder obeys. Kaena hears the Marauder and runs away as it gives chase. She then ends up running off a ledge and falls on to a branch and goes unconscious. Suddenly a worm creature in a suit of armor swoops in and carries her to safety from the Marauder. Seeing from the point of view of the Marauder, Voxem deduce that there may be a Vecarian survivor. We cut to what we can tell is an infirmary room where Kaena is being patch up by the Vecarian survivor Opaz (voiced by Richard Harris) and his worm creatures. One of the worms Gommi (voiced by Greg Proops) protest in saving Kaena but Opaz believes that she maybe special in some way. Another worm Assad (voiced by Michael McShane) tells Opaz that Kaena is different from the other village and may have spoken about a device called Vecanoi. Gommi continues to be skeptical about the whole thing until Kaena awakens and panics at the sight of her saviors. Not familiar with her new surroundings, Kaena stumble around some of the areas of a makeshift vessel built together from parts of the destroyed Vecarian ship. She reaches outside of the vessel and ends up at the top of Axis which it's in orbit of Astria and a neighboring planet Talless. That's a pretty big tree. Later Opaz explains to Kaena how he came to Axis after the Vecarian ship exploded. He was a baby place in suspended animation when the ship was destroyed and landed safely at the top of Axis. Kaena realizes that she's been climbing up the roots of Axis instead of down and that the blue sun must be at the bottom of Axis. Opaz asks her about this blue sun and she shows her a draw of it which coincidently looks similar to Selenite Queen's "monster". Opaz immediately recognize it as Vecanoi, some kind of device that contains all of the knowledge of the Vecarians. Back at the Selenite Lair the Selenite Queen makes another attempt to destroy Vecanoi, she attacks with Sindel scream but once again has no effect on Vecanoi. However, it does cause Vecanoi to suffer as it cause a quake back at Kaena's village. Kaena senses Vecanoi being attack by an evil force as if she's somehow connected to Vecanoi. Back at the village the quake starts and everyone start panicking. Oh sorry by panicking I mean staying still waiting to be crush because the Grand-Priest told to put their lives in the hands of their false gods. Kaena tells Opaz what she sensed and has a feeling that Vecanoi and Axis are linked. She then decides to return to the village to help her people, Opaz joins her and for the two to find Vecanoi.
Cut to nightfall with the Axis village destroyed and most of the people are either injured or killed. Zehos spots the Grand-Priest entering the ruined temple and proceeds to follow him. He listens in on the Grand-Priest as he prays for the gods for help but gets no response. A villager enters the temple and asked him what the gods said to him. The Grand-Priest decides to lie and tells him that the gods have offered the people sanctuary among them and for everyone to leave the village by morning. Zehos still listening is shocked that the Grand-Priest lied. We cut to Kaena, Opaz, Gommi, and Assad gearing up and head straight to the village while the remaining worms make preparations for the ship to liftoff. Back at the village the people set out to join the gods but not Zehos as he stops his little brother Essy (voiced by Tara Strong) from joining them and instead find Kaena. The two are stopped by the Grand-Priest but Zehos tells Essy to run away as he is apprehended. Kaena and the others are halfway to the village when suddenly they're attacked by the Marauder. Remembering what Ilpo said when he encountered the Marauder, Kaena tells Opaz and the others not to move. Apparently the Marauder has the visual acuteness of the T-Rex from Jurassic Park meaning it won't see them if they don't move. But Gommi being a dumbass tries to leave with Opaz but is knocked down by the Marauder. Voxem commands it to capture Opaz but is stopped by Kaena as she cuts the Marauder's antenna which actually hurts it. Marauder chases after her until eventually it's about to kill her. Kaena makes a maneuver and cuts the antenna off completely causing the Marauder's vision to become disoriented. Thrashing wildly at Kaena, the Marauder eventually falls off a cliff plummeting to its death. A little bit later Kaena and the others make it to the village completely abandon except for Ilpo and Essy. Ilpo informs Kaena that everyone has gone up to the well of the gods. Kaena, Opaz, and Gommi continue on to save the villagers while Assad is ordered to stay behind and watch over Ilpo and Essy. At the Selenite Lair Voxem convinces the female Selenites to join him against the Selenite Queen in order to preserve their race. As it’s been made apparent that the Selenite Queen has been sacrificing her own people making her stronger in order to destroy Vecanoi. Kaena and the others make it to the bottom of Axis and continue on. Opaz comes clean to Kaena with his plan to remove Vecanoi, confessing that Vecanoi and Axis are not just connected but they’re the same. Revealing that Vecanoi created Axis and if Vecanoi is remove then Axis will die. Kaena refuses let her people and her world to die so she leaves Opaz and Gommi to rescue her people. Kaena arrives at the entrance to the Selenite Lair but is soon captured and imprisoned with her people. Soon after Kaena and her people are rescued gommi and everyone escapes back to the village while Kaena heads straight to Vecanoi to protect Opaz. We cut to Opaz attempting to make contact with Vecanoi but it doesn’t respond, he’s then attacked by the Selenite Queen. She demands him to kill Vecanoi but Opaz replies that Vecanoi won’t respond to him so with that she kills him. This gives Voxem and the female Selenites to fuse with the Queen, impregnating her with new Selenite offsprings. Kaena soon arrives to Vecanoi and finds Opaz dead when suddenly Vecanoi response to her presents. The Selenite Queen reappears about to give birth as Kaena attacks her. Her attacks are no good and is knocked out; Vecanoi makes contact to Kaena and connects to her. The Selenite Queen continues attacking Vecanoi but is eventually consumed by the offspring womb and dies. And I’m assuming the offsprings died as well…again assuming. Zehos and Gommi show up to attend to Kaena and Opaz. We cut to from what I can describe is Kaena mentally inside Vecanoi, she hears Opaz’s voice telling that his people are no more. He was the last of his kind while the others died 600 years ago. With only Vecanoi that survived it created a new reservoir of life, Axis so that humans can exist. Vecanoi created the people of Axis but more importantly it created Kaena. Vecanoi chose her to carry on the memory of the Vecarians, chosen to lead her people. Vecanoi disconnects from Kaena and starts a reaction that triggers Axis to grow, the very top of Axis reaches to Tallees. Kaena, Zehos, and Gommi got out of the Selenite Lair and make it back to the village. The film ends with Kaena guiding her people to a new world to begin again, to begin a better life. Free to learn, free to think for themselves.
My Final Verdict: This film has that Hero’s Journey theme going on at least that’s what I think anyway. You have Kaena who is not too thrilled with this life of harvesting and has this feeling that there’s something out there beyond Axis. This curiosity somewhat guides her to an adventure of discovering something bigger than what she realized. And when that adventure is over she now has developed a completely new perspective, a higher sense of strength and heart, and new friends that helped her along the way. Now I’m not going way too deep into this but for those out there who watches this film may understand of what I’m saying. The animation is rather decent despite a few flaws but not exactly a big of a deal. The story feels somewhat natural as it progresses throughout the film. The character interaction is pretty good they feel like they belong in the story. Overall it’s an enjoyable film. This was Richard Harris’s last film before he passed away back in 2002. You may remember him as the original actor who portrayed Professor Dumbledore from the first two Harry Potter films.
Well I’ve seem to be done here so stay tuned next time as we dive into Push.
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