An absolutely phenomenal movie. A breath-taking, story so epic that it’s been told many times before – but never this well. It’s the epic-sized version of Up! The obvious story comparisons are Pocahontas (colors of the wind and savages) and Dances With Wolves (haven’t seen it, I’ve just read the Wikipedia summation), but the futuristic angle does a lot more by showing history repeating itself and demonstrating the evils of man. Made me think of Watchmen with it’s hunt for a new energy source. But it’s really about not letting anything stand in the way – doesn’t matter if it’s sentient, just cast it as a backwards savage and middle-class America will swallow it like syrup(presuming America took over the Earth and that’s went on from there – we’re here in the name of Earth, not in the name of America).

Yay Stephen Lang! I’ve loved him since he told Martin Sheen that he has no division (General Pickett in Ron Maxwell’s equally epic Gettysburg) and he is phenomenal here as the toughest, bad-assest Marine commander ever.

Sam Worthington (from the Terminator movie I never saw), Zoë Saldana (Pirates of the Caribbean 1, Center Stage, etc), Sigourney Weaver, Giovanni Ribisi – everybody does a fantastic job here.