WesternAnimation It's not bad
It's really bad. sorry for the fake-out but anyway.
This is our first animated film of 2013. Great start, eh? This film is basic. Not generic. Basic. It has one cliché after another with very little substance for kids or adults. Most of the celebrities are pointless choices, and only two bring anything to their roles. The character are either duill (Gary), annoying (Kip) or pointless (Gary’s wife). You never feel any connection with the brothers and scorch acts like an asshole until the end, and even then he doesn’t learn anything
The other aliens are boring, and annoying, and Jessica alba’s character is so poorly written that what happens to her feels like a cop-out. Sure, the villain can be okay at times and the story has some parts with him that I like, which makes it better than something like hoodwinked too. Only two jokes made me laugh, which tells you how dull the humor is. Pop culture gags and fart jokes galore!
The animation is solid at least,. But it looks generic for the most part. This movie had quite the troubled production, mostly with law suits, and changes to the script. I think it needed a few more. It has its moments, but overall, it’s cliché, basic, and bad. 3/10
WesternAnimation Better than it Seems
This film is like Planet 51 in that it does a Perspective Flip on the relationships between humans and extraterrestrials; here we get to see what it is like to be an alien imprisoned in Area 51. The story is mostly predictable- of course the smart brother is jealous that the dumber one gets all the attention, of course the dumb one gets caught, and of course the smart one comes to his rescue. However, as the saying goes, what matters are the details, and "Escape" offers a few good ones: the nerd brother has a family of his own (thus showing that he's not such a loser); the villain actually has a reason to hate aliens (though it doesn't excuse all his hatred) and there was a genuine surprise in that the heroes' boss was in cahoots with the human villain, and was almost as bad as him . The design of the aliens, the animation, and the voice acting are pretty good too.
However, make no mistake: this is a kid's film, all the way. Sure, it may have one or two gags aimed at older audiences, but it runs too much on Rule Of Fun (for example, all the aliens speak English, act like humans, can breathe our air, eat our food etc.) to be taken seriously. But as long as you don't mind that you can have a good time watching it.