Thursday, January 6, 2011

ATLANTIS-THE LOST EMPIRE

Atlantis - The Lost Empire
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Starring: Michael J. Fox, James Garner


Director: Gary Trousdale

Rated: PG

RunTime: 88 Minutes

Release Date: June 2001

Genres: Animation, Kids, Sci-Fi/Fantasy

The opening scene portrays the downfall of Atlantis. A massive tsunami  is descending upon the mythical city of Atlantis and everyone is running out of control trying to save their lives as the city empire's boundaries are sealed off by mysterious energy shields protected by the Guardians of Atlantis. In the middle of the turmoil, the Atlantean Queen is summoned by the gods to depart from earth to the sky and this happens under helplessness eye witnesses; among them, Kida the Queen's daughter herself. Atlantis city is doomed forever. Submerged by waves, it's remaining people start a new life under water.

IN THE MEAN TIME IN WASHINGTON

Milo Thatcher a young and handsome linguist and cartographer, works in the local university. Milo is full of ambition and obssessed with the legend of the lost city of Atlantis. He aspires to follow in his late grandfather Thaddeus Thatch's footsteps to discover the said lost city of Atlantis. He gains possession of a sacred book-apparently a mistranslation of a lost ancient manuscript, the "Shephard's Journal", that places Atlantis near Ireland. He believes this book will guide him to the mythical city of Atlantis but when he shares his discovery and intention with the university board, they refuse to believe him and his request for an expedition falls on deaf ears.

Fortunately for Milo, news of the copy of the sacred book found by him has reached the rich Preston B. Whitmore (John Mahoney) a friend of his grandfather. Mr Whitmore holds the original shepherd journal given to him by Milo's granfdfather Thaddeus. Whitmore has already set in place a team of researchers and high-technological equipment for the expedition and as he believes that Milo has the final clue, he therefore offers him to join them which Milo accepts with happiness.

The team sets out for the expedition on a high-technological submarine. Milo is teased by the senior mission crew, led by Commander Lyle Rourke (James Garner) and his second-in-command Helga Sinclair (Claudia Christian), but slowly is accepted by them. On their way, the submarine encounters dangerous attacks by a giant mechanical leviathan. Most of the crews die leaving only a handful of survivors to carry on. Hope is not completely lost and the survivors discover an open-air cavernous route which leads them to the city Atlantis. There is another twist when they fall into a well of dormant volcano, they find themselves into a giant underground opening with Atlantis in the centre. Everyone is speechless when they meet the Atlanteans who can also speak english. Kida immediately befriends Milo when she discovers that he can interprete ancient Atlanteans writings, she seizes the opportunity to use his skills and takes him to several murals to translate. The crew is then brought in front of Kida's father, King Kashekim Nedakh (Leaonard Lemoy) who requests that they leave but Rourke the Commander proposes that they stay for at least one night. The request is approved and the crew is free to do so.

Kida and Milo like each other a lot and she relates to him the story of her mother and how she was summoned thousands of years ago by the gods-The-Heart of Atlantis-to protect the city from the tsunami.

During the mission something unexpected occurs. Little does Milo know that Rourke has changed his intention. He now plans to capture" The Heart of Atlantis" by force. He uses brutally and urges King to tell him the location of the sacred Heart but things are easily said that done, once there he is unable to capture the object. He is paralysed and can only witness Kida who is naturally caught up in the Heart of Atlantis surrounded by the stone faces of past Atlantean kings and infuses itself in her thus disabling power to the city. She remains for a while up in the air before being pulled down to ground. Once on teh ground, she is immediately captured by Rourke and his men who place Kida in a container to bring her to the surface. But Milo and his friends soon realise that this is killing the Atlanteans, they fight Rourke and try to save Kida. He uses the energy from the crystal to power some fliyng vehicles and manages to rescue Kida and stop Rourke. In the meantime a volcano erupts and is about to consume the city. But Kida is saved on time and she rejoins the Heart which is activated to release energy and create a shields against the eruption. The city is saved and Milo who has now fallen in love wit Kida, decides to remain in the city and they became the King and Queen of Atlantis.

It's a lovely story. Is it a love story with an expedition to find a lost city as background or are there real lost cities under water? We don't know. If yes will they submerged one day. Whatever? Atlantis - The Lost Empire- is a passionate movie with a mixture of love story, ambition, curiosity and expedition involved. Besides it is educational and incites curiosity. It's also about the courage and passion who drive people to their fate.  Milo is obssessed by Atlantis. It's passion beyond measure ingrained in him.

Recommanded movies for all ages.

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