Set in futuristic Metro City, Astro Boy is about a young robot with incredible powers created by a brilliant scientist in the image of the son he has lost. Unable to fulfill the grieving man's expectations, our hero embarks on a journey in search of acceptance, experiencing betrayal and a netherworld of robot gladiators, before he returns to save Metro City and reconcile with the father who had rejected him. When a scientist's young son dies, he secretly creates a powerful robot child to replace him, however the robot uses it's incredible powers to become a world famous super-hero, and faces his biggest challenge when an alien race threatens Earth… I never read or watched the original Astro Boy but I hope its better than this astrological unlikeable and generic CGI movie. Overall, the movie felt forced: so much happens in this hour and a half movie that there is no time to develop anything or even the hundreds of moral themes the movie throws at the audience (law of robotics, being human, finding where you belong).<br/><br/>Oddly enough, the movie has a weird good guy/bad guy bipolar disorder where characters turn from being a good guy to a bad guy back to a good guy in a matter of minutes. Case in point: the second act builds heavily on Ham Egg being portrayed as a replacement fatherly figure and an all around good guy but all of a sudden, he turns on Astro Boy with no justification since his introduction. <br/><br/>Animation wise, I thought the movie had no real distinct style and it felt like I was watching Robots but I found it odd that character design of Astro Boy looked completely different from all the other characters. He still had the anime look with big eyes yet the other characters looked like generic cgi characters. <br/><br/>It's a shame because I wanted this movie to be better. In the end, Astro Boy is completely forgettable. Truth be told I'm not too acquainted with Astro Boy, other than reading up here and there, and seeing how popular he is in Kyoto that his stature appears almost everywhere near the main JR Station. Which of course the film has suited me fine, approaching it without baggage to watch an origin story right down to how Astro Boy loses his shirt for that naked upper body iconic look.<br/><br/>Star scientist Tenma (Nicholas Cage) of Metro City spends an enormous time on his job, neglecting his extremely bright son Toby (Freddie Highmore). A lab accident spells the death of the boy, and in grief, Taman creates a cloned robot of his son, and hey presto, Astro Boy is conceived, as Tenma puts into this robot a whole slew of self-defense weapons from his butt machine guns (no kidding!) to the iconic boots rocket boosters, because of a guilt- reflex that he had let down his son, and have left him exposed without being there to protect him properly.<br/><br/>There are enough of the usual themes here in this 94 minute movie which makes it pretty accessible, such as life, death, destiny and the yearning for friendship and acceptance, of who you are, and for others to see beyond oneself with prejudiced notions, which for Astro Boy's case, the misconception of a robot without heart nor emotion. Powered by some blue- energized meteor, it's like a tale of renewable energy sources that spells the future of mankind's effort in maintaining a paradise that is Metro City, though the by-product waste in red-energy is fairly unstable, and makes for a good source of power for the evil President Stone (Donald Sutherland) and his warmongering robot ironically called The Peacekeeper, in a kooky plan for re-election. and war.<br/><br/>Narratively, this film was safely stuck in "safe" mode throughout, and there were some shades of other super-powered films that can be seen here, such as an ending mimicking Pixar's The Incredibles, or inspired by Bryan Singer's Superman Returns in that Atlas lift of a troubled, enormous piece of land, and what every self-respecting origin super-hero movie will have, a montage or set action sequence of the initial discovery of powers, which allowed for Astro Boy to show off in some ways, his uncanny abilities, some of which though you'll have to wait until the final battle for it to be discovered, and exploited.<br/><br/>Needless to say, in between the set action sequences, the film sagged a little in the middle act as it tried its very best to humanize this robotic boy, and the introduction of a myriad of human children and robotic characters, in it to interact with our titular hero, with the latter inserted nothing more than for some cheap laughter, like requisite jesters. But when the action scenes are very well made, engaging and entertaining, that all is forgiven when you see Astro Boy in full flight and fight, with the finale battle something of an adrenaline rush.<br/><br/>The animators at Imagi Studios did a great job in delivering this film to expectations, graphic wise, and amongst all the robots, I preferred The Peacemaker best amongst all the mechanical creations, given his ability for fusion which allows for one really awesome looking make of a robot to grace on screen looking good as well as possessing enough opposing power to Astro Boy. An A-list voice cast also helped, with actors such as Nathan Lane, Eugene Levy, Bill Nighy, Samuel L. Jackson, Charlize Theron and Kristen Bell all chipping in.<br/><br/>I would have preferred to see this in 3D, but tough luck as we won't have that version playing here in the cinemas. What a sight that would be, just to watch Astro Boy in full 3D glory, but even when without that gimmick, this film turned out to beat my expectations, and this boy really soars. It's zippy, and the movie version has both a computerized sheen and handcrafted detailing. Because the details are cribbed from classics, parents can enjoy this 'toon as much as their kids.
Heawaima replied
295 weeks ago