Astro Boy

Voices of: Freddie Highmore, Nicolas Cage, Kristen Bell, Charlize Theron, Samuel L. Jackson, Bill Nighy, Donald Sutherland, Elle Fanning, Nathan Lane, Eugene Levy, Ryan Stiles
Directed by: David Bowers
Rating: PG
Genre: Animation, Action, Science Fiction
2009

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: Dr. Tenma (Nicholas Cage) creates an amazingly advanced robot in the image of his recently deceased son (Freddie Highmore), but soon has second thoughts. The robot looks, feels, and acts like his son, but is also not entirely human. "Astro" as he is soon called leaves home, befriends a group of wasteland humans living on the surface of the planet, and searches for acceptance. However, when a new robotic threat emerges, Astro soon realizes his destiny.

Review:

Tim: For some reason, I was pretty excited about seeing this movie. I was mostly unfamiliar with Astro Boy, although I understood that the character has has a long and mostly beloved history. It was pretty exciting to see him finallly emerge on the big screen, and the movie looked like an entertaining action science fiction flick. However, I was only cautiously optimistic, because if you are not Pixar, it has been a struggle to create great animated movies lately.

Astro Boy does do a number of things correctly. The movie does have a bit of an epic feel to it, and oftentimes is fairly impressive to look at. However, the movie has a number of flaws as well. I thought the voice cast was good, but not stellar. The story was a bit convoluted. The characters were somewhat forgettable. In the best Pixar movies, the characters are unforgettable. Who would ever be able to forget Woody, Buzz, Wall-E, Lightning McQueen, or the others? Here, the characters were not quite as memorable.

This movie started out stronger than it finished. I was legitimately interested in seeing the origin story of Astro Boy. I was also intrigued by the world of Metro City, and of learning of the characters. However, once this was all established, the movie then gets predictable and redundant. I lost interest in the movie around the two-thirds mark. It just felt like so many other movies we've seen before. I didn't think there was enough new or exciting here to make this movie stand apart. It just felt like any other movie.

The voice cast was fine. I thought Freddie Highmore did a decent job as Astro Boy. I wouldn't say he'd be my first choice, but he was fine. Nicholas Cage has never struck me as a good person to do voice acting, but I suppose I didn't have any problems with him. Kristen Bell and Eugene Levy were decent. I did like Donald Sutherland's unique, strong voice as the President. Charlize Theron was actually excellent in being the narrator at the beginning of the film. I thought she was an excellent choice. Nathan Lane was likewise a very good choice, as he always does great voice work. I liked Samuel L. Jackson, although he didn't have too much to say. As a whole, the cast featured some interesting choices (I feel like star power trumped talent in some cases).

I was disappointed with Astro Boy because it simply didn't stand out enough- it wasn't particularly memorable or powerful in the least. I like the character and the idea, and I wish this movie would have really worked, because there could have been endless sequels and this could have been an impressive, enduring franchise. However, with this lackluster origin film, I'd only shrug at the prospect of more movies. I probably liked this movie a bit more than I should, but I still desperately wish this movie had been better.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating: 6.5



If You Enjoyed This Movie, We Recommend: The Iron Giant, Wall-E