Robots --- urgently need some greasing

© 20th Century Fox

Title:
Robots (B)
Actors:
Ewan Mcgregor, Halle Berry, Greg Kinnear, Robbie Williams, Amanda Bynes, Mel Brooks, Jennifer Coolidge, Drew Carey
Director:
Chris Wedge
Story and Screenplay:
Ron Mita et al.
Music:
John Powell
Producer:
Jerry Davis et al.
Studio:
20th Century Fox


© 20th Century Fox

“why be you if you can be new???”

It’s easy to say but tough to pull of. Much like this movie, the attempt to be cool was there but just not enough oil to push through.

The story is nothing new. It’s your typical Cinderella story, only this time, the shoes ain’t glass, it’s metal. Rodney (Mcgregor) is a robot from a poor robot family who grows up via hand-me-downs and spare parts of their relatives. If raising a child these days is that easy, I think there’ll be no adult walking today. Why would you want a kid to grow up if in fact you can maintain their cuddliness and no attitude behavior? Good thing, Rodney is not like that, largely because his (or it) parents raise but does not grease him well and because of his icon --- Big Weld (Brooks). He wants to be an inventor like him and when he finally had the chance to meet him, he was caught in a sudden robot revolution--- a thing that most robot fear of --- UPGRADES!!! Now I dunno what’s wrong with getting shinier and better but somehow they find it wrong. They say they can’t afford it which kinda makes sense cuz we actually dunno how they earn a living out there. Now it’s up to Rodney and his new found friend including Robbie Williams’ hilarious character and Cappy (Berry) to stop the evil upgrader Ratchet (Kinnear).


© 20th Century Fox

I didn’t have high hopes for this movie after the relatively low ticket sales in the US. Not that $37 M is not a strong debut, but it is for an animated movie. Probably because of the A-list but with poor box office appeal stars of the movie (e.g. Halle Berry). But I have to be honest, it was a little better than I thought.

In case you don’t know, this movie is set on a world where everything that exist are made of metals. There are no humans or sign of real life in this movie, which I highly identify as the movie’s flaw. The idea of Robots living on their own without human supervision is plain absurd and uninteresting. Unlike Monsters Inc., this movie tried to shy away from beings without fully establishing the world they made. All they did was present allegories of human behavior that is somewhat amusing, but overall makes no clear sense.

For example, they make new robots by of course; building new ones, but how did the other robots existed? How come they can talk? How come they don’t seem to run out of batteries, if in fact they are run by energy? This movie tried so much to be a heartwarming fuzzy feel movie when well in fact it is simply a slapstick flick of pure style and no substance. During the final minutes of the movie, it stuck with being like that. And it was so much better!


© 20th Century Fox

The movie needed not to attempt to be smart. They were armed with good jokes, funny impersonations and a talented group of voice actors. However, somebody wants to be Brad Bird but ain’t incredible enough to be one. The complete first hour of the movie was really boring and predictable except for some nice cracked jokes. The last 30 minutes though was good cuz despite the predictability and cheesiness it started to become what it was meant to become. A funny animated movie not to be taken seriously. If they simply made fun of themselves form the beginning off to the final frame, then it won’t be as crappy.

The visuals of this movie are really quite impressive. It was very vivid which helped the fast-paced element of it. If this movie was done any slower, I would have slept by the first 1/3 of it. The editing though has some hitches.


© 20th Century Fox

Ewan Mcgregor was as dull as his character. Halle Berry was as inconspicuous as her supposed movie career and her slightly exposed character. Bynes’ character made more mark than these two and especially Robbie. The character can’t possibly be as foolish as him. Kinnear did fine but I would have like somebody else to play it. I dunno who, I’m not obliged to name names.

If you’re looking for a movie to bring your kids to before that day when you can’t go out or take a bath or swim because somebody is dead. Or that day when your wounds wont heal because he’s not around. Then, watch this flick. It’s a good waste of your minutes. However be equipped to perform much needed tweaking and greasing.

Criteria for judging:
Story – 12%
Screenplay – 15%
Direction / Execution – 16%
Acting – 18%
Technical Aspect – 19%
Total: 80% = B