Father Geek here, well, I took KublaKlan (my 4 1/2 year old grandson) to see ROBOTS yesterday... Colorful and very fast paced, the funniest thing was the "Ice Age" short beforehand, the film was ultimately as hollow as most of its character's heads. Buuuuuut what ol' Father Geek thinks is unimportant... what did Kubla think?
Well, he sat transfixed from the start thru the kinetic, madcap arrival in Robot Town, thennnnnn... he totally lost ALL interest until... the kinetic, madcap final battle. Today, he could recall no character's names... no plot devices... and his only comment was a passing, "It was Cool." No more discussion, "Grandpaw, put on my shoes... can we go to Chucky Cheese when I get Hungry... I like the Rat, but he's just a sign, not real..."
Just for comparison I include this bit of info... He also saw Jason And The Argonauts (Harryhausen, 1963) yesterday for the very 1st time. It stimulated tons of conversation. Today he talks about the flick, and still asks questions. He refers to Jason by name repeatedly, as well as Talos and others. "Why Hercules steal from the Gods?"... "Is Talos a God?"... "Is Talos a Cop for the Gods?"... "What happen to Hercules friend... why?"... "No, Grandpaw. They're NOT Zombies, they're skeletons, that's different."..."Is that like Heaven? Did Hercules' friend go there when he died?" Well, you get the point... ROBOTS was ultimately mindless entertainment, JASON,ETC... was full of questions and lessons even a 4 year old could wrap his brain around.
Here's what one of our readers thought...
I just got out of a screening of the new 20th Centruy Fox CGI ani-pic "Robots" and my prediction for this movie is that it will make loads of money and get lets of publicity and will be pretty darn popular. But not because it is a good movie or even because it is a mediocre movie. Only because, well, since CGI movies are still scarce compared to how many traditionally painted cartoon flicks that had come out in the previous decade, the novelty hasn't worn off yet.
Don't write off the flick yet. It has a few chuckles and about two or three genuinely witty and smart references, but overall it's kind of middle of the road and very predictable.
First off, I hate it when a movie boasts all of the voice talent that it has to offer and only uses about 1% of the cast in a smart and funny way (i.e. how boring was Jeffrey Rush in "Finding Nemo"?). This flick had Ewen McGregor, Greg Kinnear, Drew Carey, Harland Williams, Mel Brooks, Halle Berry, Amanda Bynes, Robin Williams, Jennifer Coolidge, Carson Daly, Jamie Kennedy, Conan O'brien, Dianne Wiest, and others, and out of this list, you only truly get to see the usefullness of Robin Williams, Greg Kinnear, and Mel Brooks. These rest get lost in the shuffle and it really didn't matter if they were in the movie or not. Even Ewen McGregor who is supposed to be such a charmer comes off as dull and forgettable. And Halle Berry...well, she was Halle Berry and that equals blah in pretty much anything she is in.
Speaking of McGregor and Berry, why is it that these kids flicks always have to have a love interest but doesn't bother to even build any kind of chemistry or bond between the two players. The only reason I could explain why the chemistry between McGregor and Berry was so cold was because they were robots but that's me being more sarcastic than anything.
And then there's the "message". Let's look at "The INcredibles" where the message of family bonds and teamwork was brilliantly displayed by the actions of the characters. With "Robots" the writers and director apparently couldn't pull this off as well so, like a huge sledgehammer swing across the sky, they shove the message in your face so blatantly and spoonfed that if you walked out of the theatre not knowing that you should "always follow your dreams" and to suppport the underdog against the corporate giant, then you must have had your audio receptors turned down. Ironically, the last message is overlooked because subblimally, the corporate giant (Hollywood) keeps stepping on the little guys (the viewers) and knowing we'll accept whatever they give us as quality entertainment, and not fight back. How else can you explain last year's boring slew of flicks which was so well represented in this year's snoozer of an Oscar telecast.Now, if I have to say anything positive, I can say that the CGI is pretty to look at and there are a few insired moments (the whole having the baby intro is winkingly funny; the perpetual motion of a transit system for the robots is pretty exciting) but as a whole, it just doesn't work for me but I can already tell that this one will be a hit because most of the mainstream audience today doesn't ask for more than a cheap cookie-cutter story with a few jokes thrown in for the adults and whatever mass marketing you can throw at them.
Well, as the moral tries to tell you (once again, coming in the form of a sledgehammer in the face), we the audience are the little robots and we are not going to accept the upgrade that Hollywood is trying to force on us -- the slew of uninspired, cliche' by-the-book movies. We must stand and fight and demand that they bring back the magic that was the old Hollywood and give more quality over mass-produced quantity.
Boy At Large
