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Directed by: Chris Wedge and Carlos Saldanha Starring: Ewan McGregor, Halle Berry, Greg Kinnear, Robin Williams, Drew CaMel Brooks The latest film from Blue Sky has just hit the theatres, and I was lucky to be able to see it last night at a special screening. The plot is pretty basic: Local boy makes good after defying the odds and fighting corruption. That said boy is a robot, along with everyone else in the film, is just part of the fun. There are enough inside jokes and gags at the perifery of vision that many DVD owners will wear out their "pause" buttons. The character design is wonderful, and has hints of George Pal's old "Puppetoon" shorts of the 1940's. But the plot is a tad weak overall, and at times one felt that the crew gave more time to Robin William's character than necessary. Still, an enjoyable romp. And the "Ice Age 2" trailer before the film is a scream. Rotten Tomatoes: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/robots/ (barely rotten at the time of this posting) EDIT: Now back on the fresh side. Metacritic: http://www.metacritic.com/film/titles/robots (Mildly favorable at time of this posting) RATING: 4/5 PROS: Beautiful animation, lovely design, funny gags throughout CONS: Mediocre plot, borders on too much Robin Williams ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0358082/ Doodles fucked around with this message at 15:48 on Mar 12, 2005 |
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Mar 11, 2005 21:33
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Agree with just about everything above, except for the fact that I like Robin Williams, so his scenes were more than enjoyable. Also, I don't get why all the reviewers are ragging on this movie's plot and not any other. Besides The Incredibles, which American CG movie has relied on complicated plots instead of gags?
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Mar 12, 2005 07:16
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quote:Doodles came out of the closet to say: Unfortunately, I think this was my favorite part. I agree with the viewpoint that they gave more time to Robin William's character than necessary. From watching the previews I thought it looked like it could be the Genie role from Aladdin all over again. Unfortunately, it felt as if they were trying to hard. It didn't seem like his character was that important to the workings of the story, as if his character was there for, more or less, forced comic relief, which I thought was average in itself. I also felt the pacing was a bit off. Most of the movie didn't even focus on the ultimate resolution of the main plot problems, and I thought many scenes were longer than they needed to be with respect to their importance. So.. eh, 2.5. quote:Behonkiss came out of the closet to say: I don't think it's as much the story as it is the storytelling. The story doesn't have to be air-tight and wildly innovative to make a good movie. It just has to be told well. I feel that Robots comes up short in that regard.
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Mar 13, 2005 01:26
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I loved the animation. It was great how the robots were rusted and dented, rather than being perfect looking. The scene where Rodney is going around Robot City in the big ball and the dominoes falling down were the coolest things I've seen in the theater this year. I'll give it a 4/5 because it was funny and absolutely wonderful to look at.
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Mar 13, 2005 07:14
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Very funny feel good movie. Lovable characters, mind blowing art (animation, art design and 'feel' were all perfect), great music and some amazingly funny moments throughout. The message of the movie "You can be what you want to be etc etc" was told pretty well (although a bit generic) without being too emotional (most emotional moments end in a joke). Overall I absolutely loved the comedy and the amazing sense of 'wonder' that I had throughout the movie. This movie made me feel like a little kid again (Laughing to the point of tears at fart jokes). Recommended for the young at heart 5/5
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Mar 13, 2005 13:17
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I didn't really know what to expect going in. About all I knew was that Robin Williams was voicing a character and being a Williams fan I was of course hoping he'd figure largely into the movie. I also enjoy animated films and look forward to Ice Age 2. The weakest part of the movie is the plot. I wasn't expecting a masterpiece of story telling from a film like this, just a few laughs and an interesting enough story to move things along. The plot was very much stock material and the scenes either dragged on too long or were entirely too short given their importance or what have you. The animation didn't seem, to me, anything really special.. not a lot of eye candy. But that could have been the theatre I saw it at or me just being jaded on this genre. Here's what it basically boils down too: Stock plot, stock characters, a handful of funny jokes, and the obligatory pop culture references. 2.0/5 stars for me.
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Mar 14, 2005 02:19
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Animation--4/5 Robots has great animation, so you'll get your money's worth keeping your eyes busy with all the nifty visuals. Still, it has nothing on the Incredibles--the hair effects in that movie is enough to put all the dazzling imagery in Robots to shame. Unfortunately, the animation is the only thing keeping the whole film interesting and that only goes so far. Music/score--2/5 Music carries significant emotional weight in a film audiences are too likely to overlook in favor of the actual action taking place on screen. Robot's score just didn't deliver the right highs and lows to make an impact, and you can feel it in every weighed down, tired scene. If the scenes were not bogged down with watery, Randy Newman-esque ditties with banal themes of perseverance and believing in one's dream, they were corrupted by the inexplicable presense of annoying popular music sliding down MTV's playlist on its way to the next volume of Kidz Bop. Voice acting--2/5 In words, the voice acting is terrible. Not that the actors couldn't read lines, in fact they read their lines well. But if one is to watch a computer animated robot named Fender (poor choice of names if said robot is not to be overshadowed by a far superior robot character named Bender) for ninety minutes and still says to herself "hey, there goes Robin Williams again" then the actor hasn't done a very good job being that character. I don't blame RW necessarily--he is who he is. I do blame whoever casted him, however, for depending on his signiture over the top ad libbing to compensate for an otherwise uninteresting character. And for all the incredible voice talent out there the best they could come up with for a romantic lead was Halle Berry, whose bored voice lent no spark of uniqueness to her role? Okay, maybe this review is being rather harsh. It's a kids movie, anyway, right? Indeed it is. So, pray tell, what kid really cares if the the shiny robot lady won an Oscar for her much hyped butt romp with Billy Bop Thornton in Monster's Ball? There hadn't been this much shameless fawning over a hollywood darling's appearance in an animated film since Scarlett Johansen's unnecessary presence in the SpongeBob Squarepants movie. Story--2/5 Had this film not been a heavily marketed, big budget, computer animated baby of Blue Sky studios you could have injected this tired, over-used story in one of Nicklelodeon's crappy half-hour cartoon shows and saved yourself an hour of stupid pop culture references, Robin Williams's "comedy", and long winded song and dance numbers. Trust me. You have seen this story a million times. Good animation alone is not enough to make one see it a million-and-one times. Score total: 2.5
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Mar 14, 2005 08:33
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Good animation, but it all can be seen by the great animated short before the movie. After that we get lame kid humor (the biggest and loudest laugh during the entire movie was a fart joke; gay jokes dominated the rest of the laughs), very simple story with an ending that pours a ton of sugar down your throat - dancing, laughing, singing, hugging, every charachter is 100% happy. Music is horrible from bad pop songs, to insanely cliche swelling music (the kind of swelling music you hear in parodies), to very simple "sad" music. This is no Pixar 1.5 / 5 Pinkied_Brain fucked around with this message at 22:23 on Mar 14, 2005 |
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Mar 14, 2005 22:19
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Meh, it was ok. The Crosstown Express scene blew my mind. The ballbearing ballet was the funniest part of the whole movie. Very original, very well executed. The visuals were fantastic. Maybe not technically impressive, but sometimes that's not the most important thing. Like the previous posters, I'd say the voice acting was... ok. Ewan McGregor couldn't act his way out of a paper bag in the first place, so him having trouble with a strictly voice role was hardly a surprise. Halle Berry was a snore. Robin Williams was Robin Williams. I got tired of it after my cousins made me watch Alladin for the nth time. Mel Brooks was a surprise. I've never seen him do anything where he wasn't front and center. The ending was a little over the top with the sugariness, especially when contrasted with the amount of violence in the final battle. I dunno, I just don't like the current trend of gruesome villain death in animation. Eye candy saves what would otherwise be a straight-to-video quality movie. 2.5/5
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Mar 15, 2005 17:30
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I pretty much agree with the past posters, paper-thin, worn out plot. You could have mixed and matched all of the characters and cared about them all the same. But still, quite a nice movie to look at, with a few funny jokes on the side. 2 out of 5 stars. I was ready to give it a 3, but I took off a point for Robots having the most unecessary pop culture references ever. Did we really need to see a Britney Spears dance number in the middle of a battle? Seriously.
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Mar 16, 2005 05:10
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quote:GrimmMasterOoze came out of the closet to say: God, this score was really really inappropriate for the movie. It was so overbearing and completely distracted from the film. This movie, I thought, was totally average. The slapstick was humorous. I like Robin Williams, but too much of him is a bad thing. The plot was really worthless. It shouldn't have been there, IMO -- they could have just had constant sight-gags and I would have reacted the same way to the film, I think. The animation was gorgeous. The imagination that went into everything, especially the transportation system, was great. Overall this is a 2.5/5 movie.
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Mar 16, 2005 06:38
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When watching this movie, it felt to me like the guys in Fox Animation were looking at the stats for "Ice Age" and saw that the ice slide sequence was the most popular, and therefore decided to put in a whole bunch of scenes like that in. The crosstown express, the dominoes, the magnet helicopter/motorcycle things, and several others that don't readily come to mind all seem to be based on that template. The first few of them are pretty cool, but after a while it occurs to you that they're happening far too frequently with less space in between then there should be. Also, it should be noted that the crosstown express sequence had maybe 5 or 10 seconds of footage that WASN'T shown in the previews. Still, there are signs of improvement from Ice Age. In a children's movie, I prefer "very little character development at all across the board" to "character development that's vague and forced in at inappropriate times, and then promptly forgotten". The characters don't all hate each other, which is also a big plus. And, best of all, no one had an obnoxious speech impediment (unless you count the blue robot that didn't have a voice box). Overall, it's pretty thin, kids will probably enjoy it much more than adults, but it's fun, silly, and nice to look at. Bottom line: Better than Ice Age, but still no Toy Story. 3/5
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Mar 16, 2005 19:10
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quote:Bottom line: Better than Ice Age, but still no Toy Story. There is no way Robots is in any way superior than Ice Age. Ice Age had a semi-bland story but it was funny and creative at the same time. The only thing creative in Robots were the subtle jokes in the animation (such as male and female plugs designating gender in a bathroom.) Robin Williams redeemed his part with the forced comedy. The story sounded like something that was pulled off of a Disney shelf and stripped of anything unique. The movie was incredibly boring with nothing to get excited about or sad about. I finished the movie without walking out just because I had nothing else to do. 1.5/5
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Mar 19, 2005 02:56
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I have not seen a movie in theaters since December 31, 2004. Last night, I was called up by a few friends to view this. That being said, I am pretty loving pissed off that I had to make my first movie in theaters this year this pile of poo poo. Essentially, this movie proves that major film studios have decided to market towards people with an attention span that lasts all of four seconds. The movie seemed entirely concerned with going from Robin Williams joke to Robin Williams joke. And the jokes! Christ, it was like Aladdin Williams on speed. The impressions were inappropriate: humans don't exist in this alternate universe in which robots beget robots, have free will and make a lot of sexual innuendos. The humor was awful. Plain and simple. poo poo. Period. Toilet humor that only a mongoloid or a six year old could enjoy. The characters and plot were sterotypical. John Everyman goes to BigCity City to change Corrupt Co. to a loving organization that will help out his family, and man(robot)kind at the same time, but is blocked by Laissez Faire McHitler. Only with the help of Miss Sexy and Unattached and a ragtag bunch of misfits can Everyman save the day, get the girl, and wrap up all the holes in the plot by the end. All the same though, I think the writers had enough time coming up with all the witty names for stuff. Mr. Ratchet, Madame Gasket, ROBOT loving CITY!? And you're getting paid for this? Okay, okay. Chill time. There was one very good scene that used a Tom Waits song wonderfully. But that's about it. Don't see it. Seriously. .5/5
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Mar 22, 2005 01:42
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I saw this movie on an IMAX screen, so I'm not sure what kind of affect that had on my opinion of the movie... My beefs with the movie: Some of the characters like say the Aunt with the big robot rear end seemed a little forced. Also, I don't know if they properly resolved the Piper, Rodney, and Cappy love triangle (I think that was her name), but perhaps this is just because it is hard to tell how old the robots are supposed to be. Overall, I thought the movie was enjoyable. The visuals as most people have stated were stunning especially on the IMAX screen. The story pulled at my heart-strings though not quite as much as movies like Finding Nemo. The movie isn't perfect, but it has enough good qualities to make it worthwhile. 3.5/5 traslin fucked around with this message at 21:17 on Mar 23, 2005 |
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Mar 22, 2005 06:55
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I thought pretty much everything except the writing was good. Between the poor attempts at humor and over-the-top motivational messages, there's a lot of moments that'll make you cringe. Several times characters would spit out lines so cliche that I was expecting them to be followed with some mocking humor. I know it's largely a kids movie, and this criticism wouldn't really be warranted if other animated films hadn't so successfully appealed to kids and adults simultaneously. Robin Williams is at his most unfunny and never made me so much as crack a smile. It's a horribly recycled role that gets far too much screen time. Looking up the writer's profiles on IMDB and I can't find any recognizable titles aside from SWAT, City Slickers, and Ed TV. Why were these people chosen to write this movie? 2.5
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Mar 28, 2005 02:19
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Utter filth. This movie can be summed up as Robin Williams masturbating furiously into a microphone. Though the cameo by James Earl Jones as a telephone was brilliant 0/5
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Mar 28, 2005 06:32
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Too many pop references, too much Robin Williams, no funny jokes, awful plot. But it has nice character design, I just wish the spring robot in the opening scene was featured more, he was awesome. 0.5/5 Edit: I feel asleep in the cinema watching this for the first time since 2 Fast 2 Furious Piney fucked around with this message at 00:33 on Apr 7, 2005 |
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Apr 1, 2005 01:25
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| # ? Apr 19, 2024 21:20 |
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I saw this a while ago, but haven't posted my review yet. I was expecting something funny. Something that had enough humor that adults could be entertained with. This was not this movie. It has great visuals, but it seemed way too cartoony and non-sensical. I was quite uncomfortable with the "Robots are like humans but not like humans" dynamic. Robots that fart and piss (oil change/leaking oil) 'like humans', but can have their heads removed and chat like nothing's wrong makes me unsure how to take it. The plot was boring, and I didn't care enough to remember the names of all but the most important characters, even if they were mentioned. Robin Williams's charcter was annoying, and Ewan McGregor was dull, and no one else was special. This was just a big kiddie movie. I didn't like it very much. 1.5 stars.
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Apr 6, 2005 17:33
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