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Copyrighted Name
Joined: 20 Feb 2008
Posts: 28
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Posted: Mon Oct 19, 2009 5:36 pm
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HOLY CRAP THAT'S EXACTLY WHAT I THOUGHT IT WOULD BE LIKE
*sigh*
This is even more depressing considering I just recently bought a whole bunch of used Astro Boy manga and loved them.
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bahamut623
Joined: 23 Jun 2005
Posts: 1463
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Posted: Mon Oct 19, 2009 5:37 pm
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I wasn't expecting greatness, especially after hearing it was from the director of the dreadful Flushed Away, but it still sounds like a decent kids movie, which is really all it has to be. I'm looking forward to it. I love Astro!
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merr
Joined: 11 Dec 2004
Posts: 484
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Posted: Mon Oct 19, 2009 5:56 pm
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Guess I won't be seeing this one. The presence of Kristen Bell had my interest piqued, but it's sad to hear that the movie turned out so mediocre.
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ArthurFrDent
Joined: 05 Aug 2008
Posts: 466
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Posted: Mon Oct 19, 2009 6:01 pm
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so, is it worth seeing on the big screen, or wait for DVD? I just assume that most American movie stuff will be fluff, and the kids may like or not... But then I'm one o' those crazy people that asked my kids: "whad did he mean 'when everyone is Super, no one will be?'" At the risk of turning my kids cynical before their time...
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DaisakuKusama
Joined: 24 Aug 2008
Posts: 85
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Posted: Mon Oct 19, 2009 6:08 pm
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After reading this review, here's a question: Why can't Imagi come up with their own characters and allow artists to develop new stories, instead of shoe-horning classic anime icons into generic, passable and overall WEAK versions of ideas that aren't theirs? Up next, watered-down Gatchaman and a kids-safe, non-threatening villain, to be followed by life-affirming Gigantor. No matter how well intentioned the films, they are still a bunch of grave robbers who are exploiting other creators' ideas for money. Sorry, guys. You won't be getting mine.
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Anton Chigurh
Joined: 03 Dec 2007
Posts: 257
Location: Guam
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Posted: Mon Oct 19, 2009 6:47 pm
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Every time I see an exclusive or advance review for anything in ANN, it shreds said product to smithereens.
Keep up the good work. Really I'd rather you keep the high standard for quality.
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alpha_beta_angel
Joined: 12 May 2009
Posts: 29
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Posted: Mon Oct 19, 2009 7:02 pm
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Ah, so it's in the pile with the (mostly) recent Speed Racer adaptation I guess.
As a fair majority of anime fans, I'm a "purist" of sorts and have avoided most of the "inspired by Tezuka's..." stuff. I just know if he were alive, he would of created a great film to appeal to anyone, I mean he loved Disney and held US family movies in high regard.
It seems to be a sad fate for anime-to-screen translations.
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eyeresist
Joined: 02 Apr 2007
Posts: 995
Location: a 320x240 resolution igloo (Sydney)
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Posted: Mon Oct 19, 2009 7:31 pm
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I dunno. When I heard this film was out, I checked the few reviews that were online, and all of them, even the supposed fanboy reviews, showed a lack of familiarity with Astroboy and the work of Osamu Tezuka in general. They would say things like "the story is ripped off from Pinnochio and Frankenstein", "there is a jarring mix of pathos and comedy", and "the film has an overt moral message", and then conclude "If only they had stuck to the spirit of Osamu Tezuka's classic original". But these are the exact features of Osamu Tezuka's original work!
Now, Zac points out some plot holes in the film's climax (plenty of anime movies have problematic plots), but the rest of his criticisms are too vague. He says the film is sanitized, but other reviews complain about the film's violence. Dialogue like "I guess fitting in when you're different from everyone else is harder to do than I thought!" would not have been out of place in the original works, or in the 1980s series at least. And describing a character as "oh-so-spunky-and-independent" is just being snide, especially as there are plenty of characters fitting that description in anime that is critically respected.
Now, from all these negative reactions, I don't doubt there is something sub-standard about this movie. I just can't tell what it is from these reviews. I guess I'll have to watch the movie after all....
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Jih2
Joined: 24 Jul 2007
Posts: 403
Location: East coast
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Posted: Mon Oct 19, 2009 7:56 pm
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Eyeresist just pointed out why I'm going to see the movie rather than just read reviews.
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ninjaclown
Joined: 17 Dec 2008
Posts: 199
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Posted: Mon Oct 19, 2009 8:06 pm
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eyeresist wrote: | I dunno. When I heard this film was out, I checked the few reviews that were online, and all of them, even the supposed fanboy reviews, showed a lack of familiarity with Astroboy and the work of Osamu Tezuka in general. They would say things like "the story is ripped off from Pinnochio and Frankenstein", "there is a jarring mix of pathos and comedy", and "the film has an overt moral message", and then conclude "If only they had stuck to the spirit of Osamu Tezuka's classic original". But these are the exact features of Osamu Tezuka's original work!
Now, Zac points out some plot holes in the film's climax (plenty of anime movies have problematic plots), but the rest of his criticisms are too vague. He says the film is sanitized, but other reviews complain about the film's violence. Dialogue like "I guess fitting in when you're different from everyone else is harder to do than I thought!" would not have been out of place in the original works, or in the 1980s series at least. And describing a character as "oh-so-spunky-and-independent" is just being snide, especially as there are plenty of characters fitting that description in anime that is critically respected.
Now, from all these negative reactions, I don't doubt there is something sub-standard about this movie. I just can't tell what it is from these reviews. I guess I'll have to watch the movie after all.... |
Jih2 wrote: | Eyeresist just pointed out why I'm going to see the movie rather than just read reviews. |
Same here. I find that the more average review a film gets the more I find I actually enjoy it a lot more than I thought I would. I could care less about so-called "purity", I'm still checking it out.
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Zac
ANN Executive Editor
Joined: 05 Jan 2002
Posts: 7912
Location: Anime News Network Technodrome
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Posted: Mon Oct 19, 2009 8:09 pm
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Uh... some of you seem to have the attitude that the end goal of writing a negative or even middling review (which is what this is - middling) is to convince people to not see a film and have their own opinion...?
Which has no basis in reality whatsoever. I don't care if you see the film or not, the review is simply my opinion.
I will never understand the "Oh yeah?? Well I'm gonna see it anyway, SCREW YOU MR. CRITIC MAN" replies. Again, I could not possibly care less whether or not you decide to see Astro Boy.
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Greboruri
Joined: 09 Jul 2003
Posts: 383
Location: QBN, NSW, Australia
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Posted: Mon Oct 19, 2009 8:29 pm
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Yeah, the whole movie was just rather dull. There is nothing in the film which makes it stand out from the multitude of CG features currently in cinemas here. "Up" is the obvious stand out amongst the current CG stuff. Having seen that film a couple weeks before "Astroboy", the main difference between them is that "Up" has real heart while Astro just seems so empty. It's like they were on autopilot making this film and just pulled out the most clichéd and dull dialogue and jokes they could find. Despite the fact it's currently the school holidays here (well I saw it on the very last day of the school holidays), including me there were only about nine people in the cinema including me.
I did quite enjoy the film up to the point Astro ends up on the surface. The whole Metro City dumping their trashed robots onto the ground made me think of "Battle Angel Alita". The Tezuka and Hyoutan-Tsugi (Tezuka's pig/mushroom thingie) cameos were a bit too forced and happened too often, like the film makers were saying "Look, look, a Tezuaka reference!". I suppose it's not a bad film as such, it's just really mediocre. What disappoints me the most is that despite the great wealth of material they could have plundered from the manga, they chose instead a really tied and dull plot.
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O-chan
Joined: 03 Jun 2004
Posts: 78
Location: Ann Arbor, Michigan
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Posted: Mon Oct 19, 2009 8:54 pm
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After the horror that was Dragonball: Evolution I actually look very forward to this movie. It looks decent enough that I would not mind seeing it in theaters (I also thought Speed Racer was okay, not remarkable just watchable). American adaptations of anime seem to fall into the category of mediocre and I seriously don't think why we should expect more. The only time we get any respect is if it's Miyazaki and that's because those are backed by Disney. So at least this review indicates this movie will not want me to gouge my eyes out with a hot poker.
O-chan
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vashfanatic
Joined: 16 Jun 2005
Posts: 3492
Location: Back stateside
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Posted: Mon Oct 19, 2009 8:54 pm
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Greboruri wrote: | What disappoints me the most is that despite the great wealth of material they could have plundered from the manga, they chose instead a really tied and dull plot. |
No kidding! I mean, for Astro Boy they had a format that would work much better than, say Dragonball for getting an adaptation as a movie. There's much less of an overarching storyline and much more stand alone adventures, like American comic books. You could easily have used villains and scenarios from the original (Pluto, anyone?) and made a really good story out of it. And why create a spunky female character when you could use Uran? Everything I've heard about the plot is just... boring. I'll wait to see how the Tomatometer goes, but this will probably be a rental for me; movie tickets are too expensive in my locale.
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Rolando_jose
Joined: 04 Jan 2007
Posts: 240
Location: Ahhhh it's vacation time again!
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Posted: Mon Oct 19, 2009 9:05 pm
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I'll rent it and see it in the peace of my place.
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