Forum - View topicREVIEW: Astro Boy
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Copyrighted Name
 Posts: 28 |
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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
 Posts: 1463 |
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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
Posts: 487 |
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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
 Posts: 466 |
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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
 Posts: 85 |
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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
 Posts: 257 Location: Guam |
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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
Posts: 29 |
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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
 Posts: 995 Location: a 320x240 resolution igloo (Sydney) |
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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
 Posts: 403 Location: East coast |
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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
Posts: 199 |
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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
 Posts: 7912 Location: Anime News Network Technodrome |
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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
Posts: 387 Location: QBN, NSW, Australia |
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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
 Posts: 78 Location: Ann Arbor, Michigan |
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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
 Posts: 3495 Location: Back stateside |
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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
 Posts: 240 Location: Ahhhh it's vacation time again! |
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I'll rent it and see it in the peace of my place.
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