a5c7b9f00b When an android replica of a boy is rejected by his aggrieved creator, he goes off to find his own identity in an adventure that would make him the greatest hero of his time. When a scientist&#39;s young son dies, he secretly creates a powerful robot child to replace him, however the robot uses it&#39;s incredible powers to become a world famous super-hero, and faces his biggest challenge when an alien race threatens Earth… Every decent movie starts with the story and builds around it. This doesn&#39;t seem like the case here. It feelsif they decided to make an Astro Boy film no matter what, then started on a script suitable to make it happen. Well, this screenplay just isn&#39;t good enough. It has nice sentiment, granted, but the story is so flimsy and dragged out it would have been better suited to a 25 minute episode instead. The characters are poorly written, many of them are just walking stereotypes or clichés with their intentions clearly signposted; one particular character maywell walk around with a sign reading &quot;I&#39;m actually a very, very evil man&quot; around his neck.<br/><br/>Thankfully there is a well-rounded voice cast to give their characters a little bit of spark. Freddie Highmore (Charlie in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory) is decentToby / Astro Boy; Donald Sutherland is clearly having lots of funthe sneering uber-villain General Stone; Bill Nighy, Kristen Bell, Eugene Levy and Matt Lucas are all sufficient in their various roles; however it is Nicolas Cage who really stands outhe provides the grieving Dr Tenma with more emotion than the rest of the crew altogether.<br/><br/>On the action front there is much to see, if not necessarily to enjoy. Although some set pieces are colossal - most notably the finale – they never overly excite, we can see Astro Boy punching a building-sized robot yet it feels remarkably fake. I know, I know, movies are fake, especially animations. But the aim of a movie is to ensure we forget it is all a show, not highlight it. Still, there are lots of high-flying acrobatics and ground-drilling antics from Astro Boy which offer plenty of amusing moments, whilst the futuristic world and its inhabitants is aesthetically pleasing.<br/><br/>I&#39;ve never seen the original series so I can&#39;t make any comparisons, although seeingthat show was (and is) loved by so many I came out of this film scratching my head at how it could be so unspectacular. That&#39;s not to say it is a bad film, it&#39;s not, but it just doesn&#39;t have anything that makes it stand outa film to spend your hard earned cash on.<br/><br/>2.5 out of 5 (1 - Rubbish, 2 - Ordinary, 3 - Good, 4 - Excellent, 5 - Classic) Unike its titular child android, &quot;Astro Boy&quot;&#39;s oh-so earnest zing is somewhat attenuated by the lack of a definitive soul to make it stand out. Which isn&#39;t to say that David Bowers&#39; 3-D animated sci-fi is a screwed-up experience – thanks largely to its amusing one-liners and side characters – but its theme of a boy trying to fit in among those who are different from him fail to stand up to the likes of, say, &quot;Pinocchio,&quot; and &quot;Iron Giant.&quot; <br/><br/>In the lustrously hi-tech Metro, a city floating above piles and piles of metal scraps, humans are served by robots that are guided by the late Isaac Asimov&#39;s robotic laws. Metro resident Toby (voiced by Freddie Highmore) is seeking to follow in the footsteps of his father, Dr. Tenma (Nicolas Cage), who created most of the city&#39;s machines. However, an accident that leads to Toby&#39;s death prompts the sorrowing dad to create a robot in Toby&#39;s image in a bid to replace his son. Astro,the mechanical Toby eventually becomes known, is shattered after Dr. Tenma rejects him for not being able to live up to his human counterpart, and realizing that he&#39;s not who he thinks he is, Astro leaves the Metro in search of a place where he feels he&#39;ll belong.<br/><br/>Bowers&#39; cinematic translation of a 1951 manga by Osamu Tezuka is an uneven – albeit beaming – trip, typified by the likes of Cage and Bill Nighy who sound bored, even if Donald Sutherland and Kristen Bell feel game for their roles. But it succeeds in creating an allegory on the rift between different classes, even if they are frustratingly glossed over in service of a predictable story and a few humdrum action. Despite its shortcomings, &quot;Astro Boy&quot; still proves humorously compelling when its hero spreads kindness courtesy of his cant-do-bad heart. It's a totally serviceable reboot for young people who are just discovering the joys of manga, but I can't help but miss the raw animation and even rawer emotional aesthetics of Tezuka's original televised animé series.
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