Ratchet & Clank Reviews

Movies based on video games are a rough subgenre to find yourself watching. They’re often incapable of deciding whether they want to straight up adapt the video game franchise, function as their own story, or occupy some strange middle ground between the two. Ratchet & Clank winds up being one of those middle ground movies, but it’s still one of the better video game adaptations.

 

Shame that it wasn’t more unique as the plot manages to take the quirky, irreverent, Looney Tunes-esque characters from the video game franchise and smooth them out into generic shapes and archetypes. Plenty of animated films showcase shallow characters in their main roles, but the Galactic Rangers, corporate bad guys, and mad scientists on display here feel like loners from the back of central casting. Oh well, at least the animation is uniformly nice, there’s sparks of life and insouciant humor, and a few of the voice actors make a positive impression (John Goodman going gruff but sweet, Sylvester Stallone in self-parody mode, and Paul Giamatti playing oilly even in animation).

 

The video games have personality and verve bursting from every polygon and double entendre laced title. Frankly, you’d be better served skipping out on this and playing the PS4 game instead. That manages to strike a successful balance between developed characters, nice animation, an engaging story, and providing a sense of infectious anarchy that’s quite pleasing.  

I was never really a huge Ratchet and Clank fan. I played parts of it when I was at my friend's house, but I never had the games myself. My friend was the super fan though. I watched him play a fair amount and it was an amusing game. I saw the trailer for this and it looked decent enough. It has an excellent cast with a few very unexpected choices. Also the voices of Ratchet and Clank play their characters which is cool. This is the only film directed by Jerrica Cleland and not much else is from her. Although Kevin Munroe is known for TMNT and Dylan Dog both of which weren't well received. This is the only film credit for Daniel Nascimento. T.J. Fixman also did another film that looks like nobody has heard of about Popeye. Gerry Swallow however did work on Ice Age: The Meltdown as well as Black Knight. My friend of course loved it and recommended checking it out. So without further ado I decided to check this and see if it works for others rather than just fans.

So let's get into the meat of this. First of all it plays with a lot of inside jokes as well as dealing with several bits from the games. It also does a lot of jokes that push the fourth wall. One in particular I thought was a very amusing way to take on an old joke. The action is alright, but it could have been a little more entertaining in that department. The characters were likable and amusing. The voice acting was great. Anyways despite not being a huge fan I still enjoyed myself.

It's definitely a movie for the fans, but if you are somewhat familiar with the story you will appreciate it. As for those who know nothing of the source material I'm not sure it will interest you. There may be jokes and such you find amusing. Though I would think the references to the games will fly right over. In any case it's not a bad movie, but it really was made with fans in mind.

People hated it when it came out on theatres and I can see why
But, I can't be angry with it.
Yeah, the characters aren't that developed, the story is predictable, many jokes aren't that funny (some of them a bit awkward) but I feel like the script, even with the generic and cliché plot, has effort and tries to entretain in a good way. It pleases the fans with references, it does have a few laughs, the animation looks fantastic with the budget they had and the voice acting is a great work.
It's a weak but still harmless and charm-ish movie.

Me resulto un poco complicado encontrar esta película por la red, ya que en mi país nunca la estrenaron y en los sitios donde usualmente descargo contenido confiable no aparecia asi que por fin la pude ver y debo decir, soy un tremendo fanático a morir de la franquicia y sabía que la película de Ratchet y Clank iba a ser mala, pero no creía que fuera tan decepcionante.

Voy a hablar de los aspectos más destacables de esta adaptación.

Animación: el diseño de personaje y la iluminación de estos con los detalles está muy bien elaborado, incluso, me encantaron las referencias de los videojuegos de Play Station se hace a sí misma, tal como la que están viendo aquí en la imagen hay muchas más para los que son fieles a los videojuegos de estos personajes y pequeños detalles que les hará dar un sonrisa. Pero si comparas esta animación con una de otra productora de CGI, notaras que ciertos movimientos fluidos de los personajes y fondos de paisajes les falta pulirlos, ya que son algo incomodos de ver. A ver si la productora de “Playstation originals” se pone las pilas a la próxima.

Historia: Este es el aspecto más mal llevado en la obra, ya que primero: ¿Por qué debieron reiniciar la serie? Si ya el origen de los personajes en los videojuegos ya estaba bien. Incluso, pudieron dar una nueva historia con unos recuerdos que dan a atender como se conocieron los protagonistas, pero hasta para dar nuevos orígenes son malos los guionistas, ya que la motivación de Clank y de cómo fue creado es demasiado forzoso, brutalmente forzoso. Y no solo eso, ya que lo que hace caer la película son los chistes malos que cuentan los personajes, incluso hay una escena que ellos mismos dicen que deben hacer mejores chistes xD (no digo que unos cuantos si dieron risa, pero la mayoría hace incomodar al público). Todo lo debas es el típico cliché de un personaje que quiere ser alguien especial y pertener a un grupo, aquí debo decir que al menos la productora lo intento, ya que los personajes pudieron llegar a ser queribles, pero la historia que les rodea no les das chance de brillar como deben. Total, al menos se puede ver como era antes uno de los villanos más memorables que tiene esta franquicia, pero debieron ponerlo con su diseño original antes que pusieran esta escena post-creditos que da un toque que esto podría tener unas secuela (espero que no lo hagan, por favor, y que escuchen mis plegarias de hacerlo bien a la proxima con esta franquicia que valga la pena una pelicula o serie....no...no me refiero a Skylanders con Spyro...).