IslandGuru Who payed the critics

SparkMore n my opinion it was a great movie with some interesting elements, even though having some plot holes and the ending probably was just too messy and crammed together, but still fun to watch and not your casual movie that is similar to all other ones.

Ogosmith Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

Skyler Great movie. Not sure what people expected but I found it highly entertaining.

Ayal Oren It's a nice sci fi animation which is in fact a retelling of the Pinocchio story. A father who's a master craftsmen creates an artificial son for himself, and realizes it's not a perfect son though he was sure he made it perfect. This state of the arts son is given life by the "blue energy" the pure positive energy, and is going on journey of self discovery finding a group of outcast kids who's head is actually a circus manager of a sort with nice demeanor but shady morals. Eventually the newly named Astro will have to go into the heart/belly of a robotic behemoth in order to save the day.Making sure I didn't write any real spoiler in this detailed description I believe the parallels are very clear. And I liked the original new take on the classic. I liked even more it's way of tackling the sensitive subject of father-son relations, of fathers ideal perception of their sons, an ideal no reality can match, not even a perfect reality.As for the other aspects of movie making, it's a very nice movie, not free of mistakes, but very nicely told, well acted by all the cast, and real fun to watch.

TheFunkyBass This movie started off with good pacing, but in the second act, the movie just slowed down and tumbled apart. It started out very promising, but after Astro got lost in the junkyard, the film went downhill. The second act mostly served as filer. Third act picked up most of the movie, but still left you with a sour taste in your mouth.It had a few continuity issues, for example: How did Astro know he had the core in his chest when he was bringing that robot back to life?It had also had a LOT of movie clichés like "Positive" and "Negative" cores.The best part of the movie was hands down the Robot Revolutionary Front. When the comedic relief of a movie is the best part of it, that's when you know the movie has a big problem.The voice acting and CGI are pretty good. But that's what you expect from a Hollywood film with a big budget.6/10 (passable)

Wizard-8 I must confess I am not an expert when it comes to the "Astro Boy" universe - I've only seen a few episodes of the animated television show, and I have only looked at a few pages of the original manga. So I don't know how close this movie is to the original creation of "Astro Boy". Anyway, I'll start with what I found positive about this movie. First, the animation is pretty good. Maybe not up to Pixar, but it's bright, colorful, and catches your eye. Also, the movie moves along at a brisk clip, never becoming boring at any moment.But at the same time, I felt something was lacking with this movie. I thought about why this was for some time, and I came up with two possible reasons. First, when it comes to the HUMAN side of the movie, often the movie comes short. For example, the death of a key character in the beginning of the movie does not provoke the appropriate emotional response from others. Elsewhere, there were plenty of moments when the characters didn't seem fleshed out enough. The second problem was that the movie doesn't seem to have one clear vision. This probably comes from the fact that the movie was a Hong Kong-Japan-USA co-production. Often, as a result of so many cooks on this project, the movie seems a mix of different sensibilities.If you're interested in computer animation, and/or you're a kid, you'll probably find enough here to entertain you. If you're not, you should probably not go out of your way to watch this. It's not an awful movie, but you will see it could have been a lot better.

robotbling (www.plasticpals.com) As a fan of the '80s animated TV series from my childhood, I was wary of the new Astro Boy movie by Imagi Studios, so I didn't go see it right away. Besides Astro himself there are only a small handful of recognizable characters, while the rest of the cast is new and generic. The world has been divided into the affluent floating Metro City and the Surface dwellers below. As a fan of Tezuka's character designs, I was disappointed to see that his distinctive style was not replicated in the film as it was in the latest TV series and video games. And that, despite volumes of source material available, little (if any) was mined when scripting and designing the film. All of these needless changes to Astro Boy's origin and setting hurt the movie's chances of a favorable review.In the original story, Dr. Tenma's son Tobio is killed in a car crash. In the movie, Toby is incinerated by a military robot gone haywire, infused with the negative power of the film's version of unobtanium. Dr. Tenma then creates the robot we all know and love in Toby's likeness. This kind of change in the back story doesn't matter so much, and it lays the groundwork for the film's predictable plot of a power hungry military general's descent into madness. I'm not an Astro Boy purist by any means, so this kind of thing is entirely excusable, but the next change is less superficial.Astro gets blown off Metro City to the scrap heap below. The Robot Circus and its abusive manager have been replaced by a gladiatorial robot tournament and a tinkering roboticist, and he's nowhere near as evil. We don't see Astro suffering under the whip of his human master. We see robots being destroyed for the humans' entertainment, but they are mostly complicit fighting machines, so the message is blurry. And Astro doesn't earn his name from his daring circus tricks – but by one of a ragtag band of revolutionary robots. One of which is literally a talking fridge. Along with a talking spray bottle robot, these designs are terribly unimaginative and don't belong in Astro Boy.In what is perhaps the film's boldest alteration, Astro's heart and sense of justice no longer comes from the heart built by Dr. Tenma, but from the positive power of the film's unobtanium, giving it an unwanted tinge of spirituality (it gives Astro the God-like power to resurrect broken robots). In the TV series Astro often ran into trouble when his batteries ran out, but thanks to the unobtanium he now has an infinite power supply. In effect, Astro appears invincible, which kills any suspense that the film's final confrontation may have had. Unfortunately, the enemy robot is not based on any particular design from Tezuka's canon.It's sad that most of Tezuka's unique characters, the often bitter-sweet messages underlying his stories, and his damning portrayal of human intolerance of robots wasn't faithfully reproduced on the big screen. These changes will no doubt leave fans feeling disappointed, but the film still manages to be entertaining in its own right. Those completely unfamiliar with Astro Boy will likely enjoy the film on its own merits. Despite my gut feeling, it turned out better than I would have thought, and the visuals look great. I felt it was just a little bit too long. As it is, I can still give it a recommendation, though fans looking for a faithful big screen adaptation should be prepared for something different.