(SPOILER WARNING!!)
Thanks to a recent Twitter poll (one I posted over a week ago), I now have an excuse to review a video game movie that I don't think sucks; Ratchet & Clank!
To give a little bit of background, I was first introduced to this franchise through "Ratchet & Clank 3: Up Your Arsenal" which my older brother had on the PS2. I sucked at it, but I loved it all the same. And now that I'm older and had the chance to play through the PS4 tie-in game for the movie, I went back and bought all 3 of the original games on the PS3 to relive the memories and see of I was truly better as a gamer. It's one of those franchises that I will never get tired of no matter how many times I go back to experience it.
So naturally, when a video game adaptation was announced, I was with most fans and collectively rolled my eyes. Keep in mind that this was before the likes of "Detective Pikachu" or "Sonic The Hedgehog"; we were still getting bad adaptation after bad adaptation of video games into movies. With this mindset, I chose to just let the movie pass me by entirely and allow time to consume it and fade into obscurity that only alpha-level geeks would obsess over.
That is, until I played the PS4 reboot. And enjoyed it for what it was. Meaning I just HAD to track the movie down and see it for myself to decide if it was really worth the 21% on Rotten Tomatoes or the fact that it bombed at the box office.
Plot:
If you're familiar with the first game, than a lot of the story will be quite familiar. Ratchet is a Lombax living on the planet Veldin when a space ship crashes on the planet, leading to him meeting a diminutive robot that he later names Clank. Clank need Ratchet's help to stop the evil Chairman Drek from destroying other planets in order to build his own one. The pair join forces and go after the chairman to stop him in his tracks. Along the way, the make allies and enemies as they learn to work together despite the differences in their personalities and goals.
But there are some additions to the narrative as well; namely, Ratchet's desire to become a member of the Galactic Rangers, Drek getting assistance from Dr Nefarious, and braggart superhero Captain Qwark having his own team with the Rangers. More on the stuff with Nefarious later.
Pros:
One thing that I can definitely credit the game is that they managed to get James Arnold Taylor, David Kaye and Jim Ward to reprise their roles as Ratchet, Clank and Qwark respectively. These three have been the biggest names associated with the franchise from the beginning, and it certainly works in the films favour to make it feel like a proper Ratchet & Clank story. And because of how well these actors worked together before, it makes sense that their chemistry would be on point for this film.
In fact, I can say the same for much for the cast, as they do a really good job with their characters. Rosario Dawson was clearly having fun as Elaris, Paul Giamatti was hilarious as the new voice of Drek, and Sylvester Stallone was equally funny as the robotic henchman Victor Von Ion. And to top it all of, Armin Shimerman once again reprised his role as Nefarious, balancing the mad scientist angle with the comedic screeching that is typically associated with the character.
I also think the animation was pretty good overall; it was clean, fluid and very colourful, which is exactly what you'd want from a Ratchet & Clank story. Each world is easily identifiable and has it's own charm and personality to it; ranging from the planet-wide city aesthetics of Kerwan to the smoggy industrialisation for Quartu. This is also the best that these characters have ever looked, with the exaggerated expressions working really well with the faux-realistic textures that are used for the more animalistic looking models.
Cons:
While I give major props for the animation and voice acting, the story left a LOT to be desired. The main issue I have with it is that it is woefully generic. There aren't any major plot holes or anything like that; it's just that the narrative is almost instinctively predictable with how it progresses. It's the story of a loser who wants to be a hero and gets the chance to do so, but in the process becomes a narcissist before reality knocks him upside the head and he decides to be a better person, etc, etc. We've been through this song and dance before hundreds of times in as many stories. And while the same could be said for the original game, they were able to subvert a lot of expectations; namely by having Ratchet be really selfish for a large chunk of the story and only really doing things if he got a reward for it. This contrasted well with Clank, who otherwise had noble intentions and tried his best to get Ratchet to see the bigger picture from a different perspective. In the film, however, the worst that Ratchet does is get a bit reckless and lied to Clank about already being part of the Galactic Rangers, a story thread which doesn't last that long and is otherwise pointless in the grand scheme of things.
The story itself isn't told horribly, and a lot of it is still faithful to the spirit of the original game, but you can pretty much tell where it's going from the instant it starts and predict word for word what the characters are going to say in the scenario. There are certainly good good jokes in there, such as a funny exchange between Qwark and Nefarious about non-sensical one-liners, but the dialogue is otherwise standard "Hollywood underdog-hero" fluff that most audiences are aware of at this point.
I also feel that having Nefarious as the twist villain in the film was a bit of a mistake on the filmmakers part. That's not to say he isn't a fun villain; I just don't think he should've been included in the film in the first place. Nefarious only became the franchises big bad after his debut in "Up Your Arsenal", so suddenly having him here as Drek's main scientist only for him to Sheepinate the chairman and take over as the main bad guy felt pointless, especially for people who are already familiar with the franchise and know what will happen to Nefarious by the end anyways. Hell, the film seems aware of this, as there is a mid-credit stinger that literally says "Come on, you already saw this coming" while Nefarious is being turned into a robot. Thus, having him here as the bad guy kind of lessens Drek as a character and makes him kind of pointless as the antagonist.
And just like with "Sonic The Hedgehog", there are FAR too many pop cultural references in this film. The one that always gets me is the gag about cell phones. Frequently, we would some of Drek's forces texting each other on their phones while they think their boss is not looking, only for one of them to be called out for it before the scene progresses. It's fine the first time they do it, as they're subtly calling out people who are on their phones in the movie theatre, and if it was just that one time the joke would be okay. But they keep on doing it over and over again, hammering in this joke to the point were you just want to yell at the screen "OKAY WE GET IT!!" Again, if you're going to use that kind of joke, use it only once and continue on with the narrative. Don't repeat it ad nauseum because people will start to feel like they're being treated like idiots.
Conclusion:
I can certainly say that while this movie isn't anywhere near as bad as the critics make it out to be, I can also see why it wasn't a success. The story is generic and predictable, the dialogue can get tedious at times, and most of the pop cultural references miss moreso than they hit. On the same token, however; the voice acting was top notch, a fair chunk of the jokes got a chuckle out of me, the animation was pretty and it still had the general spirit of a "Ratchet & Clank" story. Had the narrative been given a do-over and the dialogue a refresh, then this would probably be considered one of the better video game movies out there. But as is, it was just an average film; one that sadly wasn't given a fair shot from fans or critics.
But hey, if nothing else, we got a decent video game out of it.
Overall rating: 6/10 (Decent).
If you enjoyed what you read, be sure to leave a comment and share on social media; Twitter, Facebook, etc. I'd also appreciate it if you guys follow me on Twitter; I'm @MediaHood23.
But until next time; this is Callum Lewis, the Media Hood, signing off.
