Summer of Nicolas Cage Movie #17: Astroboy

2009 cartoon

Rating: 9/20

Plot: Robot scientist Nicolas Cage's son dies, so he makes a robot version to replace him. It doesn't work out nearly as well as you would think.

Life is short, and I wasted part of it watching Astroboy. I got really bored early, fought to keep my mind from wandering, and ended up liking next to nothing about this movie. I liked the part where the kid died, I guess. Apologies to anybody who really wants to read my detailed thoughts on Astroboy, but I can't waste any more time with it.

5 comments:

Barry said...

Saw this on HBO about a month ago. Actually missed the middle half hour, from the moment where Astro Boy is betrayed by the guy that is a robot fighter promoter, to the point where Astro Boy saves the world...or at least the floating city. I honestly did not feel like I missed anything.

Cardboard cutout bad guys....idiotic heroes. Nick Cage being pretty much useless. I give this one an 8....and it gets that much because some of the animation looked pretty cool.

cory said...

Liked it better than some other recently discussed animated films. I enjoyed Cage's voicework, and felt a certain amount of sympathy for the titular character (Shane copyright infringement). The rest was moderately entertaining. A 13.

Barry said...

I think where I had my major problems with this one, is how cold and distant it is. A freaking kid dies...he is vaporized, yet when he is brought back, its like no big deal. Its especially notable when the kid finds out he is this incredibly powerful robot. Does he spend even a minute contemplating this? Does he go into detailed questions about what happened to his old body? Nope...he gets right into it and seems to adjust pretty damn well. Even when he is tossed out of sky city, hes mostly fine.....eh, big deal, hes a robot boy.


There wasnt a speck of real emotions or real reactions in this entire film...which I guess it what I should expect from a film based on Japanese anime.

Shane said...

Exactly! Cold and distant. If I wanted to waste more time writing about the movie, those are the exact words I might have used. I couldn't believe how quickly the kid death happened. It was just it had to happen to make the rest of the story happened without any time taken to let it all sink in. It's just like "Boom! Come on, people! We have to get this plot moving because kids will get bored if this goes beyond 90 minutes!"

Barry said...

Since this is the last Nick Cage movie on here, I am posting in this location.


I just want to point out that, I believe, I have now seen more Nick Cage movies in August than Shane has. I just saw (For some idiotic reason) Season of the Witch........

If you ever get around to reviewing it, I will add my opinion of it.