Ratchet and Clank ** (2016, voices of James Arnold Taylor, David Kaye, Jim Ward, Paul Giamatti) – Movie Review

Ready to kick some asteroid? Directors Kevin Munroe and Jericca Cleland’s animated sci-fi video game adaptation is packed full of fast paced action and sarcastic one-liners. But, though it has plenty of energy and is likeable enough, it is short on charm and freshness, and is only patchily funny with its hit-and-miss throwaway sense of humour. The characters and story are cute enough but the movie doesn’t go the extra mile to be memorable.

The mechanical plot is based on a re-telling of the original Ratchet and Clank game (2002) with old and new characters, in which the two unlikely heroes join an elite squad of combatants to stop a vile alien named Chairman Drek from destroying every planet in the Solana Galaxy. The new Ratchet and Clank game for PlayStation 4 will be based on this film’s story and characters, making it the second movie based on a video game to have a new game based on its movie plot after Street Fighter.

James Arnold Taylor and David Kaye provide the voices Ratchet and Clank, Jim Ward voices Captain Qwark and Paul Giamatti is Drek. Also in the vocal cast are Rosario Dawson (Elaris), John Goodman (Grimroth) and Sylvester Stallone (Victor Von Ion). 

Clank is a robot and mechanic Ratchet is a lombax, a bipedal, humanoid species that originated in the Polaris Galaxy from the planet Fastoon.

© Derek Winnert 2016 Movie Review
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