What is it about space sci-fi that makes us suddenly pull out all the Scrabble big score tiles, huh? Veralux, Lombax and Brax Lextrus … Qwark, Quartu, and Drek … Zed, Zurkon, and Grimroth Razz … and I’m not even done with the cast.
Chairman Drek (voice of Paul Giamatti) has a Death Star device. Here, it’s called the “Deplanetizer,” but it’s the same idea. The catch is that he’s not so much in favor of destroying planets as creating a special hodgepodge planet out of the pieces. Points for originality, huh? As insane ideas go, that one’s not bad. I mean, imagine piecing a specific state out of The Adirondacks, Hawaii’s beaches, Florida’s swampland and the Great Salt Lake. It would be a silly state, extrememly unstable, and the people would never get along, but pretty darn unique, huh?
As the planets are destroyed, the call goes out for the Galactic Rangers, a quartet of big gunned idiots. Geez, they’ll let anybody save the galaxy these days. Except they won’t – overwhelmed, Guns ‘n’ Rangers hold auditions for a fifth member, attracting the attention of young Luke Sky– er, I mean young mechanic named Ratchet, a bright-but-impulsive member of the exclusive big-eared, fox-like species, Lombax. FWIW, the greatest insult of my youth was a playground taunt of accusing a rival of being “a big-eared Lombax.”
Meanwhile, the bad guys destructo-bot cloning machine produced a conveyer belt glitch – a pint-sized, good-natured killbot. To get an idea of how … unusual this aberration, imagine an assembly line of SUVs suddenly producing a functional golf cart and you’ll have an idea of how silly this plot point is. But, hey, animated and kid friendly. Let’s save the galaxy and learn a lesson about teamwork – that lesson being: “with proper teamwork, we
can save the galaxy.”
Ratchet & Clank had some nice positives – flawed hero, unique partner, jackass teammates, cute title intros – although it seems the really good innuendo from the video game didn’t pass the PG rating. Ultimately, this film did break away from its joystick origins to find something unique in the offing – and yet, it missed true entertainment. I feel like this film is an entire meal comprised of appetizers: “hey, that looks good” “that’s kinda fun” “mmm, that was a nice bite” “I can’t wait for the main meal. Oh. Well, that was ok, I guess.”
Thrown together by fate, heroes two
A bot and something missing from the zoo
Overcoming fear
Can mechano-man hear?
Not a worry, he’s got ears for both of you
Rated PG, 94 Minutes
D: Kevin Munroe, Jericca Cleland
W: T.J. Fixman and Kevin Munroe and Gerry Swallow
Genre: Animated Star Wars “homage”
Type of person most likely to enjoy this film: Young Luke Skywalkers
Type of person least likely to enjoy this film: Animationphobes
