"Ratchet & Clank" Movie Review

PlayStation has created some really incredible games over the years, but this year they are trying something different and diving into the world of cinema with their new feature-length film version of their wildly popular game of the same name; "Ratchet & Clank".

The story is set in a far away galaxy where we are introduced to Ratchet, a lombax who is working as a mechanic on a planet that looks a bit like Tatooine from "Star Wars". He dreams of joining the Galactic Rangers, a group of heroic crime fighters who keep their neck of the universe safe. Lately, there have been reports of whole planets being destroyed, so the Rangers are tasked with finding who is behind it as well as finding someone new to join their ranks. Ratchet, who then meets up with a small "defect" robot he named Clank, join forces and are then inducted into the Rangers and move forward with helping save the galaxy.

The Galactic Rangers [found on Google Images]

This film was released along side the new Ratchet & Clank game for the PS4, and both are retellings of the story from the first Ratchet & Clank game. While I never actually played the game as a kid, I heard it was pretty awesome; one of PlayStation's best. Having said that, they probably should have stuck with the game release and kept it at that. While the film wasn't horrible it just was pretty... meh. The animation was alright, the story was mediocre, and the characters didn't really bring anything new or original to really set this film apart from other movies with the same narrative. Ratchet is the A-typical wide-eyed dreamer who wants to do great things and go on adventures; Clank is a brilliant sidekick and is a great straight-man  for Ratchet, but wasn't much of a stand alone character. The villainous Chairman Drek who is behind the exploding planets plot is pretty one dimensional, as is his partner in crime Doctor Nefarious. The Rangers were pretty bland, too; there was the typical smart tech girl who no one takes seriously, the angry girl with attitude, the guy who likes to just shoot things, and the leader Captain Qwark is pretty much just Zap Brannigan sans velour.

There were a few jokes in the film that worked; one involving a Wilhelm Scream and a few old-school pop culture references, but other than that the humor and story were clearly directed to more of a kid crowd. There were also a few PlayStation in-jokes that fans of the console and games should be able to spot.

Qwark, Ratchet and Clank [found on Google Images]

Having said that, there were some things I thought really worked for the movie; mainly the superb voice work. I was really impressed with the film's cast; they not only had some big name actors involved (Paul Giamatti, John Goodman, Sylvester Stallone, Rosario Dawson), but a few of the voice actors from the original games (James Arnold Taylor, David Kaye, Jim Ward) played their characters in the movie, which I thought was really cool. It's always good to get actors and actresses with name recognition, but it's also really great when these phenomenal voice actors who normally aren't known to the same degree as their Hollywood counterparts get some actual recognition. Everyone was really on point with who their characters were, their personalities, and their motivations- it was spot on. There were a couple of times the lips clearly didn't sync with the words, but the voice work is good enough to almost let it slip. Almost.

Dr. Nefarious and Chairman Drek (below)
are the team of villains our heros must face.
[found on Google Images]

Ultimately, this movie was aggressively mediocre at best; it probably would have been a just-as-great movie on Cartoon Network or Nickelodeon or even just go straight to DVD. From what I know of the game the story line of the movie was pretty much identical to it, which is nice that they kept to the source material; we all know how that's normally not the case for video game movies. This film is arguably better than the likes of "Super Mario Bros.", "Bloodrayne" and other horrid movies of the same genre, but it's still not the blockbuster video game film everyone has been waiting for. "Ratchet & Clank" was an okay movie that super fans of the franchise or younger kids will probably enjoy, but at best I can't help but feel this is something parents can play on "Uncle T.V." to keep their kids occupied for 90 minutes. PlayStation, this was a noble attempt and an earnest first try. I'll be waiting for a film version of "God of War" in the meantime.

Ratchet & Clank [found on Google Images]