Random Movie Review - Ratchet & Clank

A film based on a video game and the film has the full involvement of the developers of the game. So how come a film that's largely faithful to the source material could be so bad? Well one could say that it changed too much about what we know about the franchise as a whole. But another could say that its a video game film which most often tend to not be good anyway. Now as I have previously mentioned, 2016 was supposed to be the comeback year for video game films and in the end, every single one of them became big stinkers according to reviews. Now as you all know I have praised the Ratchet & Clank games as I enjoyed all the ones I've played so far, very much. So now let's talk about the film and let's see if I liked this or not:

Based on the very first game of the series, we meet Chairman Drek (voiced by the legend that is Paul Giamatti) who wants to destroy worlds to create a new one for himself using particular quarters of said worlds. Meanwhile on the planet Veldin, we meet one of the titular protagonists, Ratchet (reprised by James Arnold Taylor) who is doing his job as a mechanic hoping to one day join the Galactic Rangers. And soon enough, his dream gets closer as the rangers pay a visit to Veldin to find a new recruit and so Ratchet puts himself forward. Meanwhile, a little robot named Clank (reprised by David Kaye) escapes from Drek's clutches via a ship, but not before causing it to crash land. As the threat Drek poses to the universe causes more problems, a new duo of heroes come into action in the hopes to save the universe, even if its the most unlikely of alliances.

Now while the game that came out at the same time as this film will always be the best way to go, this film is a mess. It changed too much that we know about the first Ratchet & Clank game and because of that, it just doesn't work. We get some new information about some of the series' recurring characters, but the information we get is not well received. Not only that, but the film feels like one of those CGI films where the CGI is decent at best, but not at the standard of Disney and DreamWorks films. But its not all bad. Some of the voice acting is done really well and it manages to retain the crazy weapons from the video games with their respective introductions. And the CGI, while what I previously stated, actually is very reminiscent of the games. Ultimately, I'd say what let's this film down is the story telling, the things that changed for the worst and the fact that this is one of the rare occasions where the creators of the source material took part in its creation, but made the film suck. Normally having the creators on board is a good thing, but not this time I'm afraid. 5/10