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[ShadowSoldier89]

So I went and saw it, and it was fine. Neither good nor bad, just kind've there. The villain jokes fall mostly flat, but some of the other gags are good.

I think the worst thing about the movie is that it isn't faithful to the game that plays through the same story.

Game and movie comparison spoilers

Spoiler

In the movie, ratchet is a complete buffoon, pimping out some old dudes ship instead of just repairing it and causing a complete scene where he almost gets them both killed. Later he is seen trying to use the weapons for the first time at the rangers headquarters and failing miserably.

The biggest mistake was messing up Ratchet in another way, via skipping gameplay segments in the game. In one of the early parts Ratchet goes to the ranger tryouts and blows them out of the water. You play that tryout. You look like a shoe-in for the rangers. Then in a scene that is also in the movie Quark and the other rangers read off some of Ratchet's rap sheet and deny him entry mainly because quark doesn't like him. In the movie though we've just seen him be reckless and foolish, not demonstrate anything at a tryout, then get shot down for being in an idiot. The same exact scene copied and pasted between the two sources comes off as a great moment of character building for quark and tragedy for ratchet in the game, to whatever ratchet deserved it in the movie.

Either way I didn't hate the movie, but the game tells the same story much much better

 

[Vampire On Titus]

" the film’s production house, Rainmaker Entertainment, used many of the same character models and backdrops as the series’ latest PS4 installment."


Game over, sort of speak.

It shows. The movie doesn't look bad by any stretch. The visuals are actually its greatest strength. Still, there were about 7 trailers for animated films before R&C and all of them put it to shame. Even the Angry Birds movie which looks surprisingly decent.

 

[Rated-G]

" the film’s production house, Rainmaker Entertainment, used many of the same character models and backdrops as the series’ latest PS4 installment."


Game over, sort of speak.

I don't see how this is a bad thing really? From the start Insomniac said they gave Rainmaker models and sets from the games to plan out the film and get a head start on the blocking and layout stages of previs that can be time consuming and expensive on the typical animated film. It's a great way to save money to be honest. And after that Insomniac and Rainmaker sent assets back and forth to each other, tweaking elements and designs to make sure the game and movie looked consistent. Some of the examples mentioned were Ratchet's model, and the garage on Veldin. Look at Ratchet's model in the initial film announcement compared to the final version after Insomniac tweaked and sent it back.

The fact that the film and game share assets shouldn't necessarily have a negative connotation. The film still uses more advanced textures and rigs, on top of higher quality lighting. All that's implied is that the two studios wanted a sense of visual consistency most video game/film adaptations typically fail at.

 

[SpaceWolf]

Just saw it the afternoon...and speaking as a diehard Ratchet and Clank fan, I was pretty flabbergasted by how horrible this was. I mean, it's a really appalling movie. Really obnoxious, shrill, incompetently written...and worst of all for a Ratchet and Clank adaptation, completely unfunny.

I think the most astonishing thing about the movie is how little Ratchet and Clank manage to even interact with each other in the film. The whole point of the games is that they centre around the oddball relationship of Ratchet and Clank, with each adventure almost like a buddy cop film set in space. Instead, in this film, Clank just spends the majority of his time hanging out with the utterly pointless character played by Rosario Dawson, whilst Ratchet is off interacting with the other (equally pointless) galactic rangers.

None of the characters are developed in any way whatsoever, including the central villain. The story seems to have no comprehension of the concept of pacing. The writing was incredibly lazy, cliched and at some points borderline schizophrenic (Ratchet at the end telling Quark he's exactly like Nefarious, ten seconds later he tells Quark he's nothing like Nefarious). It's all just so flat and empty. It feels like nobody really tried.

Undoubtedly this was a movie marketed towards younger children...but in an age where all kinds of quality family films are made, this shouldn't have stopped the film-makers from trying to make something with at least an ounce of effort put behind this.

I love the Ratchet and Clank series, I've played every game and I certain intend to keep playing them. But Insomniac Games could have made a really special movie with these characters, if only they'd taken the time to hire a more competent group of people to work on it. A Ratchet and Clank movie had so much potential to become something really witty and unique, but they've now basically poured all that potential down the drain. And as a result, I can't say all the appalling reviews for this are entirely undeserved.

Congratulations on the new game, anyway Insomniac. Sorry that you blew this.

 

[Qwark]

I finally saw the movie yesterday and it was way better than I was expecting given the negative feedback. It's definitely no Pixar movie, but it was enjoyable. A lot of the jokes fell flat and were generally the obnoxious jokes you'd see on a cartoon network show, but some of them were actually pretty clever,

Spoiler

the Wilhelm joke and Dan Johnson cameo

, for example. It was just an inoffensive animated movie, not great, but certainly not deserving of the sub-30 scores I've seen.

I also don't get the complaints of bad animation. Again, it wasn't Pixar quality, or Dreamworks for that matter, but it was hardly poor quality. It seemed like it was the exact same style as the games but with finer detail, which was expected. But I don't totally understand what makes good animation, so if somebody could explain why it's bad besides just saying "it's bad", I would definitely give it a read.

Also, my (admittedly small) theater was a little over half full with quite a few laughs throughout, so that also exceeded my expectations.

Now I have an urge to replay Crack in Time, just to recall how the Zoni fit in, and if there's still a place for them in the new timeline. Hopefully the movie can get a sequel that it obviously teased.

 

[msdstc]

Don't get your hopes up about that Sly movie. With this film doing so bad, that thing's dead in the water.

Good, don't give rainmaker that character to destroy. The movie was horrendous. Unfortunately if people haven't figured this out, it also means we won't see a sequel to r+c the movie. This also will lose them money. If the budget is supposedly 12 million you have to add in marketing as well then minus a good chunk of the gross for box office take. Any extra money they got from "best selling ratchet title" will be lost to this mess and its a shame.

 

[Rated-G]

I also don't get the complaints of bad animation. Again, it wasn't Pixar quality, or Dreamworks for that matter, but it was hardly poor quality. It seemed like it was the exact same style as the games but with finer detail, which was expected. But I don't totally understand what makes good animation, so if somebody could explain why it's bad besides just saying "it's bad", I would definitely give it a read.

Now I have an urge to replay Crack in Time, just to recall how the Zoni fit in, and if there's still a place for them in the new timeline. Hopefully the movie can get a sequel that it obviously teased.

I agree as far as the animation goes. My wife and I are both animators and tend to always keep a technical eye on things while we enjoy movies. The animation in the film is good, sometimes even great, mostly more detailed style of the games with a particular style of exaggerated takes, and the individual pose language of Ratchet, Clank, Qwark, and Nefarious being well represented, as well as their facial expressions. Not Pixar level work, but definitely not bad, though there are a few moments of weak key poses, mostly on side characters, as well as some lip syncing that was very off (though sometimes, possibly in this case, that's done intentionally to make general mouth movements that can be dubbed over in other languages with relative ease, it's just usually less noticeable.

And as far as the Zoni stuff goes,

Spoiler

a lot of fans of the series seem to have immediately identified the bolt of lightning that causes Clank's defect to have been a reference to Orvus meddling with things.

whether or not that's true, I'm not sure if we'll get confirmation on that, particularly since the game didn't show that part and it's probably a long shot that the movie will get a sequel.

 

[Qwark]

And as far as the Zoni stuff goes,

Spoiler

a lot of fans of the series seem to have immediately identified the bolt of lightning that causes Clank's defect to have been a reference to Orvus meddling with things.

whether or not that's true, I'm not sure if we'll get confirmation on that, particularly since the game didn't show that part and it's probably a long shot that the movie will get a sequel.

Good deal! I was worried they were going to retcon that whole aspect, but I could see that working out. At least we have future games to expand on it even if no more movies are made.

 

[HamsterExAstris]

And as far as the Zoni stuff goes,

Spoiler

a lot of fans of the series seem to have immediately identified the bolt of lightning that causes Clank's defect to have been a reference to Orvus meddling with things.

whether or not that's true, I'm not sure if we'll get confirmation on that, particularly since the game didn't show that part and it's probably a long shot that the movie will get a sequel.

One of the many scrolling subtitles in the news feeds read

Spoiler

Zoni: Fact or fiction?

; it sure looks like they're keeping that aspect alive, or at least thinking about it.

 

[Harlequin]

After the way Blockade Entertainment mangled Heavenly Sword's story in their truly abysmal CG film adaptation of it (if you like Heavenly Sword and haven't seen the film yet: don't!), I'm not the least bit surprised that this film wasn't any better (considering Blockade were also involved in this and it's following the same concept on Sony's part of trying to create CG films using video game tech).

 

[Rated-G]

After the way Blockade Entertainment mangled Heavenly Sword's story in their truly abysmal CG film adaptation of it (if you like Heavenly Sword and haven't seen the film yet: don't!), I'm not the least bit surprised that this film wasn't any better (considering Blockade were also involved in this and it's following the same concept on Sony's part of trying to create CG films using video game tech).

I will say that whether you liked the Ratchet and Clank movie or not, it's hard to deny that it's better than that Heavenly Sword movie in every way. Not much of a bar, yeah, but worth noting.

 

[Harlequin]

^Fair enough, I was going off of the 1/5 reviews. Then again this supposedly being quite a bit better than the Heavenly Sword movie and still getting 1/5s is testament to how bad that Heavenly Sword movie truly was.

 

[Qwark]

^Fair enough, I was going off of the 1/5 reviews. Then again this supposedly being quite a bit better than the Heavenly Sword movie and still getting 1/5s is testament to how bad that Heavenly Sword movie truly was.

The 1/5 from Telegraph? That review had screenshots from not only the wrong game (All 4 One), but also the wrong franchise (Feral Rites, also from Insomnianc), both with negative captions about the movie. Believe me, the movie's not great, but that review isn't exactly Pulitzer Prize material either.

 

[ta155]

A more positive review here, written by a fan of the games - http://halfarsed.xyz/reviews/2016/5/6/ratchet-clank-the-movie-review.

Although it seems to me that even as a fan it's probably only a guilty pleasure type of film.

 

[Oersted]

A more positive review here, written by a fan of the games - http://halfarsed.xyz/reviews/2016/5/6/ratchet-clank-the-movie-review.

Although it seems to me that even as a fan it's probably only a guilty pleasure type of film.

How did you even find this review?

Edit:

Ah, you are from the website. Did you write it?

 

[Omega Kirby]

Angry Birds > Ratchet

For shame, for shame

 

[Lucreto]

How long do we have to wait for the Blu-Ray release?

My cinema only showed it for a week but I was busy that week and I missed it.

 

[Adam Tyner]

How long do we have to wait for the Blu-Ray release?

Nothing's been announced yet, but August is a pretty safe bet.

 

[SNURB]

The guy who ruined the movie is directing a mockbuster to cash in on the Trolls film Dreamworks is releasing this year:
http://www.cartoonbrew.com/feature-...or-signs-make-troll-movie-chinese-139746.html

So yeah, the Sly film is dead and hopefully for the best too.

 

[BabyFaceKillah]

Movie was bad

 

[AerialAir]

Making a movie based on a video game is hard to get right. Seems a lot is lost in the transition. From Hitman to, likely, Warcraft, the transition to film for games is an uphill battle.

Yeah, but prince of persia was alright for a Hollywood production.

 

[D1renegade]

Looks like I'll be waiting for Netflix to get this

 

[Takao]

The guy who ruined the movie is directing a mockbuster to cash in on the Trolls film Dreamworks is releasing this year:
http://www.cartoonbrew.com/feature-...or-signs-make-troll-movie-chinese-139746.html

So yeah, the Sly film is dead and hopefully for the best too.

I don't think that's a mockbuster. The character designs look nothing like the toys (they look like actual trolls) and the movie isn't coming until after the Dreamworks movie would be out on home video.

But yeah, Sly is dead.