REVIEW: ASTRO BOY
AFTER nearly 60 years entertaining Japan, super hero robot ASTRO BOY (PG) makes his leap to Hollywood - in computer animated form.
It's just a shame the film-makers couldn't have come up with something more inspiring for Astro's first adventure. It all feels that little too obvious, unspectacular and, well, mechanical to win you over.
That said, they haven't skimped on the vocal talent. There's Nicholas Cage, as the grieving professor who creates Astro Boy - a robotic version of his dead son who can fly and has machine guns in his bottom. There's Donald Sutherland as a power-hungry villain, Bill Nighy as a kindly robotics whizz and Matt Lucas as a revolutionary. They even throw in Oscar-winner Charlize Theron and Samuel L Jackson for good measure.
While Sutherland and Lucas ham it up with glee, the rest struggle to bring any life to their one dimensional characters. Nighy, in particular, sounds as if he's just woken up and had a script shoved in his face.
Still, there's plenty of enjoyable action mixed in with gentle lessons about life and the environment (in this future, humanity lives in the sky and uses Earth to ditch broken robots). Just don't expect too much. It may be as sweet, colourful and child-friendly as a lollipop - but it's also just as filling. - JUSTIN MATLOCK
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