Astro Boy is a completely forgettable CG animated movie. I wasn’t going to write anything about it, but it really exemplifies how amazing Pixar’s movies are.

The animaion is good, there was some good work done by IMAGI, the action set pieces are fun to watch. It’s the story is so half assed and awkward, it seems like the script never went beyond the first draft of a 12 year old. Astro Boy is originally a manga character created in the 1950s. He’s a robot boy with a cute design, what’s not to love? Everything in this embarrassment. Astro Boy starts as a real boy who get’s killed in an accident and his scientific genius father builds a robot in his image and puts his “DNA memories” into the robot to try and get his son back. Using some Blue energy magically obtained from space as a power source, Toby is seemingly the same good matured kid. But of course you can’t bring back the dead, much to his fathers dismay.

Everything is closed over in the story. Sure it’s outlandish about a robot boy can talk and have feelings (a big plot element in any sci-fi robot story) but you accept it as part of this world. It’s in the future! But good lord, there is so much garbage at work here. The Blue and Red energy idea is so childish. The DNA memory concept is absurd, the robot guardian that absorbs just about everything it touches, there is an apparent war between Metro City and the Surface of Earth that only 2 people say is happening. There’s this juvenile political angle to the movie that is so out of place and handled poorly it makes any adult scratch their head. Astro Boy doesn’t even seem surprised when he discovers he has rocket feet when he thinks he’s a boy. The part with Toby’s death at the beginning is so quick and awkward I wouldn’t want a kid of mine to see it. See Pixar’s Up to see how masterfully such an intense life lesson can be carefully and masterfully handled.

All the voice actors sleep walk through this. Just lines on a page to read. Astro Boy is a prime example of a poor animated movie. It’s aimed very low and comes off as such. Pixar movies are aimed at everyone. They don’t insult the intelligence of the audience, regardless of age. Pixar painstakingly makes amazing stories with real character(s). They can make serious parts and comedic parts that everyone can enjoy (even if they are too young to understand it). It really struck me at how much better Pixar can make a movie.

It’s been a long time since I’ve been to the movies and Kick Ass brought me back to the picture house.

Based on the Mark Millar (many Batman books, Sin City…) comic, Kick Ass is the story of Dave who is your average kid who wonders why no one has tried to be a real super hero. One day he gets the courage to try it out, makes a costume out of a wet suit and proceeds to get his ass kicked.

This movie was a ton of fun, just what I was looking to watch. Funny, exciting, crude and rude. There’s a solid dose of violence (that has been hyped up much higher than it really is) and the action is really well done. I really enjoyed the direction and cinematography. The movie looks great outside of some rough blue screen and CG, but there are some great transitions and set ups. The 3D comic back story of Big Daddy and Hit Girl was terrific, the fight choreography was really well done and one of the better soundtracks I can remember in quite some time.

Kick Ass is just short of 2 hours long and the story hits a lull half way through. But the characters really kept me engaged, the entire cast was really good. And that includes Nicolas Cage! His resume is filled with craters but he was really enjoyable here, his Adam West homage as Big Daddy was brilliant. He had a real chemistry Chloe Moretz who plays his 11 year old daughter Hit Girl. They are in every major action scene together and their last one was actually really touching at the end of all the carnage (which oddly enough had both the best and worst looking sections of the movie). I’ve never heard of Aaron Johnson (a bloke from the UK) before but I gotta say I’m a real fan now. His American accent is perfect and he made Dave into a completely realistic and likeable person. Dave isn’t a complete nerd, he’s not obnoxious and I could really relate to him. When he gets beat up you feel sorry for him and when he gets the girl you’re totally psyched for him. And Christopher Mintz-Plasse (of Superbad fame) is great, as always, as Chris/Red Mist.

Kick Ass is one of the best movies I’ve seen in awhile. It takes the standard comic book conventions and mixes them up to keep it new and interesting. The characters are great, the action fun, everything I really look for in this type of movie. It’s been getting shit reviews from old critics, but this movie isn’t meant for them. It certainly isn’t perfect. It pushes for shock value that often times doesn’t work, but it’s a small complaint in an otherwise terrific movie. The audience I was with really liked it. I’m thinking this is going to have a terrific opening weekend and beyond as the release was timed perfectly.