Ratchet & Clank (2016)

            The status of movies based on video games hasn’t had the best success. Since 1993, after the debut of the first video game movie, “The Super Mario Bros. Movie,” most adaptations have been…well, bad. The only rare miracles that we’ve had were “Mortal Kombat (1995)” and maybe a couple others that I may not know about. However, with 2016 putting three video game movies (and a mobile phone game movie) in theaters, there might be a chance of the video game movie curse finally breaking. And we have our first film to take that test, “Ratchet & Clank.”

            Now let me be clear, I’m not really an expert on the “Ratchet & Clank” franchise, especially compared to some of my friends. To be fair, I have played a couple of the games in the series, so I do have a general idea of the characters, world, and the tone that they’re known for. When it was announced that feature film was being made based on the franchise, I was hesitant, mostly because it was being done by Rainmaker studios. What have they done? Well, they’ve done shows like “Reboot,” “Transformers: Beast Wars,” but they’ve also dabbled into film with “Escape from Planet Earth” back in 2013. If you’ve never seen that film, it’s complete shit. But first, let’s dive into the story.

            When planets are being torn apart one by one by an evil organization known as the Blarg, the Galactic Rangers are looking for new recruits to help them in their fight against them. Ratchet, a Lombax mechanic, longs to join the fight and do something exciting with this life. His chance comes to him, in the form of a defect robot of the Blarg, who Ratchet calls Clank. Soon the two team up and become part of the Rangers, as they embark on a fight to save the universe.

            Was this film good? Much to my delight, it was. For starters, the animation was definitely an improvement over “Escape from Planet Earth,” capturing both the look of the games and the atmosphere and tone that they’re known for. It’s very cartoony, but it never tries to draw away from any moments that are action packed and serious. I especially loved the action scenes that showcase the variety of weaponry that the games are known for, ranging from the basics to complete overkill. Plus, with the film maintaining the games’ sense of humor, I also love how the film managed to work in a few references into other Playstation franchises, including the boot-up sound of the Playstation 1. That got a real big laugh out of me.

            The voice cast was actually pretty good too. I was really glad to see that the film decided to bring on James Arnold Taylor, David Kaye, and Jim Ward, to come back and reprise their roles as Ratchet, Clank, and Qwark, because you can’t really picture anybody else as those characters. This is especially true for Ratchet and Clank themselves, because Taylor and Kaye really embody these characters inside and out. The friendship these two share, the cooperation they have on missions and in general, it all flows really damn well with these two. And Jim Ward’s work as Qwark is absolutely delightful to watch, being the kind of egotistical superstar that we’ve seen before, but Ward makes it sound very fun to listen to. As for the rest of the cast, I thought they did a good job. Despite being an onscreen cast, with Sylvester Stallone as the Blarg’s strongest soldier, Paul Giamatti as the chairman of the Blarg, John Goodman as Ratchet’s mentor, and Rosario Dawson and Bella Thorne as other members of the Galactic Rangers, they all manage to deliver great voice performances. I think most of that effort comes from having the legendary Andrea Romano on board as the voice director. Trust me, whenever you’ve got Andrea Romano working as the voice director of anything animation, the effort is brought up by 30%.

            My only real big complaint with the film was with the villains. I mean, don’t get me wrong, Paul Giamatti as Chairman Drek and Armin Shimerman as Dr. Nefarious were good, but I felt like Nefarious was underplayed a little bit in the film. I would have liked him to get a bit more screen time, especially compared to Drek’s camera moments. Just needed a better balance between the two.

            The film was written and directed by Kevin Munroe, best known for his work on the 2007 “TMNT” animated movie and “Dylan Dog: Dead of Night.” He really knows his stuff when it comes to bringing to life some adaptations, and that couldn’t be any truer than with this film. The fun and atmosphere that the “Ratchet & Clank” games (as far as I know) are realized perfectly, and I’m seriously looking forward to what he’ll bring with his “Sly Cooper” movie.

            Overall, “Ratchet & Clank” was a great deal of fun, and that’s saying a lot for a video game movie. It may not be perfect, but I still ended up coming out of the film with a big smile on my face. It makes me sad that this film tanked and got panned so badly, because it certainly didn’t deserve to. If you missed your chance to see it in theaters, definitely give it a watch when it comes out on blu-ray.

Rating: 9/10