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Ratchet & Clank (DVD) Review

 
Ratchet and Clank poster
Ratchet and Clank poster
Ratchet and Clank poster

 
At A Glance...
 

Genre:
 
Director: ,
 
Age Rating:
 
Actor: , , , ,
 
Length: 90 Minutes
 
Release Date: 22nd August 2016 - Digital 29th August 2016 - DVD
 
Studio: Lionsgate
 
Final Score
 
 
 
 
 
3/ 5


User Rating
no ratings yet

 

We liked?


  • Fast paced action
  • Bold and bright visuals (if a little mid-tier)
  • Captures the Ratchet & Clank universe well
  • Reasonable voice work that's solid, if not spectacular

Not so much?


  • Plot and pacing is all over the place - the movie plays out despite of it
  • An awful lot of stale or bad jokes - likely 1 in 5 hit the mark
  • Very generic and doesn't make good use of the license and world at hand


Final Fiendish Findings?

As a fan it will go into my “I like this because I’m familiar with the franchise” pile of video game movies but as a stand alone title it does little to make itself memorable.

0
Posted August 21, 2016 by

 
Full Fiendish Findings?
 
 
R

atchet & Clank have always been firm favourites of mine. Ever since they won me over with their debut on the PS2 (I wanted more Spyro!) their blend of wacky comedy, buddy romp and overblown arsenal was hard to resist. As well all know, video game movies pretty much blow… No, no, I know a few exceptions are watchable and fan favourites but they’re not that way because they’re fantastic films. They’re passable because we like the source material. Games spent years cribbing notes from the movie industry and other media, none more so than Ratchet & Clank borrowing heavily from comic books, action movies and big screen cartoons. ratchet The movie follows loosely the plot of the very first game. Ratchet is a gifted, but reckless, mechanic and possibly the last of his species (The Lombax). He dreams of becoming an Intergalactic Space Ranger like his hero Captain Quark. When Warbot reject Clank suddenly falls to the planet surface the two team up to bring the news of an impending invasion by Chairman Drek to the Rangers. Now the plot is fairly thin, I mean it’s a video game plot from an action platformer, yet Ratchet and Clank always had a reasonable story and great sense of comedy timing. It also brought almost movie levels of animation to the bright cartoonish worlds developer Insomniac created. So transitioning this to a cartoon would’ve been a no-brainer in many respects. The bright worlds and fast paced action do translate very well to the big screen (well, smaller screen in the case of this DVD release) but when stacked up against the recently release Ratchet & Clank video game the visuals look sparse and in many instances you’d be forgiven for thinking you were watching an extended cutscene from the game. ratchet&clankmovie-culture-large_trans++3480UNUU8UfSxDSaY1n7MG8nGi5dnbzU1Uvp1fqu20E Voice work is good, but the script is all over the shop. The core buddy elements between Ratchet and Clank seem to phase in and out throughout the 90 minute running time and I feel a lot of the backstory of these two well loved characters is missing from the movie. It works great as a series of bright and loud events strung together, but it rarely feels a cohesive whole. Final Thoughts Fans of the games will at least get a kick out of seeing the world come to life here and kids will like the fast pace and bountiful action. Yet when all is said and done this does nothing to progress the link between video games and movies. tumblr_nvszvzfimy1sasycvo1_1280 The plot bumbles along driven by necessity rather than the characters and many of the jokes are either stale (like hashtagging things) or will pass most people by (like Sly Cooper appearing on the list of known species). So Ratchet & Clank falls firmly into the realms of mediocre. As a fan it will go in to my “I like this because I’m familiar with the franchise” pile of video game movies but as a stand alone title it does little to make itself memorable.  

The product under review was provided by the creator, manufacturer, publisher or their PR representative free of charge and without caveat. Please see our site review policy for more information.

Zeth

 
Zeth is our EU ninja and Editor in Chief. He's been writing about video games since 2008 when he started on BrutalGamer. He's pretty old and has been a gamer since he played Space Invaders as a young boy in the 80's. His genre tastes lean towards platformers, point-and-click adventure, action-adventure and shooters but he'll turn his hand to anything.


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