DVD Movie Review | Ratchet & Clank (Lights, Camera, Action!)

Ratchet & Clank (UK Rating: U)

No prior knowledge of the games series is required here, as this is something of a reboot and reimagining of the very first title. That being said, there are plenty of Easter Eggs for long-term fans and the more eagle-eyed out there will see some other familiar faces from PlayStation history, too. Upon its original cinema run, this reboot came with a brand new PlayStation 4 release, too, and each told the same story but with some unique moments in each; the only way to see the whole story is to actually experience both.

The story of the film is quite the familiar one: it's a classic hero from humble beginnings tale as Ratchet answers the call to adventure and fights against a villain with pure evil motives. The film is full to bursting with clichés and tropes, yet uses them to its advantage by parodying them, "as if you weren't expecting this!" for the new obligatory post-credit sequence, and a warning that a training montage is incoming. The villain here - Drek - is sick of his overcrowded planet, and so is destroying other worlds, and then taking the best pieces of each to combine into a new utopia. That is if he can get his idiotic henchmen to stop playing with their phones long enough, of course. When he crafts an army of robotic warriors to help facilitate this plan, a defect from this army - Clank - escapes to inform the Galactic Rangers and to try and stop him. From here, Clank teams up with Ratchet and the Rangers to take the fight to Drek.

Outside of the lead duo, the extended cast here boasts some big names: the Galactic Rangers group is made up of Captain Qwark, long-time support character from the games, voiced by venerable actor Jim Ward, along with new characters voiced by Bella Thorne, Rosario Dawson, and Vincent Tong. It's not just the heroes with big voice talent, though, as the villains do, too. The big bad Drek is brought to life by Paul Giamatti, and his lieutenants consist of the muscle, Victor Von Ion done by Sylvester Stallone, and the brains, series mainstay Nefarious, voiced by his original videogame actor, Armin Shimerman. Even John Goodman makes an appearance as Ratchet's guardian! The acting is superb across the board; the cast from the games have been voicing their characters for over a decade now, and it shows, with the characters practically jumping out of the games and onto the silver screen (and now on DVD). The extended cast put in great performances, too, but their characters are often one-note and wasted - Von Ion and The Galactic Rangers, especially.

6/10

Good

There was so much promise here with the big screen adaptation of Ratchet & Clank, especially given its quality on the videogame front and rich source material. This could have been the game-to-movie venture to break the mould, to open the door to game-based movie projects that don't leave a bad taste in the mouth of loyal fans. It falls short of that, not because the film is particularly bad, but that it just feels uninspired and run of the mill - decent enough, but hardly memorable, or up to the same calibre of the games. In fact, check out the latest PlayStation 4 release to see why the series gets so much love. Keep the movie as a 'rainy day' back-up option instead.