Ratchet & Clank (film)
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 "Ratchet, we are clearly not prepared for this."
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Ratchet & Clank (also referred to as Racket & Clank: The Movie) is a 2016 computer-animated science fiction comedy film produced by Rainmaker Entertainment and distributed by Gramercy Pictures, based on Insomniac Games' video game series of the same name. The film was directed by Kevin Munroe, co-directed by Jericca Cleland, and stars the voices of Paul Giamatti, John Goodman, Bella Thorne, Rosario Dawson, and Sylvester Stallone. James Arnold Taylor and David Kaye reprise their roles as the titular characters alongside Jim Ward and Armin Shimerman.
The film features an original story loosely based on the 2002 video game of the same name written by Munroe, Gerry Swallow, and former Insomniac senior writer T.J. Fixman, who began writing for the series with the Ratchet & Clank Future trilogy. Alongside several cast members from the games, Insomniac contributed to the film's production with character development, screenplay, and animation assets. Released on April 29, 2016, the film received negative reviews and grossed $14 million worldwide on a $20 million budget.
Despite this, a tie-in PS4 game of the same name (also doubling as a reimagining/remake of the 2002 game of the same name) was produced and released around the same time, to much better critical reception, and a lot more sales numbers.
Qualities That Make You Want A Refund
- The main problem with this movie is that the whole of it feels like an uncut cutscene and overuses many pop-culture references such as Megamind, Monsters vs. Aliens, WALL-E, and The Incredibles.
- Most characters become very clichéd compared to their counterparts in the original series:
- Ratchet is changed from a very flawed character who becomes nobler due to his experiences throughout the game to a boring wide-eyed goody-two-shoes who just has a bunch of things happen to him.
- Ratchet and Clank constantly argued and never got along until the end of the game where they became friends, which gave their relationship more depth because they were only traveling together out of obligation and slowly learned to trust each other after putting their differences aside. Here, they just become friends right away, and barely even interact with each other afterward.
- Captain Qwark was a goofy fraud who stole credit from other heroes to become famous and was deliberately working with Drek while being directly antagonistic towards Ratchet (and was even the main antagonist of the second game) and took so long to come to any kind of redemption until the third game. Here, he's a moronic egomaniac and an actual hero that becomes jealous of Ratchet stealing the spotlight from him to the point of being extremely unlikable and is tricked by a very ridiculous plan into helping Drek, regretting it immediately. He's also so incredibly stupid to the point of giving smarter characters a hard time.
- Supreme Executive Director Chairman Drek was a con artist who intentionally polluted the planet Orxon so he could build a new planet and charge money to all the Blarg, then repeat the same scam over and over again. Here, he's a generic movie villain and is unceremoniously replaced by Nefarious as the main antagonist.
- Much of the plot is rushed from the original game.
- The Galactic Rangers, even though they didn't even exist when the original game was released, are just there so the movie could make some sexist jokes since the male members (minus Ratchet) are meatheads and the female members are attractive and intelligent.
- It needs to shoehorn in references to the games, as well as PlayStation and pop-culture references. For example, the PlayStation startup sound plays when Qwark puts in a USB in a computer in the Galactic Rangers base to disable their weapons system (which doesn't make any sense, since the Ratchet & Clank game wasn't released on the original PlayStation), and Daxter from Jak & Daxter and Sly from Sly Cooper (as well as Dan, a former Insomniac employee who passed away and appeared as an Easter egg in every Ratchet & Clank game) appear when Ratchet and Clank are flying their ship and Clank scans Ratchet.
- Depending on your view, the design of Nefarious's organic form is just awful, and having him randomly take out the actual villain of the original game is a very poorly thought-out attempt at fan service.
- The action scenes are lackluster, which doesn't make sense because the action is one of the main pillars of the entire Ratchet & Clank franchise.
- Weak direction skill of Kevin Munroe, the same director behind 2007's TMNT, which is a far better movie than this.
- The soundtrack, although at least well-done, is rather generic and forgettable compared to the original game it was based on.
- Awful humor and cringeworthy moments, such as when Ratchet and Qwark both suddenly puke after escaping the exploding Deplanitizer.
- Sequel Baiting: During the mid-credits scene we get to see Nefarious in his robot form thus vowing revenge which is never gonna happen due to the film failing critically and financially.
- If newcomers want to know what the series is like, a movie with lots of problems isn’t the best way to go. Heck, it doesn’t please anybody.
- Due to the film's underperforming at the box office, it killed Gramercy Pictures, which was a sub-label of Focus Features (the movie's U.S. distributor).
Qualities That Kick Some Asteroid
- The animation is good and way better than expected, especially since it was made by the studio Rainmaker Entertainment, the same company that made the animation for Escape from Planet Earth.
- There are some decent jokes.
- The main voice actors from the games are present.
- The PlayStation 4 tie-in game is much better than the movie.
- Doctor Nefarious, even though he shouldn't even be in the movie and was created for the third installment of Up Your Arsenal, puts on a good show. His transformation into his well-known robot form seen in the games is also seen at the end, which was only implied in backstories.
- In the ending, Clank uses his signature giggle after saying "I do bring a certain level of zing to the table, don't I?", which is kinda cute.
- Clank is the most likable character.
- Chairman Drek and Zed evilly laugh together then. "JUST PUSH THE BUTTON, ZED!"
- The pacing is okay.
- Even though the references are shoehorned in, they can be great to Ratchet & Clank fans.
Reception
On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a rating of 20%, based on 80 reviews, with an average of 4.17/10. The site's critical consensus reads: ″Ratchet and Clank may satisfy very young viewers, but compared to the many superior options available to families and animation enthusiasts, it offers little to truly recommend.″
OMW rated the movie 42% based on 186 users, the website’s consensus reads: “Ratchet and Clank is substantially more entertaining than any film adapted from a game has any right to be—which may or may not be much of an endorsement.”
On Metacritic, the film has a score of 29 out of 100, based on 19 critics, indicating ″generally unfavorable reviews.″
The audience polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of ″B″ on an A+ to F scale.
Trivia
- The film flopped at the box office, cost Rainmaker Entertainment nearly $10 million in damage, and killed off Gramercy Production. The box office bomb also played a role in the cancellation of the movie adaptation of Sly Cooper, causing Rainmaker Animation to be acquired and folded into Mainframe Studios two years later in 2018, making this film and Escape from Planet Earth the only films produced by the company.
- When YouTuber AniMat reviewed this film, he said he had no experience with the series and thus he thought the movie itself was the series is like. Years later he ended up playing the original game on the PS2 and admitted that he liked the series and that the game series are much better than the film itself.
- TJ Fixman's origin script was different from the final product. click here for more information
- Kevin Michael Richardson was intended to reprise his role as Drek.
- If IMDB is to be believed, there was a rumor (which dates back to the early 2000s) about a potential live-action Ratchet & Clank movie with Sony Pictures Entertainment involved in the rumored project. Egar Wright turned it down due to his commitment to Hot Fuzz while Guillermo del Toro didn’t want to do the project due to disagreements on the tone. Other directors including Jon Favreau, James Gunn, Brett Ratner, Joss Whedon, and Michael Bay were also considered before the project was scrapped entirely due to budget constraints.