I thought the beginning had a lot of potential but begins to show cracks near the middle and a slog by the end. There is a bit of social commentary in here. We've become so dependant on technology that we have trouble making real friends. We have our personal data harvested by big tech companies so they can profit off us. So what does this movie set to achieve then? I think as an animated film targetting kids (and the adults watching with them), this message is extremely off the mark. For kids, they might laugh or enjoy the animation, but the message will completely go over their heads. For adults, it felt like some boomer wrote the script and was just repeating what I've heard since the dawn of smartphones: don't keep looking at your screens, companies are tracking you and collecting your data. So by the time the ending comes, what is the movie's solution? Continue to use the B Bots, but this time... ALL of them have the same personality as the main character's bot. Shouldn't each bot be more...personalized/customized to each person? I imagined i had a "Ron personality" B-bot at the end....yeah no i'll take one that is a lot more quiet thanks.
I didn't enjoy the middle or ending either. The movie shifted from being a coming-of-age story of an awkward middle schooler, to being a survival story in the woods....to suddenly becoming a heist film? It was this flip flop of genres that made me think the writers didn't have a good ending in mind. Did you see the elevators at Bubble, the large spinning fan, the towers and towers of servers? From the very beggining of their rescue it just seemed Barney was WAY out of his league. Using only deus ex machinas, could Ron be saved at the end. (Dad's laptop with a virus that can shut down a whole buildings power, grandma able to get through security easily, ron's code just HAPPENED to blink etc.) IF you were going to do a heist, then you should flesh it out. Maybe cut the forest time if ron was going to get caught ANWAY. Maybe have the other kids from Barney's class help.
Speaking of other kids, they really needed to do something about this aspect. There was never a point throughout the film that I thought "Oh maybe these people COULD be Barney's friends". It just happened because the story needed it to happen without much build-up. (Of all people, the bully being best bros with Barney? Come on.) I get the feeling other than the science girl, Barney's group of friends at the end isn't even that suitable for him. Friendship really is a key theme to this movie and it doesn't work when the audience (other than Ron and Barney) doesn't buy it.
The movie wasn't terrible but it didn't live up to expectations set at the start. The animation and voice acting are fine. I've said what i needed to about the story and message above. My rating could have been higher had the movie just been funnier with more jokes throughout. I just found myself frustrated at the main characters or their situations more times than I would like for an animated movie.
I didn't enjoy the middle or ending either. The movie shifted from being a coming-of-age story of an awkward middle schooler, to being a survival story in the woods....to suddenly becoming a heist film? It was this flip flop of genres that made me think the writers didn't have a good ending in mind. Did you see the elevators at Bubble, the large spinning fan, the towers and towers of servers? From the very beggining of their rescue it just seemed Barney was WAY out of his league. Using only deus ex machinas, could Ron be saved at the end. (Dad's laptop with a virus that can shut down a whole buildings power, grandma able to get through security easily, ron's code just HAPPENED to blink etc.) IF you were going to do a heist, then you should flesh it out. Maybe cut the forest time if ron was going to get caught ANWAY. Maybe have the other kids from Barney's class help.
Speaking of other kids, they really needed to do something about this aspect. There was never a point throughout the film that I thought "Oh maybe these people COULD be Barney's friends". It just happened because the story needed it to happen without much build-up. (Of all people, the bully being best bros with Barney? Come on.) I get the feeling other than the science girl, Barney's group of friends at the end isn't even that suitable for him. Friendship really is a key theme to this movie and it doesn't work when the audience (other than Ron and Barney) doesn't buy it.
The movie wasn't terrible but it didn't live up to expectations set at the start. The animation and voice acting are fine. I've said what i needed to about the story and message above. My rating could have been higher had the movie just been funnier with more jokes throughout. I just found myself frustrated at the main characters or their situations more times than I would like for an animated movie.