Astroboy is excellent (movie review)

Over the Vampire weekend, I was almost peer pressured into watching that movie. But when we saw the lines that snaked all the way to China, we decided to see the movie with the least number of people lining up for tickets. So we saw Astroboy.

I was ready to be bored and fall asleep. Boy, were we in for some huge surprise.

Astroboy is a brilliant piece of film making and it certainly delivered the goods. Based on the Astroboy manga of our childhood, the movie is set in futuristic Japan where humans live side by side with robots which basically do everything for them, from the laundry to fighting wars.

The wonderful thing with this film is that it’s not afraid to take risks in the writing of its story. The audience, most of which are kids, are made to deal with difficult issues. Immediately at the start of the movie Dr. Tenma’s son, Toby, dies. Immersed in great sadness, Dr. Tenma builds a robot version of Toby. Using Toby’s DNA, the robot version has all the boy’s memories. But soon Dr. Tenma rejects the robot boy and abandon’s him. Toby, now Astroboy, realizes his robotic nature and leaves the city with a broken “heart”.

The film courageously tackles difficult themes: destiny, finding one’s place in the world, self sacrifice and what it really means to be human. But what’s great is that the weight of its themes is neatly wrapped in sequences and lines that are witty, visually stunning and exciting.

A character at the end of the movie says that Astroboy has more humanity than all of us. And that speaks of the movie itself which has more heart and soul than most non-animated flicks out there, certainly more than that vampire movie.

I give this movie a B+.

Too bad, it might not survive the Twilight weekend. Not even Astroboy can survive the rush of tween girls hungry for some brooding paleness.