Your thoughts on the movie? (SPOILERS of course)

[Dragonrider1227]

(YAY! I can finally post in this thread XD)
I thought the movie was great. Worst I could say was that Nicolas Cage's acting was a little bland but everyone else more than made up for it. Especially Freddie Highmore. He was great!

- The whole president doing whatever he pleases and terrorising scientists was lame and unrealistic. It could have been made into something more believable.

UNREALISTIC? You clearly haven't lived in an America governed by George W. Bush for 8 years

[munquibyte]

I wouldn't call Stone unrealistic, clich'e is more like it.
Actually, I could put up with him, except for that icky-sweet, kiddie movie, bad guy defeat. They had a pg rating, why couldn't Stone die with the Peacemaker like Astro "did"?

That lame-o alien encounter was just isult to injury.

Edit: more ramblings.
I'm really at odds with this flick. There were some things that were just beautiful about it while other parts made me want to jam ice picks into my eyes and ears.
This is probably the best explanation that would make Tenma reject Astro (His likeness only reminds Tenma of his loss), but Toby's death did nothing to convince me that his father's grief would give way to the delusion of "starting over'. Tezuka had it right the first time; car accident. It's commonplace enough to be fear-accesible and guilt-accesible to any parent, at fault or not.
Again, this was a PG movie, what was the big deal?
And why the heck were Tenma and Elephun buddies? Huh?! Huh?!!

[DrFrag]

I agree with you, Munquibyte.

It's almost as though they were afraid to commit to dramatic events. Toby's death was just him being vapourised, and even that wasn't shown. Stone surviving being absorbed into a robot? Astro and Tenma being reunited? As good as the movie was, it was just made up of cliched feel-good moments. Pretty much everything that went bad turned out good in the end, and you could see it coming. Life isn't like that, and Tezuka never wrote Astroboy like that. Ultimately, I think it's a movie that will be forgotten over time because of this.

[cybotron]

No matter what I will not tell what I saw or learned or was instructed or ordered to do in Astroboy....
If someone does not get it....
That's his problem....
Tenma math quiz?
Dig through the mountain yourselves....
The Real Astroboys will be rewarded?
The Tawashi rescue?
What movie did you see?

[jayrath]

My question concerns the description that the Earth is an abused wasteland of trash. That was never Tezuka's theme, he always had high hopes that mankind would somehow revert to better judgement and not allow the Earth to be so ravaged.

I agree completely. As soon as I saw that, I thought, "This is not my Astroboy." I understand the ecology message for a younger generation, but Astro was created in part to deal with a different social issue: the fear of nuclear war. Astro was a way for children to deal, culturally, with Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and with fears over atomic energy. If you really want to get into it, a separate hi-tech island could (unintentionally and objectionably) be symbolic of modern Japan; just not a good thematic parallel to draw.

The power is another big problem for me. He's Tetsuwan Atom, not Tetsuwan Little Orange Meteor Derivative.

I thought Toby was annoying. And I did not like that Astro's naivete was lost. Part of the fun early on in the 1980s show was that he was a complete innocent, having to learn everything for the first time.

He's also more Astroteen in the movie. And it's great that his dad took him back, but now what about Astro's robot family?

I didn't like that Asto had real hair, but that's nit-picking. I really did not like to Robot Liberation Front -- it was a nearly direct lift from Monty Python's "Life of Brian."

Oh -- and no Skunk!

[cybotron]

[DrFrag]

Actually while I was watching it, the biggest annoyances to me were the shield over the robotting arena. It blocked robots escaping, but somehow allowed the RRF to go flying through it, as well as Stone's dropship. Then there was Elefun's mention of no trees on the surface, but it looked pretty lush where they found Zog.

On the whole I did enjoy it though.

[dannavy85]

I agree completely. As soon as I saw that, I thought, "This is not my Astroboy." I understand the ecology message for a younger generation, but Astro was created in part to deal with a different social issue: the fear of nuclear war. Astro was a way for children to deal, culturally, with Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and with fears over atomic energy.

Tezuka saw Atomic energy's better qualities and what better way than to put it into this powerful robot kid who could crush a car, rip apart a spaceship or blast away an asteroid.....

And yet he loves dogs?

I didn't like the Blue/Red energy track, I didn't like the human bashing, anti-human, humans wiped out mother earth schick. To be honest, a bunch of people put their political propaganda into this film.

I don't go to movies to get a two hour propaganda film like "The day after tomorrow" or the heavilly anti-industrial, pro-green trash that was Speed Racer. I go to movies like "Where the Wild Things Are." to escape the real world for a few nice moments.

And did anyone catch the banner on that building just before the Peacekeeper crashed through it and tapped on the podium?

"NOT THE TIME FOR CHANGE."

What was that all about?!

I had to get this off my chest, I really loved the CGI and some of the moments but overall the whole film's background political schicks left me upset.

[cybotron]

[Fauna]

Actually while I was watching it, the biggest annoyances to me were the shield over the robotting arena. It blocked robots escaping, but somehow allowed the RRF to go flying through it, as well as Stone's dropship. Then there was Elefun's mention of no trees on the surface, but it looked pretty lush where they found Zog.

On the whole I did enjoy it though.

I remember thinking in the theatre that Hamegg had put some sort of chip/software in each of the battle robots that would activate the arena shield when the robot in question was near it. As well, I thought they'd taken the "years after we leave the surface, earth recovers" from Wall-E. Or, maybe I'd just thought into it longer than the writers had.

Did anyone see Tezuka's other characters at all? I was scanning group shots whenever I could, but could only catch several Hyotantsugis in posters, and Shunsaku Ban. Then again, Shunsaku had five speaking lines...