Review time! There are some SPOILERS in here at times.
Here's what I said a few days ago:
Count me in for being excited for Robinsons. I think it looks very good all around. Hopefully the public will think the same way.
Okay. So.
I hate to deviate from the crowd here, but the movie wasn't great. In my opinion, the first half was waaay to fast. It really could've used another 10-15 minutes of exposition for a couple of reasons:
A.) It would've let you warm up to the characters a bit more. Honestly, most of the Robinson family seemed to be introduced just for their sheer weirdness. More than half of them seemed pointless except for being goofy background characters. It was like "Okay, come out, be weird really fast, then shrink to the background. Then, at the end, reflect about how great the family is!" What? Half of 'em didn't do anything!
B.) It would've let you catch more of the jokes and visual puns. There were an awful lot of laugh lines and visual gags that passed by with no laughs in the theater because, by the time they had registered, the movie already had zipped off to something else.
Another thing I noticed was that the movie just starts off with no real hooky beginning. It's literally just "Movie Title, then Story Start Now!" but with no little introduction. No opening credits, even. I don't know I explained that very well. A good example of it being done right is
Lilo and Stitch. It starts off with Lilo swimming with fish during the opening credits. Is it integral to the plot? No, not really, but it's a good introduction to both the main character and the movie.
Now then, having said all that, it's definitely worth pointing out that there was lots of good stuff in
Robinsons, too. There were plenty of neat things present, both major plot points and minor details ("Little Doris sleeps with the fishes now" was a great line). And the second half/third of the movie was very good. Pacing, plot development, character arcs - all very nice. Almost like they had to shotgun the first chunk of the movie out super fast so they could then be free to wrap it up at the right pace. Honestly, it was really saved by the last 30-40 minuted, in my eyes.
And though I enjoyed the Walt quote at the end, It almost felt a little forceful. In all honesty, a Walt quote about moving forward really would've been better suited for
Chicken Little, given that it was the first all-CG Disney movie. Or, in other words, the movie that "moved the studio forward". Of course, I get the significance of why it's in
Robinsons, and I'm not complaining about a Walt quote. I simply think that, if it had to be incorporated into this movie, it could've been a little less...obvious. I mean, "Keep Moving Forward" was said probably a good 20 times.
So there you go. I'd give it a C+/B- for now. I'm gonna see it again on Sunday (not in 3D this time), so we'll see if it gets better the second time around.
(Oh yeah, and the hidden Castle was a nice touch!)
