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Rotten Tomatoes has it at a decent level (69% this morning based on 22 early reviews[ETA: Oops, slipped to 42% on Friday]), and things like machinegun buttocks don't particularly bother me. I have no Fond Childhood Memories of Astro Boy (I don't think I even heard of him until I was in grad school), although I've enjoyed the cheese factor of the original episodes I saw on Cartoon Network a few years back.
All in all, I have no reason to expect to dislike Astro Boy. On the other hand (which may or may not transform into a blaster), neither do I really have any reason to want to see it, other than "robots/animated/splody" (and I have an unwatched Revenge of the Fallen DVD I can use to scratch that itch if need be). It's sounding like they're telling a fairly bog-standard "boy learns the value of friendship and how to be a hero" story, which may or may not be a perversion of the original storyline (I recall a distinct lack of other kids for Astro to play with in most of the originals, but kids play a big role in the trailers) but is certainly not a take that calls out to me as interesting in its own right. Most of the limited negative reviews use the "made of spare parts" metaphor, which suggests that the storytelling craft is lacking.
So...unless people whose judgement I trust absolutely gush about this movie on Friday night, I'll probably spend the two hours catching up on my DVD pile this weekend rather than seeing Astro Boy. There's nothing else I'm even thinking of going to the theater for before Thanksgiving, so I could always catch Astro Boy next weekend if it turns out to be good.
All in all, I have no reason to expect to dislike Astro Boy. On the other hand (which may or may not transform into a blaster), neither do I really have any reason to want to see it, other than "robots/animated/splody" (and I have an unwatched Revenge of the Fallen DVD I can use to scratch that itch if need be). It's sounding like they're telling a fairly bog-standard "boy learns the value of friendship and how to be a hero" story, which may or may not be a perversion of the original storyline (I recall a distinct lack of other kids for Astro to play with in most of the originals, but kids play a big role in the trailers) but is certainly not a take that calls out to me as interesting in its own right. Most of the limited negative reviews use the "made of spare parts" metaphor, which suggests that the storytelling craft is lacking.
So...unless people whose judgement I trust absolutely gush about this movie on Friday night, I'll probably spend the two hours catching up on my DVD pile this weekend rather than seeing Astro Boy. There's nothing else I'm even thinking of going to the theater for before Thanksgiving, so I could always catch Astro Boy next weekend if it turns out to be good.
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Though Mega Man basically tossed out the "he's like a real boy" angle within the first page of the instruction manual when crap hit the fan and Dr. Wily went nuts.
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There's a fair few shoutouts to the previous incarnations (specifically, the tunnelling-through-rock scene and his hearing/translation capabilities), some new twists (his searchlights now have some X-ray capabilities), and modern takes on stuff that never really made a lot of sense ("I have... machine guns? In my BUTT?!").
That last one's a great moment for the audience as it shows that this incarnation of Astro is quite happy to replicate the sillier aspects of the originals as well as the serious ones. Astro's own expression is very "WTF?", and you can almost see him thinking "Wait, was Dad always nuts? What other bizarre things did he build into me?"