A-X-L is about a young teenage boy who is very into motorcycle racing. He encounters a top secret robotic dog with an AI system who eventually befriends it. He teaches it how to be good and to distinguish right and wrong. However, after some antics, the government and the creators begin to interfere.
Going in, I didn't expect anything spectacular. From what I could gather from the previews, it seemed like a by the numbers kids flick. In some ways, I wasn't wrong, and I do think that kids will enjoy it. It is a competently made film with its small pluses. It has good cinematography, decent pacing, a far better score than this movie deserves and I feel like it does try with the script.
However, this movie suffers from some major problems. For example, it has a romance plot between the main character, Miles, and a girl played by Becky G that I could not buy at all. The male lead's big problem is that his acting is bad; he barely shows any real emotion or charisma in his performance throughout the entire runtime. The female lead suffers from simply having no distinct personality aside from being a graffiti artist. At the very least with Miles, he at least has some memorable traits such as knowing how to repair machinery. But the girl suffers from having no character. Don't get me wrong her acting isn't bad too, I thought Becky G tried with this role. As such, I found it impossible to buy that the characters were in love; they don't share any real chemistry; it's just a pointless sideplot that feels forced.
My biggest issue with it, however is that by the end, I realized that this, intentional or not, is nothing but a complete rehash of The Iron Giant. It stars a kid who befriends a machine. Seeing that it may be dangerous, the government tries to intervene. The boy meets somebody who is willing to help him protect his robotic friend. To me, this sounds exactly like the plot of The Iron Giant, except that movie has charm, humor, fun characters and even some substantial political commentary on prejudice. This movie even rips off the ending to Iron Giant beat-by-beat, which was the biggest giveaway to me.
A-X-L may be enjoyable for kids, but the fact that it has an uncanny resemblance to a far superior animated movie really bothered me.
3/10
Going in, I didn't expect anything spectacular. From what I could gather from the previews, it seemed like a by the numbers kids flick. In some ways, I wasn't wrong, and I do think that kids will enjoy it. It is a competently made film with its small pluses. It has good cinematography, decent pacing, a far better score than this movie deserves and I feel like it does try with the script.
However, this movie suffers from some major problems. For example, it has a romance plot between the main character, Miles, and a girl played by Becky G that I could not buy at all. The male lead's big problem is that his acting is bad; he barely shows any real emotion or charisma in his performance throughout the entire runtime. The female lead suffers from simply having no distinct personality aside from being a graffiti artist. At the very least with Miles, he at least has some memorable traits such as knowing how to repair machinery. But the girl suffers from having no character. Don't get me wrong her acting isn't bad too, I thought Becky G tried with this role. As such, I found it impossible to buy that the characters were in love; they don't share any real chemistry; it's just a pointless sideplot that feels forced.
My biggest issue with it, however is that by the end, I realized that this, intentional or not, is nothing but a complete rehash of The Iron Giant. It stars a kid who befriends a machine. Seeing that it may be dangerous, the government tries to intervene. The boy meets somebody who is willing to help him protect his robotic friend. To me, this sounds exactly like the plot of The Iron Giant, except that movie has charm, humor, fun characters and even some substantial political commentary on prejudice. This movie even rips off the ending to Iron Giant beat-by-beat, which was the biggest giveaway to me.
A-X-L may be enjoyable for kids, but the fact that it has an uncanny resemblance to a far superior animated movie really bothered me.
3/10