I saw ASTRO BOY seemingly forever ago... like late August/early September and I came out of the theater just feeling so so. This is entirely an origin story. Like... 100% origin story, and I get that the majority of the United States has the most remedial of knowledge regarding the very existence of this character, but frankly... ASTRO BOY wasn't nearly as fun as a real ASTRO BOY movie could have been.

Imagine had they told his origin in a pre-credits sequence - and then just jumped ahead to the latest adventure... where the character is suddenly cocky and badass! We only get a glimpse of that version of ASTRO BOY - and it is literally the last line of the film - and the last shot which signals to the type of ASTRO BOY movie I would have preferred.

ASTRO BOY was not a wimpy, namby pamby indestructable pussy character. But that's what they've done to him. By making this film all about him coming to grips with his loss of humanity, rejection of his father, etc... Well, those could have been handled well, but they were never dealt with, with the weight that they deserved. After all, this is supposed to be a fun film, so while they have these large emotional issues - because they would get in the way of a FUN movie, they just introduce and kind of ignore them.

There's not nearly enough excuses for action here, and when they are introduced, it's this version of ASTRO BOY where he doesn't know what he can do, so it's kinda clumsy like GREATEST AMERICAN HERO gags.

The graphics, design and the movement of the film are all excellent. This would have been an amazing film for 3D. Alas, it is 2D.

Now I know. I'm coming across as being strongly negative about this film, but that's because this isn't at all what I wanted in an ASTRO BOY movie. I didn't want a watered down wuss version. I like the original non-American edited JAPANESE ASTRO BOY - and I find it amazing that half a century later and apparently the US is still not ready for it. Or at least we're being treated like we're not ready for the real ASTRO BOY.

All of that said though - to the uninformed - this is a passable introduction to the character. I wish it was so much more than what it was, but Yoko liked it. Capone liked it. I'm sure a lot of folks that have never seen anything about ASTROBOY will like it. Heck, you'll probably like it. It just isn't for me.

It just wasn't ASTRO BOY enough for me.