"Astro Boy" - doesn't break any new ground, but that's not necessarily a bad thing... heck in some cases it's for the better

Astro Boy is an American film adaptation of Osama Tezuka's Japanese manga/anime franchise of the same name. Toby Tenma (Freddie Highmore, The Spiderwick Chronicles, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, The Golden Compass) lives in the floating town of Metro City with his father Dr. Tenma (Nicolas Cage, Knowing, G-Force, Bangkok Dangerous, National Treasure: Book of Secrets) who works for the Ministry of Science, alongside Dr. Elefun (Bill Nighy, Hot Fuzz, G-Force, Pirates of the Caribbean, Underworld: Rise of the Lycans, and the upcoming Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows). Toby is accidentally killed during the testing of an invention, but is re-created as a robot. However, Tenma is displeased as he feels this creation cannot replace his son. Toby runs away from home and winds up on the surface world, where he is greeted by the Robot Revolutionary Front, consisting of Sparx (Matt Lucas, Little Britain), Robotski (Bill Nighy), and Mike the Fridge (David Bowers, Flushed Away, as well as the director of both films) who dub him, "Astro Boy". He is later found by some humans, including Cora (Kristen Bell, Couples Retreat, Fanboys, Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Veronica Mars, Gossip Girl, and the upcoming When in Rome), Zane (Moisés Arias, Hannah Montana, Nacho Libre, Beethoven's Big Break, Dadnapped), and Grace (Madeline Caroll, Swing Vote, and the upcoming The Spy Next Door), who take him to their friend Hamegg (Nathan Lane, The Producers, The Lion King, Swing Vote) who used to work for the Ministry of Science. "Astro Boy" thinks he belongs here, but what happens when he finds out that Hamegg runs a robot gladiator-style arena? And in a subplot, President Stone (Donald Sutherland, Dirty Sexy Money, Pride & Prejudice) is unleashing his robotic creation, "The Peacekeeper" (which accidentally killed Toby), but what is really going on?

Samuel L. Jackson (Snakes on a Plane, Pulp Fiction, Lakeview Terrace, Soul Men, the Star Wars prequels, the upcoming Iron Man 2, etc.) also stars as Zog, a robot Astro brings back to life, and Eugene Levy (American Pie, Taking Woodstock, etc.) stars as Orrin, the Tenma residence's cleaner robot.

Astro Boy has quite a history in Japan and in the USA, appearing in a Japanese manga that was adapted into a television series in the 1960s, then later in the 1980s, and most recently in 2003 (was seen in the USA on the now-defunct Kids' WB! network). For the most part, the film stayed true to all of the Astro Boy media, except for making Astro embarrassed about being a robot (in other Astro Boy media, robots and humans live peacefully side-by-side, though that may just be in Metro City and not the rest of the world) and making Astro fight robots in Hamegg's tournament (in other media, he'd never do that unless it was self-defense or to protect someone, unless it was for slapstick comedy purposes). But hey, I don't write reviews to nag about faithfulness, I write reviews to rate films as standalone. Now I don't really remember the old Astro Boy series that well, but I remember the '03 one quite well. And honestly, this film doesn't seem to break much new ground, as the ending seems to show (I still won't spoil it though). Nonetheless, it is quite enjoyable.

The film scored a PG rating. There's really not much besides violence, though there is a scene on a beach with a girl in a bikini, and Astro's rocket boots tan her. I won't describe all the violence, especially since part of it is a spoiler, but here are the main highlights: The Peacekeeper kills Toby, but we don't see it on screen. Astro flies around Metro City and causes a lot of destruction, and even more when Tenma and Stone try to catch him, shooting at him, and he falls to the surface. The orphans chase each other with chainsaws, Hamegg zaps Astro (to reveal that he's a robot), and Astro competes in Hamegg's robot-fighting gladiator tournament... until Zog and Astro are pitted against each other. They refuse to fight, and after getting zapped by Hamegg, Zog almost steps on him... but Astro holds back his foot. Last, but not least, there's Astro's battle with The Peacekeeper, which I won't tell you how it ends, but again, I'll bring up some highlights: The Peacekeeper absorbs anything he touches, becoming even bigger, and causing Metro City to fall to the ground. Astro Boy learns he has rocket cannons in his arms and butt and uses them against him. The Peacekeeper is about to stop on him, but Cora saves him at the last minute. Afterwards, Astro appears dead, but... I'm going to stop there. I'll contact privately what happened to him. The very final scene in the film has what seems to be an eyeball with tentacles coming out of it, which Astro flies up toward and is about to punch, but before he makes contact, the film ends.

Well, if you're a fan of any incarnation of Astro Boy, then you probably will like this film. If you just want a film about robots fighting each other, or a father/son film or a film about the equality of robots and humans, you may also like it regardless of past familiarity with Astro Boy.