Ratchet & Clank is forgettable fun.

Veterans of more than a dozen video games, Ratchet and Clank are the latest pixelated characters to find the leap from platform pleaser to popcorn powerhouse is more than any double jump or button mashing can easily manage.

When the galaxy is threatened by Chairman Drek and his fearsome Deplanetizer, it’s up to a plucky young Lombax called Ratchet and his newfound robot friend Clank to warn the Galactic Rangers and save the day.

Bright and colourful, “Ratchet & Clank” will likely delight younger viewers but it will struggle to keep their older siblings’ and parents’ attention. Without the interactive gameplay element, the trademark humour and quirky world-building of the game series can only do so much. It’s not that “Ratchet & Clank” is a bad film, far from it. It’s just completely forgettable. The character design is good, the voice cast (which includes the likes of John Goodman, Paul Giamatti and Sylvester Stallone) do their jobs well and the story barrels along at a breakneck pace even if it doesn’t always feel like it’s actually going anywhere but the overall effect lacks a spark of life to bring it all together. It’s a huge step up from dross like “Norm Of The North” but it’s an impossible leap away from the likes of DreamWorks, Pixar and Disney.

For fans of the series, it’ll be a pleasant diversion but it’s a shame that more of the wit, energy and inventiveness of the games didn’t manage to translate to the big screen.

ratchet and clank review
Score 5/10


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