Astro Boy: Lots of Flash, But No Soul

Animated feature is strong, if generic, hyper: critics

(NEWSER) - Critics agree that French studio Illumination Entertainment has made a strong first entry into feature animation with Despicable Me, featuring Steve Carrell voicing a cartoon baddy who adopts three little girls. But it has the misfortune to premiere within weeks of Pixar's beloved Toy Story 3.

• Despicable Me "cannot be faulted for lack of trying," AO Scott writes in the New York Times . "If anything, it tries much too hard, stuffing great gobs of second-rate action, secondhand humor and warmed-over sentiment into every nook and cranny of its relentlessly busy 3-D frames. It tries so hard to be likable that you may hate yourself for hating it."

Some argue 'Avatar' stars deserve nominations, too

(NEWSER) - Despite nine Oscar nominations, Avatar actors got snubbed—and some speculate it’s due to their “animated” looks on-screen. Performance capture is much more than animation, argue some, who say actors like Zoe Saldana should be recognized for their performances. “I like to think of it as digital makeup, not augmented animation,” Steven Spielberg tells the Los Angeles Times . More»

But Nicolas Cage seems to get it: critics

(NEWSER) - Critics agree: Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance is ridiculous. But they're divided over whether the silliness of the sequel, once again starring Nicolas Cage as the devilish superhero, is funny or just bad.

• In the Merced Sun-Star , Roger Moore calls the movie "a profoundly silly mash-up of comic book and quasi-religious 'prophecy' about a motorcyclist who sold his soul to the devil." It beats the original: "This time around, Cage and everybody else on board are in on the joke," and that makes it "almost a great bad movie."

Movie reviews: Rachel McAdams, Channing Tatum can't save amnesia romance

(NEWSER) - In The Vow, Rachel McAdams plays a woman who must learn to love her husband again after amnesia wipes her memory. It's no surprise it was released ahead of Valentine's Day: It's pure mushiness, critics say.

• In the New York Daily News , Elizabeth Weitzman calls the film a "down-the-middle, by-the-numbers fantasy, in which no one is too quirky or interesting or challenging in any way." Still, "there’s no shortage of viewers ready to embrace an old-fashioned, guilty-pleasure romance."

Critics split on emotional 9/11 movie

(NEWSER) - Critics are split right down the center on Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, an emotional movie about a young boy's quest to deal with his father's death on 9/11. It's currently at an even 50% on Rotten Tomatoes , drawing reviews like these:

• "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close might have also added and Fairly Obnoxious," writes Tom Long of the Detroit News . "Mixing the horror of 9/11 with a cutesy story about a boy's unlikely quest just comes off as crass," making this "the kind of movie you want to punch in the nose."
• "No movie has ever been able to provide a catharsis for the Holocaust, and I suspect none will ever be able to provide one for 9/11," writes Roger Ebert . Certainly this one doesn't. "This plot is contrivance and folderol." Oskar's on-foot journey through New York "is so preposterous, we're constantly aware of it as a storytelling contrivance."