The Mitchells vs. The Machines Review

 

The Mitchells vs. The Machines (formerly known as Connected) is an animated sci-fi comedy movie. The film is produced by Sony Pictures Releasing, Columbia Pictures, and Lord Miller Productions and distributed by Netflix. The Mitchells vs. The Machines is written by Mike Rianda and Jeff Rowe and directed by Mike Rianda.

The story is Katie has been accepted by the film school of her dreams. She thinks her plans of flying up there will come true, until her dad Rick decides the family should have one last road trip before Katie goes to college. Then Rick's plans go up in flames as every machines in the world decides to takeover, now the Mitchells must work out their family problems while at the same time save the world.

Initial Reaction

I was looking forward to this movie when the very first trailer dropped. After watching it it looked like it was going to be a fun and wacky movie and I was all for that. Although I do wish they kept the Connected title because the one we have now sounds like it's for a bad Disney TV movie. But hey, that's not really a problem because it's gonna be the same movie.

Cons

One of my biggest issues with the movie was our main character Katie. She started out fine at first but when the robots started to attack I did not like her. There are two scenes that showed us why. Scene one when she's looking onward and seeing burning buildings and all she can think about is her film school. Then there was a scene where she straight ups admitted to using her dad so she can yet again get to her beloved film school! That was really her only motivation for wanting to stop the invading robots. And in the end it really didn't matter that she learned her lesson because a majority of the movie it's just her wanting to get to this film school. Had they reworked a couple of things then maybe she would've been a much better character. My other problem with the film was the use of those cartoony sketches the filmmakers used. They were really funny at first but then they just started to get over used to the point where it became obnoxious.

Middle Ground

The only gray area with The Mitchells vs. The Machines were the wholesome family moments. The reason for this aspect of the film is in the middle ground portion of this review is because it was hard to really fully enjoy those moments when we know Katie is just pretty much using them for her own personal reasons that benefit her.

Pros

Now let's move on to more positive things about the movie one of those being the voice acting. I can't really pick a favorite of mine because I really felt everyone did a great job voicing their respected characters. Another thing I enjoyed was the animation. When you just ignore those sketchy cuts the animation overall is very good. Especially when you see the glowing lights when the robots are flying above all the way up from the sky. That looked gorgeous. The last thing I'll give credit where credit is due is the use of humor. No not every joke worked but a majority of the time I was having a good laugh.

The Mitchells vs. The Machines while flawed is still enjoyable. What with a great voice cast, good animation, and good jokes. The family moments are tad bit tough to enjoy because one of our characters is really selfish. Speaking of which, there really should've been a rewrite for Katie because the character we have now....I'm not her biggest fan.

My final rating is Good.

Okay, that's going to do it for me. Come back on Monday, May 3rd for part four of Looking Back at the Films of 2020. Until then, enjoy the rest of your day.