Ratchet & Clank (2016 movie)

Ratchet & Clank, sometimes referred to as Ratchet & Clank: The Galaxy Defenders to differentiate it from other parts of the series, is a CG-Stereoscopic animated action-adventure Sci-Fi film based on the Ratchet & Clank video game franchise. The film was initially set for release during 2015 but was delayed to 2016, due to the market being crowded with film releases. The film is a stand-alone adventure produced by Rainmaker Entertainment and Blockade Entertainment with assistance from Insomniac Games and Sony Computer Entertainment. The film was directed by Jericca Cleland and Kevin Munroe, with the script for the film written by Ratchet scribe TJ Fixman. The movie is focused on Ratchet, Clank and Qwark as Ratchet and Clank try to stop Drek from destroying the Solana Galaxy. It is rated PG for "Mild action and rude humor." The film also had a game released alongside it.

Announcement
The movie was announced on April 23, 2013, via the PlayStation Blog with a Ratchet & Clank Movie Announcement Teaser trailer on YouTube. Included in the announcement was a PlayStation Network store sale of Ratchet & Clank games on the week starting 30 April 2013 in thanks to the fans for ten years of support making the movie possible.

Press release
"Ratchet and Clank tells the story of two unlikely heroes as they struggle to stop a vile alien named Chairman Drek from destroying every planet in the Solana Galaxy. Ratchet is the last of his kind – a foolhardy 'Lombax' who has grown up alone on a backwater planet with no family of his own. Clank is a pint-sized robot with more brains than brawn. When the two stumble upon a dangerous weapon capable of destroying entire planets, they must join forces with a team of colorful heroes called The Galactic Rangers in order to save the galaxy. Along the way they will learn about heroism, friendship, and the importance of discovering one's own identity."

Plot
The story was based on the origin of Ratchet and Clank covering a similar story to the original Ratchet & Clank video game but in greater detail and with deeper meaning. The story answered fan questions and theories in a larger, theatrical release adding bits and pieces from the plots and ideas of later games.

Ratchet & Clank is about Ratchet and Clank meeting and stumbling across a dangerous weapon able to destroy planets. They join forces with the Galactic Rangers and attempt to stop Chairman Drek from destroying every planet in the Solana Galaxy.

The film featured locations previously seen in the Ratchet & Clank original series and also included many weapons and gadgets from past games.

Synopsis
Above Planet Tenemule, Chairman Drek gives a speech to his race the Blarg aboard their new invention the Deplanetizer, a space station that has the power to blow up planets. He says that it is time and use it on Planet Tenemule, completely destroying it.

On Planet Veldin, a Lombax named Ratchet works at the garage of his mentor Grimroth fixing up ships. Ratchet is unaware of his origins, having mysteriously crash-landed on Veldin as an infant, with Grimroth taking him under his wing and raising him. Ratchet learns from the news that three planets have mysteriously disappeared and that Captain Qwark, the egocentrical, selfish dim-witted leader of the Galactic Rangers, is looking for a new recruit. The Galactic Rangers serve to protect peace and order across the Solana Galaxy. After Ratchet fails to tune up the ship of Mr. Micron, he asks Grimroth for an hour off work in order to join the tryouts. Ratchet has aspired to be a ranger since birth. Grimroth reluctantly agrees and Ratchet joins the tryouts only to be rejected by Captain Qwark moments later.

Meanwhile on Planet Quartu, the over-populated and over-polluted Blarg home world, Dr. Nefarious, the mastermind behind Drek's operation, alongside Drek and Drek's robot commander Victor von Ion, are overlooking their robot production facility when Nefarious maniacally laughs, causing a mysterious lightning strike and brief blackout. After power is restored, a defect occurs and Clank, a pint-sized and intelligent but loyal robot, is born. The plans for Drek's operation have been downloaded onto him and he crash-lands on Veldin as Ratchet notices the crash and quickly inspects the area. He saves Clank and fixes him up in the garage. Clank tells him about his plan to team up with the Rangers and defeat Drek. Ratchet lies about being friends with the rangers and being able to help.

They go to Aleero City on Planet Kerwan where they are too late to warn the Rangers. By using the ship's Magboosters, the duo are able to thwart a Warbot invasion and become instant celebrities. After being asked by reporters, Qwark reluctantly agrees to initiate Ratchet and Clank as Rangers.

Meanwhile on Quartu, Drek, Victor and Nefarious watch news on holovision and catch the ensuing scene. Drek decides to manipulate Qwark to help him in his operation. Now Rangers, Ratchet learns and tries out weapons while Clank works with Elaris, the Rangers' support and tactics' team, who is constantly ignored by her fellow comrades. While working, Elaris notices that each destroyed planet has a chunk missing with a famous landmark on it. She tries to tell Captain Qwark but he, along with Ratchet and the other Rangers, do not listen to her.

After training at the Hall of Heroes, they assault Drek Industry headquarters on Quartu. During the assault, they are attacked by Zurkons. During the attack, Qwark stops in Drek's office. Victor disarms Qwark and Drek says that Ratchet is surpassing his popularity and offers Qwark a three picture deal if he works with him. Qwark accepts, as long as he does not harm the rangers.

While Qwark was in Drek's office, the Rangers discover that Drek plans on using the Deplanetizer to destroy planets and use what is left of them, primarily the chunks with landmarks, to build the Blarg a new and better planet to replace their old one. They are able to arrest Drek's assistant robot Zed (Andrew Cownden) who says that Drek is targeting Novalis, which is home to millions, including Cora.

While traveling to the station, Qwark deactivates the Rangers' weapons. Once they arrived, Qwark leaves them to catch up to Drek where he orders the destruction of the Rangers. Ratchet was able to escape fire and enter the Deplanetizer. Victor enters the Phoenix, the Rangers' ship, to kill Clank who destroys him with water.

While inside the Deplanetizer, Ratchet makes his way to disable the laser but is captured in an electric bubble by Drek who sends him into space in an escape pod and Novalis is lost. Ratchet catches Qwark being pampered by Blarg before leaving the station and is devastated by his betrayal. Afterwards, Qwark confronts Drek, who ignores him and tells him to move out. Qwark is shocked to discover Nefarious faked his death in a prison escape and the two quarrel, but Nefarious chides him about being a sellout to his fellow Rangers. After Qwark leaves, Nefarious tests his new Sheepinator on Drek, and sends him to New Quartu as he takes control of the station.

Feeling responsible, Ratchet exiles himself to Grimroth's garage. A few days later, Clank tells him that the Rangers need him and that the evacuation of Novalis was successful. He accepts and the Rangers come back for one last assault on the Deplanetizer. It's soon revealed that Nefarious plans to deplanetize Planet Umbris, which has an unstable core. If Umbris is destroyed, it would wipe out the entire system. Ratchet and Clank enter the station and while inside, Ratchet confronts Qwark. After a fight, Qwark changes his mind and apologizes to Ratchet, feeling ashamed of betraying them.

They then defeat Nefarious, who reveals he was a former Ranger himself and left due to Qwark taking credit for his inventions, and calling him King of the Nerd Herd, driving him insane to the point he became a mad scientist. Elaris and the other Rangers are able to knock the Deplanetizer off it's course, making it vulnerable to attacks. As the Deplanetizer is about to crash land on Planet Umbris, Ratchet, Clank, Qwark and the rangers flee in time. Meanwhile, Drek, reverted from his sheep state, is killed by New Quartu's vaporization which was caused by Nefarious when he activated the laser but missed Umbris.

Ratchet returns to Veldin to continue to assist Grimroth at the garage, while the other Rangers enjoy their time in the spotlight for saving the galaxy. Qwark shamelessly promotes his biography, which apologizes for said events. Clank offers to assist Ratchet and the two walk off to get a gadget that requires two to operate. Ratchet says he is not retired as a Ranger, and will return when they need him again.

During a post-credits scene, it is revealed that Nefarious survived and crashed on Umbris in the wreckage of the Deplanetizer, a group of Repair Bots search the debris and are alerted by the screams of the doctor. As they rush to aid him, he angrily protests to them that he is not a machine. Emerging from the wreckage, he quickly discovers that he has indeed transformed into a robot (from one of his weapons). Doctor Nefarious then begins to laugh maniacally at this revelation. A final post-credits scene has The Plumber tell everyone to leave the movie.

Development
The movie was already in production after the announcement in April 2013, with Insomniac Games having wanted to make a Ratchet & Clank movie for a long time. The movie was originally meant to be released early in 2015, but it was delayed to April 29, 2016. Focus features said that there were too many major movies in 2015. The movie would originally only have a spotlight of 2 weeks, with the new release date, they now have about 4–5 weeks in the spotlight. Attempts to secure rights to a movie previously had been rejected by Insomniac Games as they wanted to ensure a Ratchet & Clank movie would be completed in the right way with high quality. TJ Fixman wrote the movie's script with Rainmaker Entertainment and Blockade Entertainment producing the film. Insomniac Games are involved in film's production, screenplay, character development and animation consulting.

Collaboration
The movie was given a lower budget than many films but the production is possible due to the collaboration between several organizations. Insomniac Games helped to guide the creative vision and provide various assets for use in conceptualization and pre-production. Rainmaker Entertainment's previous setup and experience allow them to produce high quality results at lower cost while Sony Computer Entertainment and Insomniac Games are partners in promotion the movie, both to new fans and an existing fan base.

Evan Wise, the composer for Escape from Planet Earth, and Sly Cooper is the composer for the Ratchet and Clank movie.

CGI
Existing art and in-game models allowed a lower cost in the pre-production stages of development. According to James Stevenson, the design is based from the Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction style, previously described as providing a "you are playing a Pixar movie" experience.

Audio
In order to stay true to the games' characters, the same voice actors for the main characters are involved - James Arnold Taylor, David Kaye, and Jim Ward. During the original announcement, it was revealed that they were in discussion with potential celebrity talent.

Reception
Ratchet & Clank received mixed to negative reviews from critics. On Rotten Tomatoes the film has a rating of 16%, based on 61 reviews, with an average rating of 4.1/10. On Metacritic the film has a score of 31 out of 100, based on 18 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews." On CinemaScore, audiences gave the film an average grade of "B" on an A+ to F scale.

IGN gave the film a 6/10, saying, "Ratchet and Clank is not a bad movie by any means, especially when compared to some of the downright-terrible video game adaptations of the past two decades. But given the humor, action, and sense of adventure of the games, the movie is ultimately a competent, shallow, disappointing take on the adventures of the plucky Lombax and his robot buddy. My advice is to stick to the stellar PlayStation 4 game."

GameSpot gave the film a mixed review, saying, "Ratchet and Clank pulls us across the universe at a breakneck pace, but it never seems to take us anywhere. The series may have found success in video games, but in the meantime, it's merely stumbled into film."

Cast

 * James Arnold Taylor as Ratchet
 * David Kaye as Clank
 * Jim Ward as Qwark
 * Armin Shimerman as Dr. Nefarious
 * Paul Giamatti as Drek
 * John Goodman as Grimroth
 * Lee Tockar as Mr. Micron
 * Bella Thorne as Cora
 * Rosario Dawson as Elaris
 * Sylvester Stallone as Victor Von Ion
 * Alessandro Juliani as Stig
 * Andrew Downden as Zed

Crew

 * Director: Jericca Cleland
 * Executive producer: Michael Hefferon, Kevin Munroe
 * Producers: Brad Foxhoven, David Wohl, Kylie Ellis
 * Supervising producer: Kim Dent Wilder
 * Associate producer: Ryan Schneider
 * Writer: screenplay by TJ Fixman

Appearances
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Characters

 * Alonzo Drek
 * Brax
 * Clank
 * Nefarious
 * Copernicus Qwark
 * Ratchet
 * Juanita Alvaro
 * Dallas Wanamaker
 * Taxi Driver
 * Zed
 * Stig
 * Ollie
 * Mr. Micron
 * The Plumber
 * Grimroth
 * Mr. Zurkon
 * Cora
 * Elaris
 * Victor Von Ion
 * Neftin Prog
 * President Phyronix (mentioned and picture only)
 * Dan Johnson
 * Daxter
 * Sly Cooper

Species

 * Blarg
 * Lombax
 * Robot
 * Helio-Grub
 * Fongoid
 * Markazian
 * Tharpod
 * Protopet
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Weapons

 * OmniWrench 8000
 * Combuster
 * Constructo Pistol
 * Negotiator
 * Razor Claws
 * Mr. Zurkon
 * Alpha annonC
 * RYNO
 * Buzz Blades
 * Spiral of Death
 * [[Tornado Launcher]
 * Walloper
 * Groovitron
 * Cryoshot
 * Plasma Beasts
 * Thundersmack

Gadgets

 * Swingshot
 * Gravity Boots

Vehicles

 * Taxi
 * Nuclear-powered rocket sled
 * Escape Pod
 * Speeder
 * Galactic Ranger Jet

Planets and locations

 * Kerwan - Aleero City
 * Veldin - Kyzil Plateau
 * Novalis
 * Umbris
 * Tenemule
 * Phoenix
 * Deplanetizer
 * New Quartu
 * Earth

Galaxies

 * Solana Galaxy

Organizations

 * Galactic Rangers
 * }