This movie makes me kind of long for that the days when animated movies were all following the same sort of story and build up, with the same type of characters, formulaic villains and a love interest. All things they were sorely missing from this animated outing!

It bothered me how this movie wasn't even ever really trying to build up a good story. It felt like a very lazy and simplistic cash grab to me. Guess that is what happens when the animated movie continues to be popular and make millions and millions, regardless of their actual quality or originality. Oh well, at least some genre movies are still trying and from time to time, a new great and original animated movie indeed gets released but I'm afraid we'll get to see more and more "Turbo" quality-like animated movies as well, in the not too distant future.

Can't even see why this movie got green-lighted in the first place. I mean, who seriously thought that its main premise sounded like a good and fun idea? A snail that's trying to compete in the Indy 500...it all sounds so simplistic and predictable, why bother to turn it into a movie? And there also is definitely lacking some good creativity and decent story development in this movie its story. You could expect a movie like this from a smaller studio but not DreamWorks really! That's simply just unacceptable!

The story progresses in about the simplest and most predictable way imaginable. There aren't really any side-plots, despite the fact that the movie has (too) many different characters in it. The story also really isn't made any more credible or enjoyable, by the way how its told and constructed. No one really seems to think it's strange that a snail suddenly appears to have superpowers, after having a freak accident and rather than trying to investigate or research anything or having a media frenzy over it, humans decide to let him dangerously race against real cars. I know, I'm probably taking things too seriously right now, after all, it's just a kids movie but stuff like this kept bothering me. And there really are plenty of things like this in its story, which all truly prevented me from ever fully enjoying it for what it was.

There is only one race in the movie and it's at the absolute end, so it's not like Turbo ever is in training for anything or has to work toward a certain goal. There therefore also is no real conflict in the movie, other than him trying to enter the Indy 500, which isn't all that hard, at least not according to this movie. By having multiple races and by letting Turbo grow stronger and stronger and more skilled with each experience, there could have been some more interesting and potentially more engaging, tense and dramatic story developments. The movie as it is has absolutely none of that however, making this a very simplistic, shallow and extremely forgettable movie experience.

Of course it still is far from the worst movie that's out there. It's still pretty good looking and some of the characters were kind of cute to look at. The story and humor however is far too simplistic and at times even nonexistent to recommend this movie to anyone. Sure, little kids will probably still enjoy it but then again, little kids also enjoy "Teletubbies", so that really isn't saying all that much about this movie its quality.

5/10

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A freak accident might just help an everyday garden snail achieve his biggest dream: winning the Indy 500. From: IMDb.com

Directed by: David Soren

Starring: Ryan Reynolds, Paul Giamatti, Maya Rudolph and others

Current release date: July 17, 2013

A freak accident might just help an everyday garden snail achieve his biggest dream: winning the Indy 500. From: IMDb.com

A freak accident might just help an everyday garden snail achieve his biggest dream: winning the Indy 500. From: IMDb.com

A freak accident might just help an everyday garden snail achieve his biggest dream: winning the Indy 500. From: IMDb.com

A freak accident might just help an everyday garden snail achieve his biggest dream: winning the Indy 500. From: IMDb.com

Directed by: David Soren

Starring: Ryan Reynolds, Paul Giamatti, Maya Rudolph and others

Current release date: July 17, 2013

A freak accident might just help an everyday garden snail achieve his biggest dream: winning the Indy 500. From: IMDb.com

Directed by: David Soren

Starring: Ryan Reynolds, Paul Giamatti, Maya Rudolph and others

Current release date: July 17, 2013

Arnold Schwarzenegger literally returns to form, for his first lead role in 10 years. It's a good old fashioned action-flick, that shows Arnie has still got what it takes to be a convincing action-star!

But the movie is what it is really and that's nothing too special. I mean let's face it, this movie is nothing more but a B-movie, with a B-movie type of story and characters in it, with as a big difference it got made with a large budget and lots of capable people involved. It's still not quite enough all to take the movie to another level and turn it into a truly spectacular and unforgettable, entertaining action-flick.

I'm of course not saying that the movie is bad but it doesn't exactly standout either. Well, except perhaps for its action moments. It's big, it's dumb but simply really entertaining to watch all. You could say it's a bit of a throwback to the trashy but entertaining '80's action genre movie but just imaging that this movie indeed got released back in the '80's. Would it had been considered to be a great movie at the time or a genre classic nowadays? I truly don't think so.

The movie gets a bit too goofy for its own good at times. I know that's a part of Jee-woon Kim's style but in a way it sort of harms this movie. It makes it seem like things just don't have any consequences to them. Whenever someone gets shot for instance, it's often part of a joke as well. This really takes away all of the tension from the movie basically.

Of course I wasn't really expecting any sort of depth from this movie but it's nice to at least feel somewhat involved with either its story, characters or action at some point in the movie, which just never really was the case for this movie.

But really, it's still a movie you can have a great time with! There's always something happening on screen and it features plenty of action to enjoy. In the hands of a lesser capable action director, this would absolutely had been a totally different and also less fun and effective movie to watch. So despite all of my criticism, I'm still fond of it and definitely liked it more than not!

7/10

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