The Mitchells vs the Machines

Directed by Mike Rianda, The Mitchells vs the Machines follows the titular family, which includes dad Rick (Danny McBride) and daughter Katie (Abbi Jacobson), as they’re forced to spring into action after robots take over the planet. It’s an appealing premise that’s employed to periodically compelling yet mostly uninvolving effect by Rianda, as the filmmaker, working from a script written with Jeff Rowe, delivers an exceedingly slick animated adventure that is, to a progressively distressing degree, dominated by larger-than-life, over-the-top action set-pieces – which ensures that one’s efforts at working up any interest in or enthusiasm for the central clan’s exploits fall increasingly flat. The movie’s failure is especially disappointing given that it does possess its share of agreeable attributes (eg the eye-popping visuals), and it’s clear, certainly, that the periodic emphasis on the fractured relationship between McBride and Jacobson’s respective characters provides the movie with all-too-rare bursts of heartfelt emotion. By the time the aggressively frenetic climax rolls around, The Mitchells vs the Machines has cemented its place as a sporadically watchable (but palpably overlong) endeavor that could’ve benefited from a more low-key approach (ie it’s all just so loud, ultimately).

** out of ****