Film

What's on at the cinema plus reviews of the latest movie and DVD releases

Space Chimps 2: Zartog Strikes Back (2010)

Director: John H Williams

Time Out rating

Average user rating

7 reviews

Movie review

From Time Out London

Unspeakably bad digimation sequel which comprises a total vacuum of charm, energy, surprise and coherence and only barely delivers on the promises of its title (only one chimp actually goes into space and Zartog's attempt at 'striking back' is utterly feeble). Everything about the film gives you the sense that its makers had one eye on the clock so they wouldn’t miss happy hour: the barren, blocky backdrops look like they’ve only been partially rendered; the body movements of the chimps seem to bear no physical relation to the space they inhabit; the faces (specifically the lip movements) are so poorly animated that it constantly looks like the sound is out of sync; single jokes are stretched to breaking point – one in which we realise that a crew of human technicians can’t grasp the language of the evil alien Zartog is repeated four of five times; even the story feels like it’s been mangled together from a series of test shots and stand alone sketches. And for those with itchy trigger fingers when it comes to 3D, it’s barely even noticeable here.

Author: David Jenkins

Time Out London Issue 2075: May 27 – June 2, 2010

Email Tweet Share

User reviews of this film

Brookelynne said...

Posted on Dec 27 2011 02:56 I was not looking for a good plot, I was looking for something funny, and some more Ham hitting on Luna. I got that. If you want a good animated movie that is balanced, well-written, and entertaining, watch DreamWorks movies. I loved this movie.

Report as inappropriate
Phil said...

Posted on Nov 03 2010 06:58 You know, I don't remember space chimps number 1 that well, and I don't remember hating it. I seemed ok from what I remember and was at least somewhat entertaining. We'll the other day I saw this on the shelf, knowing full well that it had been straight to video, so I decided to give it a try sense I couldn't find toy story 3 in the red box. Long story short, the jokes were pretty darn bad, but even worse was the CGI's physic engine, and the barren boring terrian. Let me explain, when a character hit a wall, car, or anything for that matter, there didnt seem like any feedback at all. now I'm not sadistic, I dont expect to see a chimp break its leg in a kids movie, but there was simply no feedback. Now on to the environment, I dare you to count how many shrubs, bushes, or general foliage you see in the entire movie. Let me give you a hint, you will only need one hand to count on, cause everything is just uninteresting flat grass.......EVERYTHING. I didn't even mind the character models so much, but the world they inhabit is uninteresting. there is a point where you see the planet Saturn close up, and it looks like a a toy model you would make for a science fair. I don't even know why I'm wasting time with this review. just avoid this movie.

Report as inappropriate
Jackson said...

Posted on Jun 18 2010 20:54 It's all you've read so far and worse, everything about this utterly calamitous film is just pure garbage! I originally went to see this film as a joke with some of my friends, but the joke soon faded within the first 5 minutes of sitting through the torture they call "Space Chimps." I actually felt myself falling asleep during this film and it took nearly everything I had to give the film the tiniest drop of respect I had left for it to watch it until the end, hoping it would get better, but alas it didn't, everything about this tragic collection of dire imagery and out of time sound was awful, the jokes were overused and widely reused from the first movie and the collection of poorly drawn characters and landscapes both dramatically destroyed any enjoyment that I never had for this film. If you have a choice between this movie and prison, I'd chose prison, at least there you won't be tortured with the disgusting and appaling dramatics that this stupid film sat us all through for the worst couple of hours of our lives!

Report as inappropriate
Ben said...

Posted on Jun 16 2010 16:02 My god.... this film is so bad. I caught my finger in the fridge door last night and thought I had taken the end off it or broken the bone. The pain was overwhelming, but that had nothing on the pain of sitting through Space Chimps 2.
My wife was in shorter excruciating pain giving birth to our first child. Space Chimps 2 makes you twist in agony watching it, like Alex in a clockwork orange pinned down his eyelids pulled open as he moans at the terror.
Please make the nightmare stop...

Report as inappropriate
Robert said...

Posted on Jun 12 2010 12:53 This review doesn't convey how truly awful this movie is. I felt like asking for a refund. My 4yr old daughter wanted to see this movie and I took her as a treat. Wow, was I wrong. I paid £17 for admission to the 3D version and I was robbed. There are kids programmes on TV that have more thought, humour and work put into them than this. How it ever came to get a general release is beyond me. If it had gone straight to DVD and I'd got it for free I would turn it off. There are better amatuer animations on Youtube. The makers of this movie should be ashamed of themselves for stealing kids pocket money. The worst film I've ever had the misfortune to shell out for and I've seen Battlefield Earth.

Report as inappropriate
Paul said...

Posted on Jun 09 2010 07:31 Took my son to this dire film for his birthday party and ended up apologising to him and his friend. No plot, rubbish animation, a 5 minute trailer stretched out to 85 mins. It felt like 5hrs.

Report as inappropriate
jade said...

Posted on May 30 2010 16:33 the most terrible animamationi have ever seen!!!

Report as inappropriate