A.X.L.

This movie was basically ripped off by the screenwriter of Bumblebee (aka "Death of the Franchise"). That retcon'ing reboot of a franchise basically swapped the male lead of this movie with a female and changed the robot dog into an iconic transformer.If you liked bumblebee, you'll like this more. If you like dogs, you'll like this. If you watch this and you like it, don't watch bumblebee. Seriously.Another enjoyable movie in a similar vein, that bumblebee also pulled parts from, is "Monster Trucks" (2016, Till, Levy, Lowe) and is worth a watch if you like this and vice versa.

This review is for the Blu-ray edition of 'AXL' released in 2018.I'm giving this movie 4 stars even though it is lacking in plot development. The idea is good, even if the execution isn't. It's fun to watch which is basically the point, right?PLOT/SUMMARY: A young man, Miles, with the help of his father competes in motorcross rallies against better financed competition. Miles is invited to a party after a competition. At this party he begins to become romantically involved with a rich kid's girlfriend, Amy. He is then humiliated online, when he is setup to look bad while he is being filmed on his bike. After an accident, Miles is left behind in a junk field. There, he meets a top secret robot, AXL, that is part of a military project. Amy comes looking for Miles and she also befriends AXL. The corporate outfit that created AXL is letting the situation play out deliberately. They are essentially using Miles, Amy and AXL as test subjects. Soon afterward, they come to retrieve AXL but Miles isn't so willing to let AXL go.*****SPOILERS BELOW*****MY LIKES:-I think AXL looks superb. The special effects team did an excellent job with the design. I imagine the idea came from seeing some of those video's of robotic animals by a company that Google has bought into.-Aside for the design of AXL, the special effects were very good. I was surprised at how real AXL looked and behaved. You really get the impression that it is a real dog. The remaining effects were also very well done.-The acting is very good for a lower budget movie. The corporate guys seemed way over the top but that's OK.-We've seen a bunch of movies where robots are feminine. Using 'man's best friend' as a robot is a very good idea. I think this works out nicely.MY COMPLAINTS:-I think that Thomas Jane's talent as the father was pretty much wasted. He didn't have a whole lot to do in this movie. I'm guessing they just hired him for a short period of time. He seemed to be mostly in the same location throughout the movie.-The movie was going along fine until we got to the end. It just seemed so unbelievable. I can't imagine a person with a government contract behaving that way.-I thought the idea of using drones was good but, like many of the ideas in this movie, poorly executed. All those drones going to exactly the same place? What would be the point? Why not send them all over the place to hunt.-Miles and Amy are treated like criminals. They didn't do anything wrong.CONCLUSIONS:I think that the producers of this movie came up with a good idea. I'm just not sure what happened to the script. The movie seemed to be aimless. There isn't really a main goal. Conflict is set up for the main character, Miles, but it never goes anywhere. It seems as if this movie was cut well short of it's intended length. It seems like Miles was going to end up competing against the rich kid, but that whole setup is cut short. Miles gets control of AXL. You think at this point that this relationship is going to lead to an adventure of some sort. Or at the very least, AXL is going to prove it's worth and go out and help on some sort of mission. That doesn't happen. The whole movie is just about a companies plan to get it's test subject back. There is no real reason for Miles to go on the run. He hasn't done anything wrong. Sure they give a thin excuse, AXL has been fired upon, but it's just a robot. Even an intelligent robot with learning capabilities would not behave anything like the way AXL does.Overall, this movie is still fun to watch. It's a good idea. The plot is either poor, rushed or both. Take your pick.I'm giving this movie a 6.5/10 3 1/2 stars. I'm rounding up to 4 stars.SEQUEL?: The end of the movie was obviously a set up for a sequel. Whether or not it gets made remains to be seen. I wouldn't count on it.

3.5 Stars! What can I say, (1) at the end I had a big goofy grin on my face and a warm feeling in my heart. That's more than I can say after a lot of movies I've watched, (e.g. KIN I watched that last night so disappointing). Believe me there's been a lot of them. (2) I liked Miles & Amy and Adored AXL. (3) It had some pretty cool actions scenes. I gave it 3.5 stars for these 3 reasons. Nevertheless, I still have to agree with many of the cons listed by some of the 1, 2 & 3 Star reviews. The plot was simplistic at best and shallow at worst. The acting wasn't the best, the villian was pretty 1 dimensional and there were logic and plot holes. And yet, still I gave it 3.5 stars, lol. Why? Simply b/c despites it's many shortcomings at the end I felt entertained and I did not feel like I'd waisted my time. If there were a squel with the same 3 leading actors, this includes AXL, I'd rent it.P.S. I rewatched this movie a couple of hrs ago. At the end, I again had a goofy smile on my face & that warm feeling in my heart. I stand by my 3.5 star rating.However, I noticed that the same playback glitches that I notice last evening. There were millisecond diruptions primaryly in the audio and just slightly simultaneously occurring in the video feed. Amazon Prime Video needs to fix this. The disruptions aren't major or overly distracting but they should not occur at all.

Very good movie! A little to intense for young children

First let me say that I loved the acting especially by the 2 main leads and the metal dog. The leads are Alex Neustaedter and Becky G. They did a great job for sure. Esp for Alex, I hope he has a bright future. I loved the story it was very entertaining and imaginative, too, however, this story is typical and there are no surprises to it. The ending was a bit sad but in the end it turned out okay.

Love, love, love this movie!! Starts off a bit slow, but sucks you in and keeps you on the edge of your seat! Wish they made a sequel!

Just watched the movie and despite a story line that has been overdone and mediocre acting it was still an entertaining movie. the concept of the Robot Dog put a new twist on the "robot war machine develops feelings" plot. the special effects were really well done better in fact than some special effects I have seen recently from movies with triple the budget and A list actors. Despite the paper thin characters you couldn't help but feel something for the bond between the main character and this K9esque war machine. Very reminiscent of some 80s and 90s over the top action sci fi movies like D.A.R.Y.L, Short circuit, or the Iron Giant. coupled with that "teen" perspective similar to the maze runner. Over all if you are a fan of the types of movies I listed and an hour and half to spare (which you probably do right now) then give it a go and watch it for what it is,entertainment.

Not a bad adaptation of a common theme of AI with some nice emotuional touches. The dirt bike antics were really great !

Great film and good price also good delivery

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Gekauft habe ich mir den Film ganz ohne Vorahnung was mich erwartet. Als Hundefreund habe ich das Cover auf Amazon gesehen, und dachte mir "Ein Film mit einem Roboter Hund? Der muss gut sein!".Soweit wurde ich nicht enttäuscht. Zum Anfang kommt der Film wie ein typischer Teenie B - Movie Film rüber. Man fuchst sich als Zuschauer aber schnell in den Film rein. Spätestens wenn AXL ins Bild kommt schaut man auch nicht mehr weg vom Fernseher. Als Hundebesitzer zieht man gerne auch die ein oder andere Vergleiche. Zwar kommt AXL ziemlich nahe an einen Hund ran, wirkt aber durch die Masse, und dem Gewicht etwas unglaubwürdig. Im Film wird dann noch gesagt, dass man bei einem Hund sehr gut die Stimmung erkennen kann, oder so ähnlich. Der Hund drückt die Stimmung großteils mit der Rute/ dem Schweif aus. Die ist bei AXL allerdings starr. So fragte ich mich bei manchen Szenen, wie wohl der Gemütszustand von AXL ist.An sich hat mir der Film sehr gut gefallen. Er ist spannend, und für mich EDVler/ Techniker interessant. Ein dezenten Nachgeschmack habe ich aber dennoch. Sehe ich den Film nüchtern betrachtet nicht durch eine Hundefreund Brille, ist AXL in vielen Szenen viel zu brav. Nüchtern betrachtet ist es eine High End Killerwaffe des US - Militärs. (ACHTUNG Spoiler) Sterben tut in diesem Film dennoch niemand??? Verstehe wer will. Wahrscheinlich dem Ziel von USK 12 geschuldet. Dafür aber wiederum Familienfreundlich.Ich würde mich auf jeden Fall, auf einen 2. Teil freuen.Info:A.X.L. - Attack eXplore Logistic

Tja, was soll man schreiben? Der Film ist irgendwie eine Abwandlung von Transformers. Technisch durchaus in Ordnung (Effekte). Man darf aber keine tiefgründige Geschichte erwarten, ich fand den Film etwas seicht. Für einen Filmabend durchaus in Ordnung, aber einen bleibenden Eindruck hat er bei mir nicht hinterlassen. Also kein Film, den man unbedingt wieder ansehen will/muss. Ich bewerte ihn als "normalen" Durchschnitt, der wahrscheinlich in erster Linie auf ein junges Publikum abzielt.

Dieser Film ist etwas spezieller. So entsteht eine Freundschaft zwischen einem Jungen und einemRoboterhund, der eigentlich für den Krieg ausgerüstet wurde. Der Schluss ist allerdings traurig und der Roboterhund entscheidet sich für die Freundschaft.