What, you thought this movie was about a group of high school kids who put together a robot and competed against some of the best teams in the world? Well, it's really only partially about that.
In terms of acting, I thought everyone did great, although the kids came off as being some of the whitest Mexican kids I've ever seen. George Lopez fit the role well enough even though he really came off as more of a coach than a science teacher. Still, I'm glad to see him doing movies, as I never cared much for his TV show and I do like the guy, he has a good presence on the screen.
Filming and scene choreography and editing are all fairly well done. You won't get any of the scene jumping or hard to follow nonsense that you sometimes get from other movies. This one is put together nicely and the story flows well. It's inspiring.
Aside from the story, the movie spends a great deal of time commenting on the state of illegal immigration here in the U.S. To say that this doesn't belong in the review of the movie is wrong, since the movie is clearly about that. And how could it not be? With George Lopez and Marisa Tomei teaming up to make witty punches at conservative ideals for most of it. Demonizing conservatives in the movies has always been a favorite strategy of the left.
As I identify as conservative, and since the first punch has already been thrown, I'd like to take just a second to be clear about where most conservatives stand on immigration: not all of us believe that every illegal should be deported. We believe in a 2-step solution.
1. It is clear that Pandora's box has already been opened for the past 40 years. When you have children growing up in the U.S., in our schools, and being educated as U.S. citizens, then it's time to let those kids stay here and give them the citizenship that they should have. A selective and partial amnesty makes sense.
2. This solution must coincide with the effective sealing of the border, a task that no president or congress, Republican or Democrat, has been willing to do. That is the key element to solving this problem, and that is what most conservatives at the ground level feel needs to be done.
Some of the other reviews and comments have also indicated a few subtle skewings to the truth of the story. Apparently in actuality there were two teachers for the robotics club and neither of them were Latino. Their robot also finished third in the applied contest, which I find to be a strange change to the story as it would have been easy to simply tell it the way it was.
But all politics and subtle skewings aside, this was a very good movie. Inspiring and well made, and fun to watch. I recommend it.
Thank you for reading.
