Though the majority of my reviewing efforts in terms of entertainment at the moment go towards writing about film, video games were my introduction to analyzing media. Some of my film reviews have drawn parallels between games and movies (see my “Hardcore Henry” review, in particular) because they tend to be my comfort zone when talking about entertainment; I may be learning and growing with discussing film, but I often find that I’m still a gamer at heart.

So, naturally, I’ve been itching to review films based on video games for a long time, as the history of their adaptation is fascinating in their failures and triumphs. This is why it pains me to say that, outside of the source material, “Ratchet and Clank” is about as tired in its execution as a film could possibly be, though that is far from the film’s greatest issue.

“Ratchet and Clank” takes place in the Solana Galaxy, where a race called the Blarg are destroying planets a la “Star Wars” with the help of an evil alien named Doctor Nefarious (Armin Shimmerman). The Galactic Rangers are a team of interstellar heroes led by Captain Qwark (Jim Ward) seeking to stop the Blargs’ insidious intentions, but need a new team member to do so. Seeking to join their cause is Ratchet (James Arnold Taylor), an eccentric “Lombax” whose life as an engineer has left him with a sense of wanderlust. Though at first he is rejected by the Rangers, a defective robot minion developed by Nefarious crash lands on his planet and helps Ratchet stop an attack from the Blargs. Ratchet names the robot Clank (David Kaye), and the two of them join the Galactic Rangers to fight the Blargs and foil Doctor Nefarious’ plans.

I don’t want to get too carried away, but I have to be honest: The predictability of this film is astounding. The narrative of this film is a mash-up every trope you could possibly imagine in this type of coming-of-age story: The good-hearted, wise cracking hero who ends up the breakout misfit in a team of one note personalities, a “take over the world/blow everything up” conflict, a best friendship subplot, a fame subplot between the heroes, a liar reveal subplot, and a couple of twist villains create a play-by-play line up of a story that never delves deep enough into any one issue or character for long enough to grab the audience’s attention or be played for laughs.

While the voice talents are adequate, there is little to this cast of characters that hasn’t been seen across the wide spectrum of action, adventure and animated films. James Arnold Taylor’s Ratchet is your average, overly-ambitious jokester hero, David Kaye’s Clank is your typical robot buddy, and while the two share a friendship similar to the games, there is not much room for fun dynamics between them given that the film is supposed to act as the duo’s origin story. Both the heroes and villains are very light on depth and personality, with perhaps an exception for Jim Ward as Captain Qwark, who is curiously given more depth than even the titular duo.

Where the cast truly suffers, however, is in the film’s animation. Despite the action and humor inherent to the games, “Ratchet and Clank” rarely pushes its character animation to do anything particularly action-packed or humorous. Instead, there’s a sense that every character is trying very hard to, for lack of a better term, “look cool,” which continues to hurt the film’s severely consistently humor.

Do not misunderstand me: I understand that this is, by the common audience’s standards, a children’s film, and some of my criticisms may sound dramatic. But as a moviegoer with a fondness for animation, having been pleasantly surprised over the past two years with “The Lego Movie” (2014) and “Inside Out” (2015), a film like “Ratchet and Clank” has no business among other films with its recycled plot and persistent, ham-handed references to its roots.

While certainly not harmful for children and far from the worst game-to-film adaptation, “Ratchet and Clank” does not provide anything of substance to keep it in the minds of film, animation or game enthusiasts. For older gamers who grew up with the Ratchet and Clank series of games, and for those gamers who may have children of their own now, I can see the film’s tie-in game, with its mechanics and gameplay, providing a potentially more valuable experience overall.