A-X-L

After 2016's Monster Trucks laid a giant goose egg at the box office, what made the folks at Global Road think this similarly themed shaggy mechanical pal tale would fare any better?

Like its titular character, A.X.L is a pastiche of familiar parts constructed in a lab, a blend of science-fiction and extreme sports tropes that result in little more than an audition reel for the film's young stars.

It's utterly forgettable.

It's a boy and his dog story with elements of "Pretty in Pink," "Rad" and "The Wraith," and it's those references that kinda make this movie work.

A.X.L. feels in desperate need of repairs.

Meanwhile, the scientists who lost A-X-L spend half the movie watching these events unfold on a computer screen, doing not a danged thing because they want to see how it all pans out. They are, it must be said, lousy scientists.

A-X-L had me bored almost all the way through

A.X.L. feels hollow, and the robotic canine star can't sell enough emotion through its metallic shell.

A silly but enjoyable movie that would have felt right at home in the VHS era.

A.X.L. is a sloppy, derivative outing, devoid of originality and uninterested in making any real effort.