The strongest ingredient remains the four reptiles' incorrigible charm, which easily outclasses a muddled storyline and concessions to the prepubescent male audience.

The characters look like plastic dolls, and the story is recycled sci-fi.

...while the visuals are terrific, the plot is a distracting clunker that feels like it was written one line at a time by a bunch of overexcited fan-board commentators playing a round-robin storytelling game.

As a film, it's curious. It feels like an intermediary story.