In brief, anybody who isn’t an agoraphobic shut-in would be nuts not to see the new Pixar movie. Covering briefly why the film scored 97/100 at Rotten Tomatoes, the dialogue-free opening thirty minutes are some of the best film ever made. You can see on the trailer most of the key points without revealing anything that you would do better to find out in the theater: lonely robot falls for a sleek visitor who vastly outclasses him, she notices, she gets recalled to wherever, unable to bear the loss her he hangs on to her ship, adventure follows.
As a human(ish) drama I’m not ashamed to admit that I teared up a few times, and I haven’t done that since Contact (obviously your mileage may vary). The humor matches Pixar’s best work. It succeeds both as a science fiction film and as a Zucker brothers-like nod to great moments in scifi (example: casting Sigourney Weaver as the voice of HAL). There are two notable science goofs (sound and swirling dust in space) that make it into the trailer and a related outrage that doesn’t, but those are vastly outweighed by the writers’ ability to keep the main logic internally consistent, a bar so high that I’d almost forgotten that it exists. If you let robots develop a personality and override their programmed priorities, some will turn out good and some will be jerks. The end credits are a gift for humanities majors. It’s too smart for young kids, who will enjoy the spectacle while their parents scheme to drag them back for another go.
So yeah, I liked the movie. It’s more than worth whatever crazy price your cineplex is charging these days.