I'll admit, for the first half-hour, I really didn't see what was so bad about this film. The first little while felt like an episode of the series and even the talent show story line at least made sense as Pat was doing it for his wife and not for himself, and Pat's always been selfless so that was great. I was already a little sceptical when they revealed the whole Robot Pat thing, but when it escalated into a bigger plot, this was where the movie almost lost me. I was able to accept the existence of cellphones and a PS Vita, of all things, in the world of Postman Pat, but the evil robot thing really shouldn't be connected to this.
And before you say anything, yes, I know movies connected to cartoon shows usually try to differentiate themselves from their source material. And honestly, I think the talent show plot was good enough. You could have had the fame and attention get to Pat's head only for him to learn a lesson in the end and that would have been fine. As if that's not enough, we also get a terminator reference and, yeah, is this really Postman Pat?
However, in spite of all of this, I found this strangely enjoyable, but more as its own stand-alone sort of thing. Like Tom and Jerry the movie, I don't really like this as something connected to its respective series but rather its own entity. Every time the movie did something to make me groan, like when the villain revealed his evil plan before it was too late for Pat to stop him and, probably the most painful of all, Jess not being able to tell the difference between his beloved owner and a robot, it managed to pull me back with either a decent joke or something equally entertaining.
All-in-all, I can see why a lot of Pat fans don't like this movie. After the first half-hour, it starts to lose a lot of its charm in favour for something I'd accept in any other animated film, but I still found it strangely entertaining. I can't recommend it, really, but it's a guilty pleasure for me.
