Good, but would've been better if they dropped the superhero angle

Rating: 6/10 (7 September 2015)

Overall, this was a cute, likable and fun movie. The aesthetics were really great. The superheroes had pretty fun aesthetics, powers and general appeal, and the action and adventure was pretty enjoyable. Definitely the best part of all was Baymax and his relationship with Hiro.
However, while this movie was good, I wouldn't say it's exceptional or anything. It probably would've been much better if they hadn't tried to make it a movie about a superhero team and instead had a story more focused on just Baymax, Hiro and their relationship. I know this seems contradictory, since I just said I found the superhero part fun...but I still feel like the movie would've been stronger if they had been replaced by more focus on the stronger part of the movie.
While there were good parts about the superhero aspects, there were also some definite flaws as well. Most of the team is really underdeveloped. I definitely want to like them, and to an extent I do, but they just didn't have time to give all the characters the delineation and development they needed.
In addition, making this a superhero movie allows them to rely more on clichés, making the movie fundamentally less interesting. If they had made a movie more focused on just Baymax and Hiro and not requiring as much superhero action, they would've ended up with something much more "all its own". It wouldn't just be another superhero movie, except animated. It would be no longer be something so defined by its genre.
I just want to emphasize that the Baymax-Hiro aspect of this movie was really strong in so many ways. Baymax is different from other robots you've seen in many ways, from his design to his personality. He's not another robot who wants to become a human or be accepted as a human or anything, his goal is to perform what he's programmed to do, and to do it in the most endearing way possible. He's just anthropomorphic enough, but they don't overdo it or focus primarily on that aspect of him. A really interesting dynamic is also created by Hiro trying to reprogram and redesign Baymax and get him to do things he was never intended to do. It would've been so much stronger if they had focused more completely on this aspect of the movie, instead of forcing the superhero team angle which I feel was ultimately detrimental. You can still incorporate some of the same themes of revenge and whatnot. You can still include a villain. You don't need all the clichéd superhero aspects or all the extra spectacle.
Again, I actually LIKED the other characters on the superhero team. But ultimately, I would gladly sacrifice them for a much stronger movie overall. And that's what would've happened if they had focused on this movie's true strong point. This movie was certainly decent, but if they hadn't insisted on it being a superhero movie, it could've been truly GREAT.
Oh, and I would just like to mention that I guessed the villain's secret identity IMMEDIATELY. And by that I mean, even before they showed the supervillain, when they showed the person who is his secret identity for the first time, I knew he would turn evil. There were also a few suspension-of-disbelief testers, like how Baymax was able to detect anyone in the city, the fact that a certain character managed to stay alive when (s)he really shouldn't have been able to, etc.
Overall, this movie was fine. But if they had dropped the superhero aspect and focused more wholly on Hiro and Baymax instead, it could've been much, MUCH better.