A very entertaining film that doesn't try to do anything particularly new

Rating: 7/10 (7 November 2014)

Big Hero 6 is fun. Big Hero 6 is entertaining. Big Hero 6 is emotional. Big Hero 6 is straight-forward.
I went into this movie with no expectations at all because I didn't watch any of the trailers for it except for the first teaser. The movie is very beautiful. It has lots of impressive lighting techniques and has excellent textures at certain times. Overall, the movie looks fantastic. It is nearly on par with this year's How to Train Your Dragon 2.
But animation isn't the most important element. The plot itself is what is most important and is probably the biggest issue with the movie. The movie feels like... a cartoon... like a Saturday morning cartoon. You know exactly where the plot is going and certain lines of exposition are almost unbearable to hear. The movie doesn't throw any twists or turns into the formula except for possibly one scene during the beginning. Even worse, the movie takes direct shots from the Iron Man flight sequence AND from How To Train Your Dragon/Avatar. The whole "bonding flight experience" is done in this movie and while it looks nice, it is pretty much a formula by now. However, there is more to a movie than originality.
The dialogue is probably one of the stronger aspects of the movie. While it isn't hilarious or Oscar worthy dialogue, it is spoken very well. The voice-actors did a terrific job of getting into their characters. The characters themselves are well written, but the side-characters (you know... there are 6 heroes...) don't really effect the plot that much. It is strange just how little the side- characters actually effect the plot. They are there... and do stuff... but they don't really change the outcome of the plot. There were much less contrived ways of doing what they did.
Long story short: Big Hero 6 is a fun and entertaining movie. The first half of the movie had me hooked, but the second half is pretty much a formula. The funny thing about this movie is that I found it much more interesting BEFORE the villain actually showed up. Yeah, getting to learn about the character's and their everyday struggles was much more original than the villain's arc.
Definitely worth seeing since it does have a rich atmosphere that is worth the price of a ticket alone.