Teenage boy discovers that he has the power to generate energy he then meet-up with an alien named steel who helps him discover himself as a super hero.
Given that the character began life as a hunk of plastic with a cool name, it's hardly surprising that writers have reshaped his biography on the fly, with all the consistency of kids playing with their toys in the backyard.
Not all toy marketing treatments disguised as movies are terrible; some, such as Transformers, are merely too loud and strident. But few have this movie's lack of imagination, humourlessness and corpse-like pacing.
A spectacle without the spectacle, an autumnal, amorphous blockbuster that just sits there, suspended in mid-air, as you soak in its ceaseless banality.
Max Steel moves in the territories of mediocrity due to irregularities in editing, null creativity to orchestrate entertaining action sequences and exaggerated use of digital effects. [Full review in Spanish]
What's truly depressing about the whole enterprise is that Garcia and Bello were pulled into it. Yes, actors love to work and bills need to be paid, but perhaps a fund could be started to spare talented thespians this sort of career embarrassment.
While the proverbial "'90s kids" may get a nostalgic kick out of seeing their old action figures in the flesh, novices are likely to be bored by a movie that feels more like a failed pilot for a TV show.
