This past week, the live action version of the classic anime franchise Space Battleship Yamato, better known here in the United States by the title it was syndicated to television – Starblazers.
Ain’t It Cool ran a fairly glowing reader’s review yesterday which allayed some of my concerns that collapsing the original series storyline down to a two hour movie wasn’t going to be a disaster.
But this morning, I found the following new comment on a previous post here on Film Buff Online about the film that presented a different view of the movie. So take it away “Howling Hank” –
Just came back from watching the movie, and while some things worked, too many things didn’t. There was no sense of urgency in the film. The Gamilions, were as uninspired as Spielberg’s WotW lazy ass ID4 alien ripoffs, and a very very big letdown, which pretty much squelched this movie for me. I was looking forward to Leader Desslar and Starsha and what was substituted were Gamilons in name only. Some of the effects looked unfinished, giving the the whole movie a small uneven TV special feel to it, not an epic motion picture which it’s supposed to be- IMHO the equivalent of Star Wars in Japan. There was too much of a BSG riff here and there, and it felt like there were 42 people on the Yamato at all times, instead of hundreds or dare I say thousands – seriously only 5 Marines? Perhaps 7 or 8 fighters? If I have to fight my way through alien occupied space and back, I’m gonna be armed with enough weapons and personnel to leave a trail of destruction that would put the Death Star to shame! Watch the anime you won’t be disappointed, watch this and you will be saying WTF again, and again, and again. This movie didn’t deliver it all for me nor my wife.
Well, I can’t say that I’m not disappointed to hear that Hank and his wife didn’t like the film. As Starblazers was one of those seminal cartoons of my own youth, I really want this movie to be good, but with the positive review at AICN and the negative view here, it looks as if the jury may still be out on this one.
Hank’s probably one of those people who didn’t like the reboot of Battlestar Galactica because it changed too much from the original series (those guys are vicious.) He’s at least one of those guys who enjoys picking apart a movie more than just watching it and enjoying the experience. I watched this movie and while it wasn’t perfect, it delivered. The space effects were great. The characters all fit well. The romance between Kodai and Yuki felt a little forced, but it paid off by the end of the movie. It did combine elements of the 1st two series, but… Read more »