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STEAMBOY
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Animation - 9.6 |
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Sound - 8.3 |
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Story - 6.4 |
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Character - 6.2 |
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Value - 7.2 |
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Enjoyment - 7.2 |
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Average - 7.3 |
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| Average |
5.7 |
| Animation |
8 |
| Sound |
5 |
| Story |
5 |
| Character |
4 |
| Value |
6 |
| Enjoyment |
6 |
| Hm, for all the money put into producing this movie...it was a disappointment for the most part. So much so that its remarkably fluid and stellar animation alone could not soothe its less than skin-deep scars.
Steamboy follows along real history in an alternate twist with advanced technology such as jetpacks and steam-powered robots. Ray, a young boy awaiting both his father and grandfather's return, was delivered a steam ball that could revolutionize technology. (I still can't believe a crude-looking ball like that could be capable of such a thing.) He is embroiled in a battle centered in utilizing this machine.
The movie's animation is nothing less than excellent. Everything seems to come alive in every scene from the busy environment of the city to the moving gears and other mechanisms inside a vast fortress, the animators committed themselves to deliver what Japanese animation can be capable of in this department. Too bad the same cannot be said to 90% of what the movie is comprised of.
Frankly, I don't really remember if there any "real" music during my viewing. All I heard was the sound of leaking steam of reactors, lol. What it lacks in music, it makes up with effects. They were almost on par with the beautiful presentation. It was like it came from a Hollywood blockbuster film.
While the universal themes of the plot that it was trying to portray to the viewer was evident there, the execution of the plot did not live to its expectations. The concepts were there, but it feels like it's been rushed that it was void of any meaning to it in the end. The beginning, which is understandably slow, is dull until the first few minutes. The middle which is as slow and then the climax which wasn't as climactic as it's meant to be and the end which left you with an empty spot inside of you. Basically, the story keeps trying on building up on the climax, but fails when it did and tried to recover with mixed results. Tsk, tsk, from the staff that made Akira, this is not one to replace it.
Characters...well, I didn't care for them at all. It was like I was playing an omniscient god who just watched from the sidelines. In addition, cliche-ridden characters only hurt to the already mediocre storyline. We have kid who'll save the world (reminds me a bit of Ender Wiggin from Ender's Game), some spoiled girl who becomes enlightened, an enigmatic figure and so on. You couldn't get anymore contrived with that. At least, they were shown with emotions and were not cardboard puppets to say the least.
I guess it's worth adding to your collection...if it's price goes down to less than $10 in a bargain bin just for the pretty pictures. You might rent it if you've run out of shows to watch. Other than that, it can be easily passed.
No wonder the movie was criticized. It tried to follow the footsteps of its obviously better predecessor, Akira. In the end, it will forever live among its shadows.
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1 of 1 people found this review helpful.
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| Average |
7.2 |
| Animation |
10 |
| Sound |
10 |
| Story |
4 |
| Character |
5 |
| Value |
7 |
| Enjoyment |
7 |
| to my surprise i really enjoyed watching steamboy. the animation is incredibly well done and the sound really sucks you into the different situations. what also sucks is the story. it is just not worked out till the last minute. i had the feeling the longer steamboy took the less ideas they had. overall i enjoyed steamboy in points of animation and sound but like in many movies these days it lack a good story and likeable characters.
ANIMATION
the animation gives you the impression to be really in the year 1866. the uniforms appear to be correct and the chraater design fits my picture of this time. everything is beautifully animated. may it be the fighting scenes or just the scenery of a village. i can just stnd up and clap my hands for this fetailed animation and say thank you for the time and love they invetsed into doing steamboy. 10 points because it is the best animated anime i have seen so far.
SOUND
the sound is pretty much the same like the animation. it just cant be done better. when the steam clouds make noises you always think it happened in your own room. i loved the sound so it deserves 10 points and perhaps even more.
STORY
like most of the recent movies there is a lack of a decent story. steamboy is about a young boy named ray. he is of the damous steam family that seems to contain of technical prodigies ove generations. one day ray gets a package with a steamball in it. just when he happened to open it some strange men come to take it away from him. but ray notices that they are suspicious and when his granfather comes home ray flees. but he gets kidnapped and talen to london o where the organization is located. now ray learns about his father whom he thought to be a dead men. his father workes for a company from the united states. they build a hzge building in the middle of london bamed steam castle. this castle is the projecz rays father and grandfather put their life in. but dr lloyd, the grandfather, does not appreciate the plan of dr eddie, the father of ray. he knows that there will be a huge war between usa and great britain so he stole the steamball. these steamball have unimaginably power. three of the are necessary to let the building float in the air. so now it has come to the war and just when the british army seemed to have won it dr eddie decides to activate the steam castle even without having all the steam balls needed. steam casttle drushes down into lodnon and is near explosion but they somehow manage to bring it back into the river where there is less harm for the folk. after all i have to say i was impressed about the story until the fighting began. there was a decent story about globalization and about how war can bring you a lot of money. it had some actual themes (perhaps i interpreted it too much) but somehow never gets to develop a really intriguing story. like all the movies it has a huge ptential and this one reeks of a second film. 4 points for the story because i never really dived into it. i watched it from a distance without caring much what happened on the screen. just not deep enough and they could have done much better. what bothered me the most was the ending. the longer steamboy gets the less ideas they seemed to have. it was more like oh the time is over lets have it end here.
CHARACTER
ray is a yong boy who is very acknowledganle about technical things. he is born with this talent because he carries the name of the steam family. the steam family consists of dr lloyd and dr eddie. the others dont matter for this story. dr eddie is rays father. he is working in the steam castle and never really appears to be a really bad guy nor a very good one. dr lloyd is rays grand father and he is the only likebale characters in steamboy. he is funny and his design just give you this old man feeling. white hait and beard and the old sympathic man iy created. the little girl of the owner of the us company is really a spoiled brat whom you never get to like. she remains as she is and that may be a good thing in my eyes. she is very happy in the end and is lucky she is still alive. 5 points for the characters because there is hardly one you really get to like. there past remains unknown to the viewers and there si just not a single person that gets to your heart.
VALUE
i think due to the parelells to our current society i would say its value is high in some way. but the story around ray is pretty transparent and not very realistic. so i think 7 points are enough because steamboy never shows the potential to stay at the top for years.
ENJOYMENT
i enjoyed steamboy till the end. dont undertand me wrong. i just didnt like the end. the aftertaste was very bad and it got me a bit angry how some big budget thing like this could be bungled again by a boring story.what i really like was the thing about selling the war machines.it shows you a side of the humans that we dont like to see. war makes money. no blood for oil. it sis critizing america in many ways and that part makes it a bit intersting to me. i think steamboy is a must for every anime fan out there. not because it is incredible. it is just a big movie whom you not get to often to see. animation and sound are perfect so you sjouldnt miss this. and there is barely no blood which i really appreciated.
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| Average |
6.2 |
| Animation |
9 |
| Sound |
8 |
| Story |
5 |
| Character |
5 |
| Value |
5 |
| Enjoyment |
5 |
| Slick packaging, nice animation, but what else? Nothing much really. What a bummer.
Good points: The animation was very well done. The CGI elements blended well with the cell animation. Although I didn't quite like the character designs, they were nice enough.
Bad points:
Everything else about this is bad.
Overall, I felt this movie was severely let down by the lack of direction to the story. What was it trying to say? What was it trying to be?
Some of the action sequences were derivative of far older movies, specifically Hayao Miyazaki's Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind and Laputa - Castle in the Sky. Paying homage? My foot! It's almost downright wholesale copying from the great classics.
As for the characters, they were pretty standard fare. Stereotyped, generic. It's as if they cam right out of a pre-packaged tin can. Open one up and take your pick of "good guy", "bad guy", etc. Alphabet soup, anyone?
It's an understatement when I say this movie was a bore to watch. And with all the hype that preceeded it's release, it made it all the more worse. It certaijly didn't live up to expectations.
Money down the drain.
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0 of 0 people found this review helpful.
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| Average |
8.8 |
| Animation |
10 |
| Sound |
9 |
| Story |
9 |
| Character |
8 |
| Value |
8 |
| Enjoyment |
9 |
| I really wanted to see this movie when it was released in theaters stateside but didn't get the opportunity. So one day at work (Entertainment specialist, Target stores) I saw 'Steamboy' was coming out so I pounced on it. Was it a good buy? Well... yes and no...
Reasons for the 'Yes' -
The animation is top notch. Beautiful mixtures of both CG and traditional hand-drawing. But more important... how often do you find an anime title whose story is based during the modern renaissance of the Western hemisphere? And moreover, how often does the Japanese director get the history, mannerisms, and culture of the West correct? Big thumbs up for that!
Now for the 'no' reason -
If you are buying/viewing 'Steamboy' all for the reason 'It's done by the same guy who did 'Akira' so it's gotta be action-packed with an in-depth story that makes for a great sci-fi flick' then don't bother. The story starts very sluggish and takes a little patience for the viewer. But that really should not deter you from watching/purchasing this title.
I wish that many anime fans/otaku would understand one common philosophy: Patience is a virtue. Just because a story starts slowly and can't please your Ritalin-prescribed, Moutain Dew-chugging, Guilty Gear-button-mashing lifestyle... does not mean that the story is not very good or that the title is not worth regarding. Anime, like many movies, is meant to be enjoyed like a fine wine instead of a cheap beer... take in the aroma, sip, and savor the taste... don't chug it and toss the can.
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Poom |
(2005-09-09 05:25:31) 2005-09-08 03:51:35 |
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| Average |
7.7 |
| Animation |
9 |
| Sound |
8 |
| Story |
7 |
| Character |
7 |
| Value |
7 |
| Enjoyment |
8 |
| Another Steam age anime.
Steamboy is all about Science and their innovation. they come with new machines that using steam as their main engine. While their ideas might sound so interesting, there's no way for us to be amaze since we already got past steam age and oil prove to be superior. So, no matter how they come up with idea I'm still not amaze.
What I'm looking for in steamboy is chars development and action. It only give me action on how the boy escape the bad guy. Surely the art is amaze me in how the genius boy use his brain to overcome crazy bad guy but on the other hand his girlfriend or future-to-be-girlfriend is hurting the mood. OH well.. let's move on to the next topic.
Visual are done very well. CG mix with drawing is the best. Steam seem to go the the correct way and steam pressure shooting up made a cool amazing scenes. I'm sure they spent a lot of money on the art for people to go WOWOW about it. But in this case I've seen already seen this kind of thing(Last Exiled for ex.) so I didn't go all WOWOW, and thus got annoy by other things.
Watch if you like a steam with a well detail CG. There's very little romance or drama in this, just regular action with blarge visual.
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petran79 |
(2006-04-27 13:44:06) 2005-08-24 19:32:42 |
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| Average |
4.0 |
| Animation |
0 |
| Sound |
0 |
| Story |
0 |
| Character |
0 |
| Value |
0 |
| Enjoyment |
4 |
| I have to say visually this is an impressive piece of work. However for an animated motion
picture this falls into the trap of superficiality:
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0 of 0 people found this review helpful.
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| Average |
8.5 |
| Animation |
10 |
| Sound |
9 |
| Story |
8 |
| Character |
7 |
| Value |
8 |
| Enjoyment |
9 |
| Now here is an anime that knows what it wants to do and does it right: Action. What a spectacular treat to our eyes and our ears. The monstrosity of the steam castle can only be matched my the "Howl's Moving Castle", and the CG works is fantastic to say the least. Breathtaking action and flying sequences are exciting to watch, and its incredibly detailed design on every corner of this anime shows how much work is put into this anime. This anime also has some great music which works like a glove. It's exciting and grand music is something you wouldn't hear in every movie.
Sadly this anime lacks character and story. Plot twists were good but it was expected, and some character seems important but is never given any weight. Eddie Steam's character was straight forward in the beginning but I was eventually confused as to what he really was intending at the end. Ray is good and straight forward adventure shounen who in no doubt was inspired by Pazu in Laputa (I think -_-;), and bratty/clueless Scarlet is a very cute/likable character I will miss.
What an exciting anime! Even with its flaws this is a true spectacle. This movie is packed with action and it's a good one. You don't see a movie of this presentation value too often so make sure you see this movie.
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0 of 0 people found this review helpful.
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| Average |
6.7 |
| Animation |
10 |
| Sound |
7 |
| Story |
5 |
| Character |
6 |
| Value |
6 |
| Enjoyment |
6 |
| For a movie that took ten years to make, a big disappointment, with only a few upsides.
Read my review for more.
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0 of 0 people found this review helpful.
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| Average |
6.7 |
| Animation |
10 |
| Sound |
7 |
| Story |
7 |
| Character |
2 |
| Value |
7 |
| Enjoyment |
7 |
| This should have been aspectacle of modern anime.
Instead it's mere eye candy. Is it brillianty animated to every cell? Yes. Is it a very richly detailed Victorian era England-like world? Yes. Is it good action scenes? Yes.
But that's all it is. There are too many flaws. Firstly, the music only works in softer scenes. The action music isn't good. Secondly, the plot is too predictable for this type. Every event is easy to spot 10 minutes before it happens. There is no suspense. But most of all, the characters are super weak. What a waste. There is no proper development, no real background, no proper motivations, the heroes aren't heroes at all and the villains aren't villains.
So sad. Spending 10 years to make this....It should've been better.
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0 of 0 people found this review helpful.
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| Average |
9.3 |
| Animation |
10 |
| Sound |
9 |
| Story |
9 |
| Character |
9 |
| Value |
9 |
| Enjoyment |
10 |
| The animation in this is amazing, there is no doubt about that, nothing more to say on the matter.
However, it baffles me how some reviews here miss the point of a plot so badly... there is a huge moral point to the story which is complex and interesting, unlike some bland Hollywood *blockbusters* with their cynical immoral stories and oh-so-formulaic plots. Without giving too much away, it looks at the dangers of seeing and using science and technology as a means of power and control. its quite a similar plot to Laputa actually...
The characters are great, as for once, they are completely believable - like real people. Their facial expressions are well animated and not *cartoon* in style, which it appears some people here do not appreciate. It is true that the female lead is annoying, but she is supposed to be... its kinda the point.
Any one wanting to see a pretty, clever and interesting film, I recommend this. Any one after generic anime-fighting-robots-huge-boobed-girls romp around a fantasy world, then no, this is not for you.
End note : if your gonna review it, don't mark it down just because you don't understand it. I don't understand some of Shakespeare's plays, does that mean I can say "Well, the plot most be sh*t then".
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Drac17 |
(2005-10-21 23:23:59) 2005-04-19 18:57:10 |
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| Average |
10.0 |
| Animation |
10 |
| Sound |
10 |
| Story |
10 |
| Character |
10 |
| Value |
10 |
| Enjoyment |
10 |
| This is NOT the follow up to Akira. This is basically the awsome fourth episode of the memories collection. Otomo himself said that the story was written during production of memories. This also is not a film that shoots to please where Akira pleased. Its more of an action film than a science fiction movie. Still, I love it almost as much as Akira. Steamboy, Metropolis, Akira..... Otomo is THE true god of Anime.
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| Average |
7.0 |
| Animation |
10 |
| Sound |
9 |
| Story |
5 |
| Character |
5 |
| Value |
7 |
| Enjoyment |
6 |
| I saw this at the Singapore International Film Festival and Katsuhiro Otomo was originally invited to come down to talk about it since it was the opening film. He couldn't make it so the producer went instead. Anyway, he basically said Otomo spent 10 years making Steamboy. And it shows. The animation, artwork, visual effects, attention to detail are all amazing, absolutely top drawer.
The early bits are intriguing and develop well with some tension and excitement, whilst you continue to marvel at the wonderful world. Yet following the story is rather difficult and well, the lead girl was just pure irritation.
The sense and feel of the film is great. Its a fantastic spectacle with some promise of engaging issues involving youth and innocence over corruption, greed and delusion.
The producer actually asked the audience not to think of it as Akira and I didn't but the story really loses a lot of steam after the first 30 mins or so. It just felt to me like Otomo spent so much time on it that there was too much work and he had to make cuts in order to make a movie. My personal opinion is that this may have been better off as a series.
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kompeni |
(2005-04-10 13:41:41) 2005-04-10 13:30:03 |
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| Average |
9.3 |
| Animation |
10 |
| Sound |
8 |
| Story |
10 |
| Character |
9 |
| Value |
9 |
| Enjoyment |
10 |
| The first thing I had in mind after watching this show is that it's not for typical hardcore anime fan who reject anything besides that.
One of the main reason is that even though it's considered to be anime, the storyline and the character design have move a bit toward more universal. But that is not to say it's a bad movie since the plot and storyline itself are quite complex (even compared to most anime show) and still it's very enjoyable to watch, and as for the character design, altough it lends much from Akira movies, the design has a bit more western style which could be mistaken as non anime if you see it in a glance.
The movie setting itself takes place in london at the age of industrial revolution (late 18th century, pararrel world I think) and the scenery beatifully potray it in such way. In addition some scenery background in the movie are real (or at least almost live like) but it blends perfectly with the characters and other drawn object which really leaves an unique impression that the studio who created it had made a superb job.
Another worth mentioned is that the vehicle design are quite original and jenius, from the motorad (it's from gundam) like bike to the steam powered tank, subs and kitty hawk like aircraft.
All of them were designed in such way that is seems that it make sense (especially the bike which I considered to be very unique).
Overall I think this anime is very worthy to watch especially for more broader audience who doesn't / rarely watch anime, as for hardcore anime fan may not like the the story and design though I still think that they give it a chance since just because it's less than anime i.e : doesn't have big eyes, bishou characters, blood & gore, plenty of fanservices but dumbed down story (a.k.a gundam seed and tenjou tenge alike) doesn't mean it's bad to watch.
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0 of 0 people found this review helpful.
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| Average |
6.0 |
| Animation |
8 |
| Sound |
7 |
| Story |
5 |
| Character |
7 |
| Value |
5 |
| Enjoyment |
4 |
| I actually found it difficult to watch, while the animation was amazing (cool steam effects), the story seemed to fall a bit flat for me. Probably this anime is aimed as a family type movie so its nothing overly complicated, and as a result if you are used to seeing good animation this is kind of boring. That being said they still could have done a better job making this more seemless, the plot seems to clunk with the grace of uhm.. a giant squid ice skating (or as bad as the analogy I just made). Treat steamboy as little more than a family disney movie, well maybe just a smidgen above disney.
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0 of 0 people found this review helpful.
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| Average |
6.4 |
| Animation |
10 |
| Sound |
9 |
| Story |
4 |
| Character |
4 |
| Value |
0 |
| Enjoyment |
5 |
| Wow! Could I be any more disappointed? Perhaps my expectations were too high?
Steamboy played out like a typical Hollywood blockbuster.
Animation was beyond superb, I think that's pretty much a given. My only complaint: Um... The facial features... All the characters look like they have Down Syndrome (kinda like the characters from Akira).
The OST wasn't spectacular by any means, however, the sound scape was impressive. The environmental sounds were remarkable. Voice acting rocked too.
Story: My head hurts. The story wasn't particularly difficult to follow, rather, it was shallow and unimaginative. I've seen this formula used a trillion times before in western cinema, from Wild Wild West to Independence Day.
I was bored beyond tears for much of the film.
The explanation for the science behind the steam ball was daft.
Character: You don't need character development if the characters are well defined and interesting right from the get go. Steamboy has neither development or interesting characters. Bill Campbell had more charisma in the Rocketer than Ray has in Steamboy, and that's truly pathetic.
I couldn't empathize with a single character.
Dull, bland, stock characters without a trace of originality or development.
Watch this film once. That's about the extent of my recommendation. I have no intentions of ever watching this again for as long as live. Quite the forgettable experience.
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nauXolo |
(2005-05-18 01:14:47) 2005-04-06 19:52:54 |
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| Average |
3.5 |
| Animation |
0 |
| Sound |
0 |
| Story |
3 |
| Character |
5 |
| Value |
3 |
| Enjoyment |
3 |
| I was very impressed with the beginning chase scene as the men in black chased after Ray with all the cool technical machines being shown off and he gets snatched away.
After this, it feels like the story develops without purpose until the point of what the steam ball is used for. Then yay again, nice action battle scenes come again.
I enjoyed watching this for the eye-candy. One of the few cases where that part is so impressive that it kind of makes it enjoyable despite the baseless stories and permanent character personalities. However, I didn't like the animation style. it might have looked nice but the style was not to my taste.
If I could summarize this I'd say: machines machines machines. If you are a fan of loud explosions and working parts, then watch this.
Personally, as a whole i wasn't very impressed with what this story is based on. I think because of the limitation of the story, there isn't much that you can do with it. It was also kind of hard to watch this since nothing really kept me tied to it (that's what story development is meant for and action doesn't last forever)
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kahiti |
(2005-04-05 19:28:12) 2005-04-05 19:27:16 |
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| Average |
7.7 |
| Animation |
10 |
| Sound |
8 |
| Story |
6 |
| Character |
6 |
| Value |
8 |
| Enjoyment |
8 |
| The two main points:
Steamboy has awesome visuals.
However, it lacks meaning and sufficient character development.
I agree with most people on these points. Perhaps this just isn't the kind of movie I "get", but the character's monologues seemed trite and their ideals too simplified. (But wait, that's every kid's movie isn't it?) Maybe this was aimed toward a younger audience than many of those who were looking forward to it the most. Also, there were arcs that were never wrapped up--leaving the viewer wondering why they were there in the first place.
The theme apparently was the question posed by the steam boy himself: "What is the purpose of science?" To which there are no realistic lines of thought given.
Question: Was there a real Scarlett O'Hara? Or was this one just based on the one in "Gone With the Wind"? In which case maybe she was stuck up enough, but that was unnecessary to the story...in fact, I think it was too distracting.
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|
|
| Average |
6.3 |
| Animation |
10 |
| Sound |
9 |
| Story |
3 |
| Character |
2 |
| Value |
6 |
| Enjoyment |
8 |
| SIMILAR TO: (Laputa) Castle In The Sky; Akira
Starting with the visuals, I cannot emphasize enough the magnificent scale and grandieur. So much of the artwork dazzles you that at times there is simply TOO MUCH to take in. Coupled with not-too-shoddy animation (noticibly improving as the film goes on however), the breathtaking rollercoaster action sequences and gloriously atmospheric settings (both inside the Steam Tower and out in London & Manchester), faulting the visuals is being pedantic. There is also some amusing resemblance of Akira characters in the looks of some of Steamboy's characters, whilst the Steam Tower and general feel remind me of Laputa from Castle In The Sky.
The sound, whilst providing awesome sound effects and an even-more-awesome dramatic score to the film, have 2 minor flaws: firstly, the voice of Scarlett is absoultely one of the worst female voices ever; and secondly, with such a rich english backdrop to the film, it feels almost wrong that the film is in Japanese. Believe me when I say that I would usually NEVER say this, but I think I wanna see this film with english-dubbed voices, simply because the whole feel of the film is as far from Japanese as possible.
The story is where the first of the major gripes come in. For one thing, there appears to be absolutely no point of the Steam Tower as anything other than a power provider, but the whole last hour of the film is dedicated to watching it move about and crash into things whilst implying that it's so important because of this mobility feature. But is it a weapon? Err, I don't think so. So why all the fuss over it being able to move about? It's creater Dr Edwards apparently just goes all insane over it for being this uber-sized machine that can move. But the whole time I'm thinking "so what? What are you gonna do with a thing like that? It can't even shoot anything.". Another gripe with the story is the lack of explanation for what the Steam Ball actually does and the theories behind how it works. Lastly, although looking superb, this general story is far from original, and has appeared before in many films, in far more complicated and interesting ways.
The characters. From confused, to annoying, to downright underdeveloped, it's a bit of a mishmosh. The lead character is a nice enough dude, reminiscent of Pazu from Castle In The Sky. But Scartlett - omg one of the worst female couterparts I have ever seen. She is so annoying, so stuck up, and so deserving to get a grenade shoved down her throat that I cannot believe she represents the "heroine". Althroughout the film she goes on living in her own little world where she has everything done for her and done her way even when she's walking through the middle of a war! Dr Edwards is also another annoying character, and highly confused. Just what does he actually wish to acomplish? If it's "to provide power to the world" like he indicates near the start of the war, then he doesn't partiularly go about it very well. Suddenly he turns into this confused maniac. Lastly, most of the other characters in the film seem absolutely non-plussed with death. People are dying everywhere and no one is really phased by it or cares, apart from the lead character.
To end with, I have to say that I enjoyed this movie more for its visuals than anything else. The story and characters were just ok enough for me to laugh at them in amusement (and not quite bad enough for me to shout out at the screen how pathetic they were), but with a ripping dramatic score and a general feel of "wow would you look at that", I ended up liking this film more than disliking.
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| Average |
9.7 |
| Animation |
10 |
| Sound |
10 |
| Story |
9 |
| Character |
9 |
| Value |
10 |
| Enjoyment |
10 |
| Magnificent movie, definitly worth the $17.92 i paid to see it at the Toronto International Movie Festival subbed. The animation is superb. The sound effects and the voice actors are great, and the score is just awsome, plays in so nicely and just helps take your breath away at some beautiful scenes. The story pics up right from the beginning and is played out very nicely, i didnt see anything that might confuse the common american mind, so this should do great in theatres. The characters are definitly Otomo's work, dont know what everyone else thinks but i think they were fairly unique and had personalities that fit them perfectly. the value......well, when it will be release widely in theatres as SONY promised, im definitly going to see it again, and when the DVD comes out im gonna run to the store. Enjoyment, definitly 10 out of 10. loved the movie.
i highly recommend it. well worth the wait of 15 years to see another masterpiece from Katsuhiro Otomo.
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balor |
2004-10-18 02:57:40 |
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| Average |
8.7 |
| Animation |
10 |
| Sound |
9 |
| Story |
7 |
| Character |
7 |
| Value |
9 |
| Enjoyment |
10 |
| Okay, now note that my Japanese was far from perfect when I saw this, and thus perhaps my understanding of the plot may have been poor. First of all, this is the most visually stunning anime that has ever come out to date. Six million dollar budget and nine years in production. Now, aside from that, this is Otomo's brainchild. Do you like conventional Big Eyes Small Mouths anime with samurai and mindless action? Then don't watch this, because you will be bored out of your mind. Now, what this anime has is some of the most inventive themes, mecha designs, and technology ever exhibited in anime. Otomo takes the steampunk genre of sci-fi, and adapts it to the big screen. What you get is a whole lot of steam, and steam powered machinery. His imagination in that realm is unsurpassed.
Alas, this movie lacks character development. Its just not there. And that shows in the end, because guess what, some of the chars have no reason to do what they did then. Also, the plot is I think overly complicated, and I got lost. That was probably because I don't speak Japanese perfectly, but also probably because I could not for example imagine that if you heat steam up hot enough it will become supercooled and act like liquid nitrogen.
So, in the end, the movie is not perfect. It is gorgeous, creative, and one of the best mood setters out there. But, plot and character wise, Otomo has definately done better (Roujin Z or Memories). Still, highly reccomended you watch, if only for the eye candy.
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