**** Contains Spoilers ****** Disclaimer: I am not fluent in Japanese
First, some background. I watched all of the episodes of the US of "Star Blazers" when back in elementary school. When I heard from a friend that it was being released as a movie in Japan( where I currently live ) , I just had to go see it. So much so, that I rewatched the TV series, and did some research about it on the Web. Some interesting facts:
The Argo in the US release was originally called the "Yamato"
The Yamato's namesake was a WW2 Destroyer.
The Yamato was built right where I work at today!
There is a museum near Hiroshima dedicated to the ship
Now for the movie. I watched this last week in Yokosuka, JP. Despite being in Japanese, I felt confident I would be able to follow the storyline even if they changed it to adapt it for cinema. OK, I go into the late showing and it's the theater is practically empty. Not a good sign of the 3 day after the release. The beginning was promising, but slowly it became obvious that they made some major revisions to the story. That in itself isn't bad or unexpected, but they removed several key elements, or neutered them. They had a huge palette of source material, and made a film that felt half-full.
Let me explain. First, the good: *Wildstar was still pretty crazy shoot-em up kind of guy. *The Wave motion gun still owns. *Nova( Yuki ) was still hot. Plus, now she punches people and flies a fighter ships! Special Effects/CGI were well done.
The Bad: * Starsha? Where are you? Your sister is also missing. Thanks for still managing to get the Wave motion gun blueprints to us without appearing in the film. * Dessloc is no longer the witty arch-enemy, he's some weird crystalline hologram. * Gamelons look like the flying lizards from Pitch Black. * 5 fighter ships can take on the entire Gamelon fleet * The radiation purifier is inside of Wildstar. Weirdness. * Everyone gets drunk for no reason. * The music...you have got to be kidding me * Long scenes of a character staring into space for some unknown reason. * The spaceship only has 12 people on it, apparently. I would have been an extra...for free! * The ending...I won't spoil that for you. It's a major disappointment. * Don't pick up random ships and let them inside of yours...it could be a trap. Or a bomb.
There is no reason it had to be this lame. I'm still glad I went to see it as it was my first Japanese movie in a Japanese theater. The experience was good, but the film was lacking.
My recommendation is to wait for it on DVD/Netflix, unless you want to donate money to the film in hopes they make a worthy sequel.
First, some background. I watched all of the episodes of the US of "Star Blazers" when back in elementary school. When I heard from a friend that it was being released as a movie in Japan( where I currently live ) , I just had to go see it. So much so, that I rewatched the TV series, and did some research about it on the Web. Some interesting facts:
The Argo in the US release was originally called the "Yamato"
The Yamato's namesake was a WW2 Destroyer.
The Yamato was built right where I work at today!
There is a museum near Hiroshima dedicated to the ship
Now for the movie. I watched this last week in Yokosuka, JP. Despite being in Japanese, I felt confident I would be able to follow the storyline even if they changed it to adapt it for cinema. OK, I go into the late showing and it's the theater is practically empty. Not a good sign of the 3 day after the release. The beginning was promising, but slowly it became obvious that they made some major revisions to the story. That in itself isn't bad or unexpected, but they removed several key elements, or neutered them. They had a huge palette of source material, and made a film that felt half-full.
Let me explain. First, the good: *Wildstar was still pretty crazy shoot-em up kind of guy. *The Wave motion gun still owns. *Nova( Yuki ) was still hot. Plus, now she punches people and flies a fighter ships! Special Effects/CGI were well done.
The Bad: * Starsha? Where are you? Your sister is also missing. Thanks for still managing to get the Wave motion gun blueprints to us without appearing in the film. * Dessloc is no longer the witty arch-enemy, he's some weird crystalline hologram. * Gamelons look like the flying lizards from Pitch Black. * 5 fighter ships can take on the entire Gamelon fleet * The radiation purifier is inside of Wildstar. Weirdness. * Everyone gets drunk for no reason. * The music...you have got to be kidding me * Long scenes of a character staring into space for some unknown reason. * The spaceship only has 12 people on it, apparently. I would have been an extra...for free! * The ending...I won't spoil that for you. It's a major disappointment. * Don't pick up random ships and let them inside of yours...it could be a trap. Or a bomb.
There is no reason it had to be this lame. I'm still glad I went to see it as it was my first Japanese movie in a Japanese theater. The experience was good, but the film was lacking.
My recommendation is to wait for it on DVD/Netflix, unless you want to donate money to the film in hopes they make a worthy sequel.