This movie is the first to depict Yamato in its historical timeline and was released in 2005 - I'll have to say that it's not bad at all, but there are some bad points within the movie.
Starting with the story, I will say that the movie is as good as it can be. The film includes several expositions by showing historical footage of certain events during the war to give sufficient context. It's not trying to be overly biased, but at the same time, trying to depict the sailors fighting on board the Yamato always in high spirits, showing the audience that they are proud sailors of Yamato fighting for their country despite knowing they will lose.
Despite the good story writing, the actors seem to be lacking in certain scenes with their ability to express emotions. Some scenes are not as powerful as they're supposed to be because the actors are not acting well enough.
The scores in the movie are decent but aren't anything special. It felt like any generic music for movies of that time. None of them are memorable to me. The same goes for the sound designs; they failed to give the intense blast of Yamato's powerful 18-inch guns or the paranoia effect of American planes' sounds attacking the ship.
The last I'll talk about is the CGI of the movie. I know they made a 1:1 scale of parts of Yamato, and it is impressive that they did that for the movie set instead of relying on pure CGI. However, since the movie came in 2005, the CGIs have aged and aren't very immersive
Overall, it was a good watch. I'd recommend first-time watchers to watch it without thinking of the movie as some propaganda movie or movie that justifies Japan during WW2, but simply a movie that tells the perspective of the sailors of Yamato.
Starting with the story, I will say that the movie is as good as it can be. The film includes several expositions by showing historical footage of certain events during the war to give sufficient context. It's not trying to be overly biased, but at the same time, trying to depict the sailors fighting on board the Yamato always in high spirits, showing the audience that they are proud sailors of Yamato fighting for their country despite knowing they will lose.
Despite the good story writing, the actors seem to be lacking in certain scenes with their ability to express emotions. Some scenes are not as powerful as they're supposed to be because the actors are not acting well enough.
The scores in the movie are decent but aren't anything special. It felt like any generic music for movies of that time. None of them are memorable to me. The same goes for the sound designs; they failed to give the intense blast of Yamato's powerful 18-inch guns or the paranoia effect of American planes' sounds attacking the ship.
The last I'll talk about is the CGI of the movie. I know they made a 1:1 scale of parts of Yamato, and it is impressive that they did that for the movie set instead of relying on pure CGI. However, since the movie came in 2005, the CGIs have aged and aren't very immersive
Overall, it was a good watch. I'd recommend first-time watchers to watch it without thinking of the movie as some propaganda movie or movie that justifies Japan during WW2, but simply a movie that tells the perspective of the sailors of Yamato.