Steamboy Movie Review
Steamboy
I just rented Steamboy (2005), and it’s a great movie; I thoroughly enjoyed watching it! I enjoy anime, and the artistic style of this movie is similar in my opinion to that of Hayao Miyazaki’s Laputa: Castle in the Sky and especially Howl’s Moving Castle. Steamboy was directed by Katsuhiro Otomo, director of the highly acclaimed animated film Akira. Unlike Akira, which is pretty bizarre, Steamboy is more realistic, being based around 19th century steam technologies. Both movies have their elements of science fiction, but Akira is more over the top with super-human powers and grotesque mutations - Steamboy had none of that. The animation was fluid and the backgrounds were beautiful, and like many modern anime features there were some interesting CGI effects.
I enjoy movies that are clean and appropriate, and Steamboy fits the bill with no foul language, vulgar jokes, or inappropriate sexual content! It is rated PG-13 for action, but anyone who’s seen anime will agree that this movie is graphically mild when it comes to action violence. The English voice overs are great too, featuring great talent such as Anna Paquin (Rogue in X-Men) and Patrick Stewart (Captain Jean Luc Picard in Star Trek, and Professor X in X-Men)! Interestingly, I’ve also heard Patrick Stewart’s voice on Hayao Miyazaki’s Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind as well.
I really like this movie, and I think the critics (www.rottentomatoes.com) didn’t do this movie justice. The story and animation are great, in addition to the design and voice over talent. I can’t think of how they could have made it any better.
Synopsis:
The story is essentially about a young boy named Ray who comes from a family talented with engineering. Ray’s father and grandfather have made a new scientific and technological discovery that could be used for devastating military purposes. The movie takes us on a journey with Ray as he discovers his father and grandfather’s secrets, and makes tough decisions to do what is right. It does feel very much like a typical anime, with a young boy who has incredible talent and abilities, making him the only character in the story who could make things right. There’s also the side-line love interest who takes notice of him (no kissing or anything though). Overall, I highly recommend this movie.
October 17th, 2007 at 8:24 am
Wow, for someone who’s really picky about anime being good and bad, this was a decent review. How bout you write some for some of those series you watched, I’m interested and what you’d say about Haruhi Suzumiya…although the last thing i need is getting mad at what you write. I can’t write reviews because, if its something remotely anime-esque, I’ll probably like it. Im too biased.
October 17th, 2007 at 8:55 am
Some people love anime so much that they would never give any anime series or film a bad rating, even if it’s the worst anime ever produced…
Everyone is biased when it comes to entertainment, including me. When it comes to Asian movies I don’t critique them as harsh as I do American movies. Most American movies are high budget garbage, and I’ve seen too many that use the same boring formula, so when I watch foreign films it feels like I’m watching something new and entertaining. Anime is a special interest genre with common characteristics that make it unique from other types of film.
When it comes to clean, morally appropriate media, I have a very strong bias because there are few productions of this type these days. If a movie or series has no curse words or inappropriate scenes, it automatically rates highly in my book, simply because there’s nothing offensive in the story. This important to me as a Christian who doesn’t want to fill his mind with filthy entertainment.
Also, I approach watching anime series differently than anime movies. Watching an anime series is a serious investment of many hours, so if I discover in the end that the quality of the series is not that great, I’ll get upset for the hours I wasted.
June 26th, 2008 at 12:31 pm
Staemboy…
[...] could be added to Ghibli-like movies category. And itÂ’s not only my opinion: Jabot.net writes [...]…
July 6th, 2008 at 10:25 am
[...] mir, dass meine Meinung auch von anderen geteilt wird. Hier zum Beispiel ein Beitrag aus dem Blog Filipino by Birth Christian by Grace: Ich habe gerade Steamboy (2005) gemietet, und das ist wirklich ein groĂŸartiger Film; Ich habe das [...]