theredcomet2000 Reviews

Transformers: Energon (2004)

If you don't mind subtitles...

[9/10 · 21 June 2006]

When I first saw Energon on TV, I thought it was pretty bad. I found a lot of the main characters to be annoying, poor voice acting, you name it.

Then I was convinced by someone to watch the original Japanese version with subtitles.

Wow! What a difference! Characters who are annoying in Energon are actually very well fleshed out and much more tolerable. The two characters in Energon who I liked least (Ironhide and Kicker), became my two favorites (although Ironhide is called Roadbuster) in Superlink! This makes all the difference, as these two are core members of the cast, and probably the closest things to being main characters.

I also really enjoyed the portrayals of Alpha-Q and Megazarak (Scorponok in Energon). David Kaye is always a treat when he does English voices for Megatron, but I found the Japanese voice actor to be very good as well.

It's a very high-energy show with plenty of action, and a surprising amount of character development.

Also, I hear that the Japanese version has a better quality CGI animation. The version sent to the US for dubbing was about not quite complete, as it had to be sent well ahead of time to get the dubbing process started. The Japanese had plenty of time to clean up the animation and still beat the English dub to TV. I stopped watching Energon, so I can't quite confirm, but I've read this on many sources. I also found no reason to complain about the animation in Superlink, while one of the biggest complaints about Energon was in the animation.

I highly recommend tracking down the Japanese version, if you can tolerate subtitles. It's certainly a different animal than Beast Wars, but I found myself enjoying it just as much in the end.

G-Saviour (1999 TV Movie)

Interesting to see, yet bland.

[4/10 · 18 June 2006]

Created by a western production company, this was Gundam's "great experiment". How did the experiment fare? While not the worst movie I've ever seen, it is by far the weakest Gundam release by a great margin.

The acting is "passable", nothing noteworthy and certainly on par with other direct-to-video and cable movies.

The visuals are impressive when viewed as still screen-shots. The mecha look great, and so does the set design and costumes. However, once things are put in motion it becomes apparent that this is not a quality Gundam release. While the animation is nice, and well rendered, it's just not Gundam-like in feel. Gundam shows (even the most "realistic" of them) have high-speed mobility and very exciting dogfights. Not so here. The mecha move very slow and almost clumsy, which just doesn't feel right.

Also consider that this is set in the future of the UC storyline. The last we saw of UC was in Victory Gundam, which had extremely fast and maneuverable mobile suits. Here, however, it seems as though technology has regressed so that mobile suits are slower and clumsier than even the first Mobile Suit ever invented in this time-line. I've seen astronauts adrift in space with no propulsion that move better than this. And these are essentially robots covered in high-performance thrusters?

UC Gundam for the most part also focused on Newtypes, except that they are missing here. Newtypes are essentially the next evolution of man. They are much like powerful "psychics" with incredible natural piloting talent, and are a core element to most of UC story lines. I can however, forgive the lack of Newtypes, as later UC Gundam shows tended to try and top the psychic powers of the previous shows, resulting in excessive mental powers able to turn people into vegetables by mere thought alone. So I don't mind a refocusing of the franchise on piloting and dogfights over mental attacks.

However, as mentioned earlier, the dogfights are just terrible. Gundam shows are not new to chapters that are light on action. Gundam 0080 had very little mecha fighting, yet it made up for it with character development, story, and compelling drama. This doesn't have any of that either.

This would be fine if it was some late night cable movie, and had all references to Gundam removed and replaced with generic robots.

All in all, it is an interesting thing to watch, as it is Gundam's "great experiment". A live action Gundam film made by western production companies. Beyond experiencing the magnitude of the failure, there's not much going for it.

If you want to see CGI rendered Gundam in all it's glory, find a way to get ahold of "MS Igloo". It is a fully CGI UC Gundam story set during the One Year War of 0079. And it certainly puts this to shame.

As a side-note, Gundam Wing fans may enjoy the appearance of Enuka Okuma as Cynthia Graves. She is the voice actor of Lady Une, and performs a live-action role in G Saviour.

Initial D (2005)

Reminiscent of the original, but what happened to the music?

[7/10 · 15 May 2006]

Overall, I'll have to say right off the bat that as a fan of the original anime I found it somewhat amusing.

There are a few things that the movie does right. The camera angles and the overall feel of the movie was spot-on to the original source material. A particular highlight was the "zoom-in-on-the-eyes" of the loser in one particular race. This was exactly like the anime, and was a great touch.

People might slam Jay Chou, but I thought he did a good job in this. It's rather hard to screw up a character who is generally bored and half-asleep (as he is portrayed in the anime).

There are a lot of small changes here and there, such as Bunta being a drunkard for comedy relief, and the complete lack of Keisuke (his character was combined with Nakazato). Or the fact that the anime Nakazato drove the 4WD GT-R model of Skyline, and did not drift. I won't touch on these in detail, as they didn't really bother me that much.

However, the biggest element lacking in this is the music! Inital D fans know that Initial D is known for it's high energy dance-style J-pop music. Considering there are at least 10 Initial D soundtrack CD's out in Japan, I can't believe they didn't realize how popular the music is.

The music in the film is best described as "Chinese rap/R&B" I guess, which really hurt the feel of the movie in my opinion.

As synonymous the anime is with the music, I can't help but think what it would be without it. We'd be left with scenes of car racing with cheesy dialog, intertwined with brief romance scenes. Which now that I think of it, pretty much sums up this film.

If they were to make an Initial D anime series with music similar to this movie's soundtrack, I wonder if I would like it as much.

I just might feel the same way about it as I do this movie, in that it's a nice reminiscent film somewhat faithful to the original, but nothing to get really excited about.

If you're not a fan of Inital D or of import racing, there's not much for you here.