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Steamboy (UMD Mini For PSP) Actors: Anna Paquin, Patrick Stewart, Alfred Molina Director: Katsuhiro Ôtomo Number of Items: 1 Audience Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested) Studio: Columbia Tri-Star Product Group: DVD Release Date: 2005-07-26 Buy from Amazon |
 "Brilliant animation ruined by poor narrative"Much has been made over the fact that the director of Steamboy is the same who directed the anime classic Akira. As a fan of Akira from way back when I first saw it in '89, I was expecting first rate animation. Steamboy didn't disappoint me, at least not there. Ray Steam is the son and grandson of two of Victorian England's greatest living scientists and inventors. One day some mysterious men from the O'Hara Corporation show up on his family's doorstep, asking for a package that has just arrived from Ray's grandfather who has been away on an expedition with his father. Ray learns just in time however that these men are evil and that he must not let them have the contents; one "steam ball", which contains within itself enormous power. Immediately the action ensues as Ray flees the Corporate men to deliver the steam ball back to his grandfather. We follow along as Ray goes on a journey to find not only the answer the mystery of the steam ball, but also the answer to the question: what is the purpose of science - power, happiness, or something else? This is a very realistic vision of Victorian England combined with some fantastically precocious machine technology which was intended to make for a very weird cinematic experience. Too bad that this experience was thwarted time and again by a plot that was stretched too thin and dragged on too long. The pacing alternated between long, lethargic stretches of dialog and frantic action sequences featuring steamy explosions, crashes and chases. This story could have been --and should have been!-told in about 20 minutes less time. It's as if nobody was editing this. (Director's Cut, you say? I respond: there's a reason that God gave us editors. Make better use of them!) That it is a superb technical achievement, I can't deny. That it is one of the most elaborate animes ever made (as the dvd back cover trumpets) is without any doubt. A visual feast, gorgeous cinematography (animaphotography? Oh well...), incredible attention to details, genius of direction...yes, all of that and more. But this film should be a lesson to directors everywhere; the best visuals in any medium cannot compensate for or transform an essentially boring story. First, choose your script well! -Andrea, aka merribelle  "visually stunning with a threadbare plot"Do you love steam? I mean do you REALLY love steam? Do you love pressure gauges and release valves and gears and pipes? If so "Steamboy" is the movie for you. The movie opens in a factory where the steam pressure has increased to a dangerous level. After the inevitable explosion the movie switches to its second scene, a factory with an uncontrolled buildup of steam. This is a movie that SERIOUSLY enjoys showing the effects of steam pressure. The knock against "Steamboy" is that it's visually stunning but lacking in story. For the first half of the movie I was ready to write a review disagreeing but at the half way mark the movie seemed to lose...steam? "Steamboy" takes place in Victorian era England featuring steam technology that never actually existed. At this point mythological industrial era technology has practically reached the level of genre having been used in more than a few movies and books most recently in "The League of Extraordinary Gentleman" and the unfortunate "Wild Wild West". The story revolves around the near magical steam ball, a bowling ball size object that contains enough pressure to power an entire building. This is the device that young Ray Steam uses to become the titular "Steamboy" although he doesn't don his flight suit and steam rocket until an hour and a half into the movie and even then only takes a few short flights. The last half hour of the movie seems to be an homage to steam pressure with expanding and exploding pipes and endless scenes of destruction and then the movie quickly ends. The plot seems a bit threadbare which is a shame after the loving devotion spent on animation. Director Katsuhiro Ôtomo seemed to be trying to make some kind of point about the place of science at the dawn of the industrial age but I wasn't sure what the point was. On one hand the Steam Castle was a technologic (if unfeasible) wonder but on the other hand the technology was used to create weapons which nearly destroy London. In the end the Steam Castle seemed to exist merely to demonstrate how much steel and glass could be lifted off the ground using steam. "Steamboy" has more than its fair share of powerful imagery including the re-introduction of Ray's father Eddie who, thanks to an explosion, seems to be practically steam powered himself. The movie is a step above the usual Japanese Anime but Ôtomo still falls well short of the storytelling skills of a master like Hayao Miyazaki.  "The Ending"Steamboy was a great movie throughout. As a anime lover, i have never seen the director's last movie Akira. But after seeing this i definatly wanted to watch Akira. The Ending was probably the best ending to a movie i have ever seen. All movies should end like Steamboy. A good memorable cool ending. "Good Movie"I really enjoyed this movie and I really can't add much that hasn't been covered in other positive reviews. I found the movie to be entertaining and technically well done. The animation and audio quality of the movie are pretty good. I thought the music score was outstanding. Perhaps more than any other animated film I have ever seen this movie feels like a live action film and not an animated film. Some may see that as a problem. I personally do not. This is the kind of movie I could show to people not familiar with anime without feeling embarassed. The movie does have its problems. The story is perhaps average and there is little character development. Don't expect this movie to be Akira II or Son of Akira. This movie is more like the Rocketeer than anything. This movie does have a message (or messages). This is a "message" movie about the nature of technology and its use (or possible misuse). Messages are subtle though. Otomo doesn't feel the need in this movie beat you over the head with his point. I personally like it that way. I should mention that both the subtitled and english dubbed versions run the same length (126 minutes). There are no cuts to the dubbed version. That of course has been a worry to some since the theatrical dubbed version had a number of big cuts to its running time. You do not have to worry about that with the R1 DVDs. BTW, I found the dub to be pretty good. "Very good"My biggest problem with this movie is the boy, Ray, is voiced by a woman. And it sounds like he's voiced by a woman. They should have gotten a child actor to do the voice if that's what they were going for. Not a female actress. That said, the story is great but it drags on a bit long. The animation is just beautiful and everything is top notch. |
