Forum - View topicREVIEW: Steamboy
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v1cious
 Posts: 6227 Location: Houston, TX |
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wow...
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enjin2000
 Posts: 1484 Location: Japan |
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>The year is 1889. It’s the eve of the World Expo, a technological showcase in Victorian England.
1851. Frankly speaking I was not so moved than the reviewer writes he was. |
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Tempest
 I Run this place.ANN Publisher  Posts: 10456 Location: Do not message me for support. |
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Did you like the movie but just not find it great? Or did you think it was merely an okay movie... Or was it not even okay to you? |
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GATSU
Posts: 15550 |
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What the hell was wrong with that?! Those elements forced you to pay attention while most anime today just makes me want to stop watching. Just say it the way you mean it. Steamboy's less cerebal than Akira, and will appeal to otaku who are more likely to watch shows based on dating sims. |
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enjin2000
Posts: 1484 Location: Japan |
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Excellent animation, poor direction. It may sound unlogical, but I could not help comparing Steam boy with Miyazaki movies in the theater since it is certain that Otomo was inspired by Homes and Laputa.
How should I explain in English... Miyazaki is a genius having us feel the hero/heroin bodily as well as having us identify with him/her. When Chihiro dashs her head against the wall, we fell as if we really did. But in Steam Boy I did not realize it. |
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jfrog
 Posts: 925 Location: Seattle |
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God forbid that a movie should actually make sense. I love how you're deriding Steamboy as the worst movie ever and constantly praising Innocence, even though you haven't seen either. And what's wrong with making a fun adventure movie? Sure, I like films that challenge me as a viewer, but you can't say that you didn't enjoy Indiana Jones or Star Wars. If Alan Moore could write The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen without anyone crying "sellout!" and asking him to remake From Hell, why can't Katsushiro Otomo make Steamboy without everyone comparing it unfavorably to Akira? |
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cookie
Former ANN Editor in Chief
 Posts: 2460 Location: Do not contact me for support. |
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Uh, are we watching the same Steamboy? I'm pretty sure the caption read "1866 Manchester England"... particularly given that spoiler[Lloyd (the grandfather) dies in 1869, according to the end credits]. Although it didn't start in London, the action moves there rather quickly (spoiler[as soon as the Steamball and Ray are captured by Zaigen or whatever that group's name was...]) and stays there for the remainder of the film. I was not particularly "moved" either; I did, however, enjoy the film AS an action film and am looking forward to Steamboy 2 to continue and build on that action. |
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Rah-Rah
Posts: 93 Location: Atlanta,GA |
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GATSU
Posts: 15550 |
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jfrog:
I agree, which is why End of Evangelion sucks. But Akira does make sense if you pay attention.
I never called Steamboy "worst movie ever". It just looks lacking as I hear and read more about it. And I never praised Innocence. I just said it looks better as I see and read more about it. I'm a bigger Otomo than Oshii fan by default btw, even collecting Legend of Mother Sarah up until it got cancelled.
If he hadn't spent almost as long on Steamboy as he did on Akira, I probably wouldn't care. And he already made an adventure movie in the form of Spriggan, so Steamboy seems redundant. Rah Rah: Just my usual b*tching and moaning. |
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enjin2000
Posts: 1484 Location: Japan |
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If my memory is correct, Crystal Palace opened in 1851.
And the second London EXPO was in 1862. Jan meets Nadia in 1867 in Paris EXPO. It is probable that Otomo's London is not the actual London, like the Tokyo in Sakura Wars. |
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ANN_Bamboo
ANN Contributor
 Posts: 3904 Location: CO |
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Actually, the End of Evangelion made plenty of sense, if you paid attention. Heaven forbid a movie require you to think and pull from Biblical and psychological references to understand the movie.
With both movies, your opinion is based slowly on what you heard and read about them. If you haven't seen a product, you can't judge it. It's like reading a bad review of Schindler's List and then turning around and calling it a redundant piece of trash ripped from a Barney episode directed by a total hack. It just doesn't work like that. Honestly, it's unfair to rip into Steamboy without having so much as sat down to watch the thing. |
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cookie
Former ANN Editor in Chief
Posts: 2460 Location: Do not contact me for support. |
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The soundtrack also happens to list one piece as "Manchester 1866"... So, yes, I think that's a very safe assumption that Otomo's London is not, in fact, the real thing. The World Expo (or whatever it was in Steamboy) seemed to me like it was more about the potential use of steam power, rather than a general "expo". In that way, I found it similar to modern talks about the use of nuclear power or other fuels.. and thus it seemed to be more of a parallel between the ficticious world of Steamboy and the modern world, rather than just setting dressing. |
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Mr Mania
 Posts: 581 Location: UK |
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Except Otomo didn't direct Spriggan he was merely a producer. From what I have heard he had little to do with it. So how does him being the producer of one action movie make his directing another redundant may I ask? Even if he had directed Spriggan it still wouldn't. Anyway I am glad to read a really positive review. Personally I don't think I am going to like it as much as I did Akira as the story doesn't appeal to me as much. Never the less its always good to watch a movie which is just a lot of fun and I can't wait until this movie hits DVD and desperately hope that it receives some cinema screenings in the UK. |
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GATSU
Posts: 15550 |
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Sakechan:
I'll summarize Evangelion. Boy masturbates and destroys the world, as opposed to Lain, which is about a girl who masturbates and destroys the Internet.
Sometimes reviews actually apply. See Battlefield Earth. And as for Schindler's List, I'd respect a reviewer if they actually focused on the execution, and not the subject matter, compared to critics who say, "Well it's got nazis, so that must mean we have to take it more seriously, even if Spielberg's still being emotionally manipulative as usual." In Steamboy's case, the reviewer seemed to have liked the film, because they weren't a fan of Otomo's previous films, not because they actually believed it was directed well. They just appreciated that Otomo decided to make a crowd-pleaser, which is acceptable, but isn't innovative like his previous work. And the fact that people besides myself are comparing it to a Miyazaki film is a bad sign, because Miyazaki needs to retire before he starts recycling like he did in Spirited Away. Mania:
You can still tell Spriggan's his baby.
It still looks like his stamp on it though.
He already associated himself with one action movie, even if he had a different part in the production process. |
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ANN_Bamboo
ANN Contributor
Posts: 3904 Location: CO |
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Too bad. They both went over your head.
Do you think anything is original? It seems like for everything that has popular appeal, you feel it's your duty to denounce it as a rip-off of [insert obscure movie here]/ [insert random book here]/ [insert kid's blog entry here]. Not everything can be 100% original. With so many centuries of literature under our belt, there comes a point when you CAN'T make something that's 100% original. And when it is, people decry it as being pompous, "drugged," or "HA, what a hack! People think it's cool just because it's original! Clearly they don't know what they're talking about!" Stuff gets recycled. Heaven forbid a director have influences. |
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