Publisher: Panorama (Hong Kong)Format: Region 3 DVD, NTSC, Japanese Dialogue with optional Cantonese dub and English and Chinese Traditional Subtitles
Length: 139 minutes
Production Date: 2010
Currently in Print (as of writing): Yes
About 15 or more years ago Disney bought the rights to make a live action “Star Blazers (Yamato)”, but for whatever reason the film was never made. For some reason the Japanese thought a live action remake was need for this classic anime series. The director at the helm was Takashi Yamazaki, who has a bit of a chequered career. I did enjoy his kids adventure film “Juvenile” from 2000 (his debut film), but his follow up “Returner” was bloody dreadful. I can’t remember reading a good review of the film. After watching the crap 2006 remake of “Japan Sinks” I was a little wary of watching another big budget Japanese special effects blockbuster.
While the basic plot, the Yamato and crews itself, some pieces from the original score and few other designs are similar to the original 1974 anime, everything else is different. The first 15 or so minutes reveal Susumu Kodai (Takuya Kimura) as an ex solider now working as scavenger, Yuki Mori (Meisa Kuroki) as part of the Black Tiger Squadron, Dr Sado (Reiko Takashima) as a seemingly sober woman and Analyser (Kenichi Ogata) as some sort of artificially intelligent smart phone device with an auto tuned voice (well, that’s not quite true in the end…). I felt a bit ripped off really. However the opening battle sequence is pretty amazing. The action and plot just draw you in. It’s pretty damn entertaining for most of its length, and it is a pretty long film. There are a number of problems with a story epic as “Yamato”. There is just too much plot to cover in the time frame allotted. Kodai’s relationships with his brother and Daisuke Shima (Naoto Ogata) are glossed over or non-existent. I also question why Kodai’s role was changed to be a metal scavenger. There was no point to it. If the same exact sequence of events has happened in the anime where the capsule is discovered, that would have made a lot more sense and his relationship with Daisuke would have been strengthened and made clearer to the audience.
One of the best things about the original story was the humanity of the Gamilas. Sure they were evil sods, but they respected their enemy. Here they’re just strange looking aliens. I think a lot heart and soul has been ripped out the story because of the changes. The other big problem is the message and capsule sent for Iscandar. The way it’s presented in this film is a little daft. It doesn’t have the emotional impact the original series had. There’s also the issue of Kodai’s brother in regards to Iscandar. That plot line is just gone. I also thought the whole Gamilus/Iscandar thing was handled really badly in this film. Sure the special effects and battle sequences are fantastic in this part (as they are during the whole film), but it’ hard to suspended my disbelief of the whole situation on that planet. The big problem is the end of the film. Sure, it’s “Yamato”, you got to expect a lot of death of the crew, but I really thought it was a bit crap. Plus I thought Gamilus would have already destroyed the earth while Kodai and the rest of the crew where yapping away with their long speeches and figuring out what to do.
It’s funny, the film ends exactly like the 2006 remake of “Japan Sinks”, but I didn’t feel as ripped off with this film. I’ll even forgive the Steve Tyler (Aerosmith) song during the closing credits. While it does look a bit like a rip off of the designs from the 2004 “Battlestar Galactica” remake, I’ll forgive that too. With a budget of around $23 million, it puts to shame a lot of recent Hollywood sci-fi films. I think that’s quite an achievement. The special effects are bloody fantastic and the acting isn’t too bad either (much better than a number of big budget Japanese films of the last few years). The plot is rather good, but a lot of the changes to the original are bit daft and are illogical. Still there was enough to keep me entertained on a Saturday afternoon. Actually I expected the film to be a lot worse. 6 out of 10.
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