The Oaks Theater in Oakmont has been showing some anime films over the past 2 weeks. We went last Friday and saw Sky Blue and Appleseed during a double feature. This past Friday we saw Katsuhiro Otomo’s (of Akira fame) newest film, Steamboy.
Of the three, I think I like Appleseed the best. It has a slight story edge on the rest of the films. Apparently all the folks who have read the graphic novels that the movie is based on are outraged. Go figure. Dorks get outraged about a comic book being turned into a movie? That would NEVER happen!
Sky Blue was interesting as it was my first look at Korean anime. Their style was quite good but the story, once again, could have been fleshed out a little more.
The washed out, olde-timey colors in Steamboy were quaint at first. Then it just seemed like Otomo was using the same tech that he had used on Akira. I enjoyed the movie, but it seemed forced. There could have been more story and less large, mechanical, retro-futuristic danger sequences. Big chunks of the film reminded me of that retro-mechanical spider thing in Wild Wild West. I think 25% of the movie involved someone being chased. I equate that to a car chase scene. Donna Weimer had a term for that. She called it ‘filler’.
On an extremely positive note; we won the raffle at the theater and got a Steamboy t-shirt. On a negative note; it’s a double extra large. Let the shrinking attempts begin!