*In depth review.*
Good. Could have been GREAT.
Refreshing to "root for the other side" once again.
Story: 7.5
Bit forced at times, and the ending feeling rushed and incomplete.
But overall, the storyline was enjoyable enough.
...
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Dialogue: 7
Sometimes felt like the whole dialogue of the movie was a series of "coming attractions, previews style one liners" mashed together to make the movie.
Especially when it came to tone and inflections of the characters voices and dialogue.
A great feature that made it feel close to reality, was the lack of the well established anime style, (crazy) pilot-to-pilot, mid-battle conversations/arguments between opposing MS pilots.
Enemies don't have long-winded, deep, life contemplating conversations as they try to take each other out.
This feature (or lack thereof), made the battles feel quite realistic, and frankly, alot less frustrating to ingest, as a viewer.
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World and Mechanical design: 9
The settings and battlefields were quite good, with great detail.
Only criticism, would be that, while yes it can be understood that it is a dark setting and situation, being as they are smack bang in the middle of a war and its associated battles and battlefields, the production staff have tried to convey this feeling through the dark colouring, "lighting" and settings within the world and it's battlefields.
Unfortunately this results in alot of these settings feeling overly flooded in darkness and making it hard to distinguish details etc. sometimes making it feel like everything was all one colour.
The result being, almost making it a black and grey movie (or dark greens and dark browns in alot of scenes also).
The mechanical designs of all the Mobile Suits, fighter jets, tanks, trucks, cars, and rockets/launch vehicles, etc, frankly, were amazing.
It was hard to find any criticism regarding these details and designs (also reflected in the detail and quality of the new Gunpla model kits of the movies Mobile Suits).
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Character Design: 6.5
Pre-release reviews indicated that the entire productions design was great, but the designs of the characters themselves were quite lacking.
Unfortunately this turned out to be quite accurate.
If there were no human characters to be seen within the story, you would very easily fail to remember, that the entire production was created via a newly updated and released video game design engine.
The fact that the production DOES include human characters within the story, definitely reminds you that a video game design engine was used to create the whole thing.
Awkward movements, awkward hand gestures, awkward facial/emotional expressions, awkward everything.
Definitely needs improvement for any future productions using this method/design engine (remastered release maybe?).
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Sound design: 8.5
The sounds of the trucks/cars, tanks, fighter jets, rockets/launch vehicles etc. made it feel like these elements were true to life, sounding as close to real life equipment as possible.
Mobile Suits and their movements, weapons fire, clashes etc, also sound as close to real life equipment as possible.
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Overall: 8
Considering any and all pros and cons related to the production, the story, dialogue, world/setting design, character design, sound design etc. the final result is one worth watching, and definitely something to recommend to any fans of the franchise.
Newcomers to the franchise, using this particular production as a launching platform into the world of Mobile Suit Gundam, won't have the benefit of all previous in universe details to support their viewing, but in regards to this new production, it isn't needed at all.
There aren't any moments, dialogue, details or information that comes up in this production, that would confuse newcomers, or have them questioning details to try and piece together the story, on the fly.
It is simply a story of war, it's battles, it's weapons, the combatants, and the effects of such on the civilian population.
Within the franchise, the majority of storylines are related to, and told through the perspective of, what many/most, consider to be the "good guys".
When the story IS told from the perspective of, again what many/most, consider to be the "bad guys", it is always refreshing, especially considering it humanizes the lives of those on the side of the "bad guys".
It's not often we find ourselves rooting for the other side, but this is definitely one of those times.
- Jake.
Perth, Australia.
Oct 19, 2024
*In depth review.*
Good. Could have been GREAT. Refreshing to "root for the other side" once again. Story: 7.5 Bit forced at times, and the ending feeling rushed and incomplete. But overall, the storyline was enjoyable enough. ... |