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NOTE: This is literally my review from MS IGLOO: The Hidden One Year War, but Apocalypse 0079 is so bad in the same ways i'm not even going to waste my time writing a new one when the old one fits perfectly.

TL;DR: I can only imagine die hard Gundam fans watching this and enjoying it ironically.

Oh man. This was a complete mess. From every standpoint. The CGI doesn't hold up at all. Everything looks like a bad PS2 cutscene. The facial expressions where so exaggerated at times I bursted out laughing.
The story is non existent. Because this is supposed to show us the OYW thru ... Zeon's eyes I thought we would get to know the principalty and it's people better. Nah. Just a couple of battles only from Zeon's POV. The episodes are so boring when it's not being funny by accident because of how incompetent it is.
The only good thing about this is the Mobile Suits in action, they're the only part where the animation is actually pretty cool and ejoyable. Sadly this only happens in the last couple of minutes of every episode. In a brighter side, it's only 3 episodes long, so it won't be too insuferable like the 47 episodes from ZZ.
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TL;DR: I can only imagine die hard Gundam fans watching this and enjoying it ironically.

Oh man. This was a complete mess. From every standpoint. The CGI doesn't hold up at all. Everything looks like a bad PS2 cutscene. The facial expressions where so exaggerated at times I bursted out laughing.
The story is non existent. Because this is supposed to show us the OYW thru Zeon's eyes I thought we would get to know the principalty and it's people better. Nah. Just a couple of battles only from Zeon's POV. The episodes are so boring when it's not being funny by accident because of how incompetent ... it is.
The only good thing about this is the Mobile Suits in action, they're the only part where the animation is actually pretty cool and ejoyable. Sadly this only happens in the last couple of minutes of every episode. In a brighter side, it's only 3 episodes long, so it won't be too insuferable like the 47 episodes from ZZ.

TL;DR: Part of the Trinity of masterpiece pre-2000's Gundam. (Zeta, War In the Pocket, and This. If you were curious.) Watch it. Just that.

War In The Pocket used to be my favorite U.C. Gundam show. Now after watching the 08th MS Team I'm not so sure.
I love when Gundam goes to a small scale to show us it's stories.
The general plot of 08th MS Team is very simple. A group of soldiers has to find and destroy the prototype of a weapon in the middle of the south-east Asia jungle. That's it. No grand plan to throw another colony onto Earth like happens in almost ... every Gundam show. (Maybe it's not in every one, but it's definitely common.) This "small" story is great, because it helps us focus on the important part: The characters and their interactions with the world. Our main cast is very likeable and well written, and while I would have loved to get to know them better, I wouldn't say they were underdeveloped at all. They were just so charismatic and interesting that every person would just want more of them.
The general themes about the nature of war and empathy in the battlefield are present and well done, I just personally felt they were more impactful in War In The Pocket, however that's just a personal opinion, things can still get rough and deep here.
The art direction and animation are just gorgeous. Peak of 90's OVA Quality animation right here. I specially liked the art style in episode 9, and the battles in the last episodes are just on another level.
Another quality i'd give to 08th MS Team will be it's binge-watching potential.
Even If I liked them, I've always had trouble watching the prior Gundam shows on a regular schedule. I'd just watch a couple of episodes, but because of some inconsistent pacing, or the lack of a cliffhanger in order to motivate the viewer to keep watching, I'd just go by for several days without the interest in returning to the series, until I did eventually.
That doesn't happen with this OVA. I watched all 12 episodes within 3 days, eager to see what would happen next.
For example: Stardust Memory, show that i've no problem with and I enjoyed took me about a month and a half to finish the 13 episodes.
This review has been long, so I'll just close it saying this:
Watch it if you're a Gundam fan.
Watch it if you're a Mecha fan.
Watch it if you like action anime.
Watch it if you like quality anime.
Cheers, and have fun. :)

(Skip to the botton for TL;DR)
I'm watching all the U.C. Gundam shows by emission order, and I think this right here is the very definition of "ok show". 0079 was not very good in my opinion, Zeta was amazing, ZZ is a crime against everything good in this world. CCA is horrible, but not as horrible as ZZ. War In The Pocket is the best Gundam show so far and my personal favorite, and F91 Is very bland with few redeeming qualities beside good animation.

0083: Stardust Memory is just ok.

The story is fairly average, nothing noteworthy but also not insulting like ZZ or ... CCA.

Most of the characters are very bland or undeveloped, but besides something Nina does in the ending they never do anything as nonsensical and stupid as the characters from...ZZ and CCA would do.

Hey, this is an OVA, so the art direction and animation is the best part. If you're into Mecha porn or just Sakuga porn in general there will be several moments here that will delight you.

This isn't gundam at it's brightest, but also it's not at it's worst. It's just ok. If you're a Gundam fan, go ahead and watch it. If you're a Mecha fan, you probably won't understand the whole thing unless you do your googling, but the mechs are cool and the fights too, so you can watch it.
If you're neither of those...meh. Maybe you should find something else. not bad, but not remarkable. It's only 12 episodes long though, so maybe go ahead If you really want to.

TL;DR: 0083: Stardust Memory is the Mc' Donalds of Gundam. If you just want to satisfy your cravings for hamburger (Gundam/mecha) It will work just fine. If you're looking for a nice meal that you will probably want to repeat, I suggest looking somewhere else.

TL;DR: It's a better movie than Char's Counterattack. ...That's not saying much. Just watch the first 15-20 minutes.
Ok, I'm gonna skip the obvious parts that you've probably already read in other reviews. This was meant to be a longer TV Show, we know.
Actually, considering the facts this could've turned out way worse. That doesn't mean is that good.
I'll start with the negatives, and then I'll try to end on a more positive note.
The story is very messy. Motivations are not clear and the villains are very cliché. Just your average "hurr durr imma baddie i'll kill everyone". Pacing is also an issue. This suffers the ... same problem as CCA, where Tomino probably thought we would get bored if we didn't get a mech battle every 20 minutes or so. This obviously doesn't help in the structure. Instead of scalling up things to a climax, the final showdown just comes and plays out like every other fight in the movie. -pew pew, things blow up, mechs blow up, someone irrelevant dies.-
The characters are also wildly underdeveloped. Instead of presenting a couple of secondary characters we'll get to know a little bit, Tomino loves throwing out 6+ characters that will barely get any line at all. There's a plus if there are very young children just because. I think this movie confirms my beliefs that Tomino isn't really a good writer/director.
Now to the good parts.
Even though they are underveloped, the characters are likeable. There was a point when I was wary of a character doing a stupid 180 like Quess Paraya in CCA, where a neutral character becomes friendos with the murderous genocidal baddies just 'cause. However that did not happen here. I was very happy about that. Maybe not having horrendous hateable characters that aren't meant to be that way is not much of a positive. But with Tomino, *ZZ and CCA flashbacks* you can't take that for granted.
Now for the real compliments. I have two. This has one of the best animation cuts in all of the Gundam series. There were moments where i could swear they were rotoscoping everything, but then you notice some details and you know everything was done traditionally. The attention to detail is amazing. Something as simple as showing the hand of a Mobile Suit malfunctioning and spinning around like crazy just adds so much and grounds the film in reality so good in many moments.

And my biggest compliment:
Damn.
What a great opening sequence. Even if you don't want to see the movie after reading this review, do a favor to yourself and watch the first 15-20 minutes. I think this is the most horrendous and gut-wrenching depiction of war that doesn't resort to very graphic and explicit imagery. I felt genuinely disgusted at myself for watching these scenes as part of "entertainment".
A plus: Apparently the story and the characters get really fleshed out in the manga Crossbone Gundam. I have not read it myself, however i've heard it's quite good.

This movie is the very definition of mediocre.
First of all, right off the bat I'm gonna say, Boku No Hero is a series I deeply enjoy. Even tho I clearly understand It's pretty cliche and by-the-books, it's been overall nicely paced and competently directed. So, when I saw they were going to make a movie I became very excited. A movie has the perfect runtime to present a self contained story, where we can get to know our favorite characters in a more intimate way. The anime follows the events of the manga religiously, so I understand why there's no much room to improve upon ... the source material.
That's why I really looked forward to this movie. Right from the start we know this film it's pretty much strictly tied to what it can and can't do. This happens between the 2nd and 3rd season, so pretty much nothing of importance can happen during it's runtime, as it needs to left us right where we were at the beginning. And because of that of that the scale and scope of the events presented don't really have much impact in the universe. However, this necessarily didn't had to be bad, as it may not had an impact in the world but in characters of this universe.
However, this is where the movie fails for me. this feels like 4 episodes stitched together. events just happen one after another with not much rhyme or reason. Just like in the show, there's no much depth to our cast at all. All of our dear students are the same archetypes we know. This is not itself bad, however, this felt like a really missed opportunity to flesh out those that we don't know very well beyond face value. Just like in the show, we're just there to watch Midoriya save the day and in a more minor way Todoroki and Bakugo being cool and stuff. Everyone else is just a backdrop nedeed in order to shove them in the promotional material.
Ultimately this doesn't feel like it had any right to exist beyond banking on the popularity of the show.
Maybe you could say, "Hey, that's pretty stupid. 99% of the anime out there exists only because of committees wanting to make some bucks."
And in a certain way, you're right. Money is the motor that moves the anime industry. However, I just can't let this movie go without guilt. There's so much media out there that exists with the sole purpose of making a profit on an already established franchise that is also very well made and has some value beyond the monetary gain.
Something like Gundam 0080 War In The Pocket (Which I recently reviewed, *wink wink*) comes to mind. Not driven by the major events of a story we have been told already (The O.Y.W.) but by a cast of characters that are developed, that we root for and like. None of this can be found in Futari No Hero. I can't recommend it if you're not a fan. Hell, I can't recommend it even if you are fan. There's nothing to be gained from this watching experience.

TL;DR: Imagine 4 bland forgettable shonen anime filler episodes. But instead of putting them awkwardly during the events of the show they just decide to stitch them together and release them as a bland forgettable movie.

After deciding to wach the entirety of Gundam by emission order I was very disappointed with what i'd seen so far. The OG show has more value as the precursor and the start point of the franchise than by being a good show on its own. Zeta was very, very good. But sadly his sequel ZZ Gundam became one of the most horrendous pieces of media in the history of anime, and the first non-compilation feature film in the saga, "Char's Counterattack" was underwhelming and painfully mediocre at best.
For a moment I considered dropping the franchise as a whole and just enjoy the Gundam Model ... Kits without really knowing anything about the show. However, since 0080 War In The Pocket was a very short 6 episode OVA, I decided to give it a try.

Best decision of my life.

0080 War In The Pocket is a touching, sad, and introspective story about childhood, innocence, and our weird enjoyment of war.
There are many complex emotions and themes handled with extreme care and subtlety thru the OVA, something not really common in action anime or even prior Gundam work.
I was very happy with the decision the creative team took about developing the story in such a small scale and realistic scale.
There are no psychopathic children that get to be extremely skilled pilots with no prior experience just because the writer wants them to, and so, they just get slapped with the newtype mark. (I'm talking about you, Quess Papaya, I'll hate you all my life.) Instead, we meet real children, that behave like real children. Being immature but in a relatable and understandable way. They are innocent, and in the end they sometimes do things that they don't really understand. Alfred, our main character is the perfect example of that.
Blown away by our romanticized visions of war, he just desires to be a cool soldier and witness cool battles, completely unaware of the reality that brings.
Ultimately War In the Pocket talks to us about the depressing reality of war without being cheaply cynical. It talks to us about our weird fixation with the glorification of violence without being preachy or pretentious. It talks to us about the nature of human empathy, and how even when there's a very clear good and bad side, good people can be on both sides, unable to do much because of how tiny they are in the grand scheme of things.

War In The Pocket wants us to reflect, about our values, about our ideals.
And I think if a show produced with the sole purpose of selling model kits of giant mechanical weapons of mass destruction manages to be so sincere and profound in his message about the futility of war, it's a very good damn show.

TL;DR: A well animated very bad written movie that doesn't deserve to exist.

Now, let's see where we are, shall we?
We've seen Gundam 0079, an interesting show that suffered due to budget constraints and a comittee that did not understand what kind of show Tomino and his team wanted to make. However, things changed for good. After the succesful run of the compilation movies everyone and their mom went crazy for Gundam, so Tomino pretty much had a way bigger budget and a green light to do with the next show as he pleased.
So, he made Zeta Gundam, an amazing anime with impactful stories and characters, ... truly one of the best shows in all of Gundam history. He used both the original and new characters to develop meaningful emotions and grow his cast with a not common complexity in anime.
...Then everything went downhill. ZZ Gundam happened, and god knows we don't talk about ZZ Gundam.

So, let's recap, the original show introduced us to the Amuro/Char rivalry. These characters went from enemies to comrades to even some sort of friends in Zeta Gundam. The last thing we knew about Char was how he blew up fighting alongside the AEUG crew against Haman Karn and Neo Zeon, trying to save the earth against plans of mass destruction. So, it totally makes sense that when we meet Char again in this movie suddenly he thinks genocide isn't so bad, he somehow became the leader of Neo Zeon and is 100% ready to drop massive things onto earth like a previous baddie he fought did. *cough Haman Karn cough*

If you think this doesn't make sense, well that's the entire movie, my friend.
The story is total nonsense, there's no character development for any of the old characters or even the new characters, It's not consistent for previously established events or straight up doesn't care. The pacing is horrible. This is the movie for you: There's a space battle at the beginning, then characters talk for a bit. Then there's a new space battle, then characters talk for a bit. And then there's another new space battle and suddenly the movie ends.
That's not the worst part, pacing issues would only be trouble to a certain extent, making the movie mediocre at worst. But no, there are many things more. They only needed to show us the final showdown between Amuro and Char, and what led to it. But instead we got this 30%-40% screentime dedicated to Quess Paraya and the other idiots in this "love" triangle. Hathaway and that other imbecile whose name I already forgot. They serve no purpose to the plot, they serve no purpose to the thematic elements, they serve no purpose to anyone's character development. They just waste precious runtime in a movie that's already way too long and needed more time to flesh out other way more interesting aspects, like Mirai's struggle trying to survive in earth, which just as it is doesn't add anything to the movie and is totally wasted.

Then there's the ending. Oh god what an awful ending. At first i thought it was going to be a nice ending that the movie did not deserve, as I'm someone that enjoys melodramatic events that may not make sense or seem chessy but help drive an emotional message to the viewer, and I thought Amuro dying pushing away Axis with the help of other units was a good end to the character and a fitting message of hope and sacrifice that the film was not worthy of. But then he just sparkles the shit out of everyone and the meteor, we have a brief montage of people on the earth reacting and suddenly the movie ends. There's no actual end to the conflict. Neo Zeon still exists, they just ruined the plan they had in mind. There's no aftermath or closure to talk about. It just stops dead.

This movie does not deserve to exist. It serves no purpose other than being the first Gundam film. Nothing leads to the events of this film. We gain nothing. We've met so many characters thru the first 2 shows. But seems like nobody in the production team cared about them. Char's sister Sayla? She's nowhere to be found. Kamille? No. Apparently all the relationship they developed together during Zeta was not worthy of even being mentioned. So much for being his mentor and father figure I guess. But Quess throwing tantrums about having a crush both on Amuro and Char really deserved the screentime I guess.
I'm starting to think Tomino is just a bad writer/director who just got lucky when making Zeta.

But hey, at least the mechs are cool.

It is deeply horrible. The plot is a mess, the characters are a mess. Don't even bother trying to watch this like I did. Just read the wikia pages for Haman Karn and Judau Ashta, and that should pretty much give you the knowledge to not get confused with the U.C. Timeline Lore. I don't give it a lower rating just because it's competent at a technical level. But everything else is pitiful, dreadful. Pathetic.
Really, don't even try. The first 7 episodes have to be the worst episodes I've seen in my entire life. Funny how there are many OVA's and stuff that tell amazing ... stories with that short runtime. It's 47 episodes of horrible material. Just think about it, with the 18 HOURS you'll waste watching this you could:
-Watch 2 24 episode shows.
-Watch 4 12 episode shows.
-WATCH 9 DIFFERENT 2 HOUR MOVIES.
-Watch paint dry...I dunno, I think anything is better than this horrible piece of malfunction.
And if you're a masoquist and you still want to watch this, first of all, pls no. Second: at least ease your pain watching only the following episodes:
2
7-13
16-23
27-28
32-38
42-47
God have mercy on you soul.