Space Battleship Yamato

I have to say that i think one of the best things to take away from this movie also seems to be one of the things which nobody considers.

I'm not familiar with the original series or comic so i can not attest to its being good or bad in that sense. What i am familiar with is the historical significance of the battleship Yamato and the symbolism and slight role it played in WWII for the Japanese People. Japan had one of the most powerful navies (and arguably the most powerful)in the world at the beginning of hostilities in the Pacific theatre of WWII. By the 6th of April 1945 when the Yamato left port for the last time, the Japanese navy had been ravaged, they had lost most of their carriers and cruisers with only about 10% of its original naval forces remaining. The Yamato and a few escorts were to attempt to attack the now Allied occupied Okinawa in a near-futile attempt to deal a blow to the US fleet. She was destroyed en-route to the battle by relentless air attack by the US and never got to use her 9 46cm batteries, the largest in existence at the time. This story is about hope, honour, and the tenacity of the Japanese people as a whole. Of course it was corny, they raised the hulk of the ship out of the ground! And besides bearing a resemblance in spirit its clearly not the actual ship, its about 5 times as large. The acting was perfectly appropriate for the type of story this was and despite a few drawn out scenes i was still very entertained. Sure, some of the CGI at the end was, to quote another review, "dodgy", but for the most part actually pretty good. But, thats not what this movie is about.

Its about the symbolism of a desperate mission which only a Japanese navy would have taken, its about remembering history, and its about transferring it to a modern setting of hope prevailing in a time of despair. Enjoy the CGI, enjoy the space battles, don't worry about the inconsistencies with weapons and apparent inept "Gamillas" forces towards the end (maybe new recruits?),and instead enjoy the heroes and unmistakable, "fight to the last man" mentality and Japanese spirit which comes through in every scene.

Well, considering the length of the original series, the movie producers have done well cramming it all into a 2-hour long film.

There are a few flaws in the movie I thought needed a bit more work on.

1. There is little feelings of romance between Kodai Susumu and Mori Yuki. It just felt flat. This, I attributed, to the target audience of the original animated series.

2. The melodrama at the end, on the bridge, was very Japanese..... in the 1970s. It should have been shorter and more modernized. I guess one has to be a die-hard fan not to find that scene particularly long-winded.

3. There wasn't enough battle footage of the Yamato and her enemies. This I was seriously looking forward to, but was left disappointed.

4. I wish Mr Kimura would shed a few tears, that would have made his performance more believable.

That said, there were quite a few good points about the movie, 1. Realistic space-fighter maneuvers. The big turnarounds of spaceships and fighters in American sci-fi is just plain BS. The only other sci-fi that got it right was Babylon 5.

2. Up until the bridge scene right at the very end, I was actually not aware of the time passing.

3. This movie have some of the better Japanese actors in recent years. Overall, their performances are well delivered and their friendships believable.

4. Swearing and vulgarities are non-existent in the entirety of the movie (or none that I am aware of). This is a rarity these days, especially with all the filth coming out of American and European films.

5. The graphics and SFX are quite good. They are quite realistic. I have no problem with much of it except for those SFX sounds the lasers and beams made.... sound very arcade-like and very 70s.

This movie is worth the ticket you paid for.

I watched and loved the anime 'Starblazers' as a kid and now 30+ years on I find out they've made a live action version of the series that I knew absolutely nothing about! Well, I just HAD to watch it, not expecting anything great.... putting my hopes as high as a SciFy movie of the week or a campy Godzilla movie.

Boy was I surprised! The movie does leap right into things without the background development of the main 'spaceship' or real character introductions, but to enjoy the movie, especially if you have any familiarity with the source cartoon, it really didn't hinder it that much. When the 'Yamamoto' took off and the special effects were introduced, I almost crapped my pants! It looked FANTASTIC!! Exactly like my 9 year old mind pictured as if it were brought to life!

This movie is FAR from Shakespeare, but for an action space romp, popcorn munching entertainment vehicle... it sure impressed me silly... especially compared to the dreck coming out of Hollywood these days.

If you have fond memories of 'Starblazers', this is a MUST SEE... even if you never saw the cartoon, I'd highly recommend this as a decent time waster.... you could do far worse!

While I'll grant you similarity in the setting of a space cruiser named after a famed WWII ship in space (USS Enterprise was a famous WWII air craft carrier, senkan Yamato was a famous WWII battleship), beyond that, nothing about Yamato has anything to do with Star Trek other than Matsumoto Reiji may have been inspired by it.

That said, no further invocation of American media landmarks is necessary in discussing this title.

The film was entertaining. I didn't look at the clock until the end. At times, the film was a bit melodramatic but all-in-all the movie was good.

The special effects were very good. I've heard it said this was a low budget film. I can accept that assessment. But the story telling was decent and conveyed the starry-eyed intensity of the comic nicely!

There were some downs but the only one I'd bother with was the romance between the main character and the ace pilot. It hit me like a pizza delivery scooter from outside my peripheral vision. Never saw it coming and didn't quite understand it.

In the end, I enjoyed it and I'd recommend people familiar with the comic/anime series check it out.

This latest production of Reiji Matsumoto's classic series deserves high ratings for its production value especially considering its low budget of 12 million USD, which is less than a fifth of average Hollywood motion pictures.

In the year 2199 earth is under attack by planet Gamiras and is hopelessly contaminated by radiation. One day they receive a transmission from planet Iskandar with a plan for warp engine and a wave cannon. In their last hope, people of Japan uses this information to transform battleship Yamato - a world war II relic that is now exposed out of a dried up sea bed into a spaceship. They set out to Iskandar which exists in the great Magellan nebula in hopes of finding an answer to earth's problem.

I see touch of Babylon 5 and Battlestar Galactica in the overall looks and feel of the props, ships and the battle sequences, but it's certainly the very best special effects science fiction I've ever seen to come out of Japan. I'd say that Japanese sci-fi have finally come of age in this movie.

The final sequence of this movie is very Japanese in my opinion, and might be over melodramatic for the international audience, but the movie was made for the Japanese viewers, so I don't have any problems there.

Takuya Kimura has a habit of stretching out the ending of a word when calling out orders, and speaking dramatically which sounded odd at times, and the dead pan acting of Meisa Kuroki could have been more charming, but overall things were believable and didn't mess up the story.

Beautifully done movie with real feeling of being out there in space, with unbelievable special effects considering its budget. This is certainly the best sci-fi movie to come out of Japan, and is Toho's new masterpiece.