"Space Battleship Yamato" Takes Aim but Misses Its Mark

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Parent Category: Film and the Arts

Category: Reviews

Published on Thursday, 12 September 2013 18:11

Written by Renzo Adler

Based on the hit 1979 Japanese animated series of the same name, Space Battleship Yamato, distributed by Eleven Arts, tries to ramp up the flash and glitz, but rather than paying tribute to its source material, it just gives lip service. First, a little context; Yamato was a phenomenon in its native Japan and is attributed to taking anime to new heights in scale and through its serious tone. While Yamato is fairly obscure in the West, it is one of the cornerstones of Japanese science-fiction. Yamato is often compared to Star Trek, but it’s narrative was more grounded in re-writing WWII in space than seeking out strange new worlds.

In the distant future, Earth has become a wasteland due to a radioactive bombardment by aliens from the planet Gamilas (in the original show they were blue skinned people with blond hair, but the movie makes them less humanoid). Earth receives information about a device on a distant planet called Iskandar that can rid our home of radiation, so our heroes dredge up the Japanese battleship Yamato (for you history buffs, it was Japan’s largest battleship in WWII and was sunk near Okinawa in 1945), slap a warp-engine onto it, and head off into space with a rag-tag crew of survivors and their stoic captain.

The movie awkwardly tries to marry the aesthetic of an animated series from the late 70’s, with the grungy look of science fiction today. The fiery Susumu Kodai (played by Takuya Kimura, formerly of the boy band SMAP) sports a bouffant ripped from the original series, while everyone else more or less wears their hair like a sane person from this decade, and the crew members wear tough looking bomber-jacket outfits adorned with bright, primary colored arrows.

If I had to sum up the problems of this film with a single word, it would be “rushed.” The original Yamato series, like Star Trek, was told over many episodes and sequel movies, thus giving the audience time to get to know the cast, whereas this film basically says “HEYHEREARETHECHARACTERSFROMTHESHOWHERE’STHEIRPERSONALTIESCOMEONWEGOTTAGO!” Instead of us getting a movie that's one chapter in the long voyage of the Yamato, we have to get through the whole journey in about two hours, while the characters are just quickly slotted into categories like “the hot head”, the “dumb but loveable brawler”, and “the love interest”.

The Yamato ship itself still looks fantastic and has this caviler feel to it while also being totally badass, like if you mashed together the Millennium Falcon and a Star Destroyer, but this is one of the rare instances where the visuals really shine since the film is bogged down by CGI effects that might have been impressive on a PS2 game, and the sets are bland square boxes that think darkened lighting is a substitute for actual grit and texture. This is a real shame, because the original series was drawn by Leiji Matsumoto, one of Japan’s greatest comic authors, yet the film lacks his distinct visual operatic charm.

The film is laden with superficial platitudes about sacrifice, and even though the crew is on a journey to save earth, they’re very much a Japanese crew, with a Japanese vessel, and they want to save Japan from foreign invaders with atomic weapons. While I did not grow up with the original Space Battleship Yamato (or Star Blazers, as it was called in the States), I get the feeling that even if I was familiar with these characters on a more intimate level, this film would still feel like a cash-in rather than a tribute.

Oh, and the end credits theme is performed by Steven Tyler, for some reason. Because when I think of anime classics, I'm supposed to think of Armageddon?

September '13 Digital Week II

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Parent Category: Film and the Arts

Category: Reviews

Published on Tuesday, 10 September 2013 02:00

Written by Kevin Filipski

Blu-rays of the Week

DaVinci’s Demons—Complete 1^st Season

Don Giovanni

Frankenstein’s Army

Haven—Complete 3^rd Season

Jon Lord—Concerto for Group and Orchestra

Spartacus—War of the Damned

DVDs of the Week
I Killed My Mother

Into the Arms of Strangers

The Loved One

The Red Badge of Courage

Ritchie Blackmore’s Rainbow—Black Masquerade

Film Review: "Short Term 12"

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Parent Category: Film and the Arts

Category: Reviews

Published on Friday, 06 September 2013 12:34

Written by Matt Oakes

"Short Term 12"
Directed by Destin Cretton
Starring Brie Larson, John Gallagher Jr., Kaitlyn Dever, Stephanie Beatriz, Rami Malek, Alex Calloway, Kevin Hernandez, Lydia Du Veaux, Keith Stanfield
Drama
96 Mins
R

The truth is often more horrifying than fiction and although Short Term 12 isn't based on a true story, it unearths a harsh reality of displaced youth, offset from the spotlight but boiling under the surface of society. Replicating the many broken homes in modern American families, director/writer Destin Cretton has sole custody of this project. Thankfully, he takes this responsibility seriously and delivers a masterclass in realism complimented with standout performances from Brie Larson, John Gallagher Jr., and Keith Stanfield.

Thanks to a charged-up level of emotional maturity, the film tackles difficult issues with careful footing - immediately establishing a reverent tone, dipped with charm and laced with smiles. The psychological trauma uncovered within the character's brick-walled hearts is likewise handled with tender precision. Each reaction the film garnishes is no accident. Every bit has its place, a building block towards a grand scheme that ultimately delivers a big pay-off for those willing to engage in the bumps along the road.

Short Term 12 takes its name from the facility where the film unfolds. A solace for unwanted foster children, abuse victims, and abandoned kids, this is a place with its own set of rules, even if those rules do often stand on shaky grounds. While the employees may come down on cussing and fighting, one rule they let slide is the mandate that youth are only to stay for one year, with some of the residents having shacked up for up to three. Keith Stanfield's Marcus is one of those lingerers but he's about to turn 18 and will be forced to face the world outside the emotional security of Short Term 12.

His journey is perpendicular to newcomer Jayden (Kaitlyn Dever) who fights tooth and nail to be anywhere but here. While Jayden battles to leave and Marcus tries to work through the backlog of his own demons (with a powerful rap offering a raw view into the tattered loss of his youth), we realize just how short term the stay is here.

It may be limbo but it's not without it's guardian angel.Larson's Grace is that angel. She's a twentysomething running the ins-and-outs of the joint with the infinite patience of Mother Theresa and a thorny soul buried with secrets. Her heart is invested in the pocket of each and every tenant shuffling through the facility, entombing herself in their trauma, becoming a fiber of their tragedy. Grace puts her physical and emotional well being at the bottom of the totem pole and it's in part because of this that she is so great at dealing with this gang of lost boys...and girls. But her constant need to play the savior hints at something troubled lingering within her - an undead memory that haunts her every breath.

Grace sustains a borderline manipulative relationship with co-worker and underling, Mason (John Gallagher Jr.) who is both her devoted lover and emotional rock. On the flip side, Grace is as hot and cold as the object of a Katy Perry song. Theirs is a shaky boat of love with Grace always maintaining the upper hand, unwilling to let Mason ascend her tower of secrets. Their physical and emotional relationship have obviously parallels to their work positioning with Grace always on top, the solitary king of the castle flanked by skyhigh stone walls.

But to paint Grace as a domineering presence is to misrepresent her. In showing the turbulent nature of this part of her life, Cretton aims to illuminate how broken she is. Her throttling affections are a window into her soul. A key to the realization that doesn't see herself as even deserving of love. Cretton plants little psychological clues like these throughout the film, prompting our curiosity for what scars these characters are hiding and how, if at all possible, they can be undone. The joy in the film is not the end of the journey but the road to it as Cretton handles his character's soft-shelled insecurities both gently and honestly instead of putting it in autopilot and expecting the subject to bungle down tear-road.

One of the great rewards of watching the film is seeing how the jigsaw pieces composing Larson and other characters fit together. Unlike lesser films that utilize baggage as a means of emotional manipulation, every reveal, every turn, every batting off or acceptance of affection feels earned. It's a difficult journey but one that lends credence to the cast's standup acting ability andCretton's talent to skirt past manipulation into a much more rewarding realm of genuineness.

What remains the most fascinating portion of the film is Cretton's willingness to go someplace dark and stir around in the pot. In doing so, a motif that rises to the top is the idea that people reveal themselves through their art. Grace draws, Marcus raps, Jayden writes stories. In these moments of expression, their deepest sense of self shines through perhaps showing more than they ever could in mere conversation. In creation, there is the capacity to destroy, to move beyond. Almost Nietzschian in effect, creation and destruction are symbiotic here. Two faces of one Janus, two sides of the same coin.

Another, more difficult, thing to take away is Cretton's interpretation of self-inflicted pain. Many wounded souls hurt themselves not to inflict pain but to make the pain go away. This cathartic nature of destruction helps mask the real trauma stirring within them. The only way to move beyond this cycle of abuse though seems to be in a form of acceptance - a self-imposed yard sale of everything nasty hidden away. And so it is in Short Term 12. Only when we show the darkest parts of ourselves are we able to start moving towards the light.

A-