Derek Childs (totalovrdose)
When it comes to all things Gatchaman, I'm a novice. Ask me trivia about any of the plots, characters or creators, and I will provide you a bewildered expression every time. After watching the live-action Space Battleship Yamato, without any previous knowledge of the Anime, and thoroughly enjoying the feature, I had reason to believe going into this recreation without expectations would equal just as good an experience, and for the most part, I was accurate in my assumptions.It's the future, and Galactor, a villainous group, with unequaled power, have ravaged much of the world, under the authority of their ruthless leader, Berg Katze. Although initially their origins are largely unexplored, as the film continues, much of how their regime came to be is explained. In order to halter this antagonistic threat, Gatchaman, a collective of five brilliant young agents, are assembled by Professors Nanbu (Goro Kishitani) and Kirkland (Ken Mitsuishi). Their childhoods stolen from them, these agents, who are the only humans on the planet capable of merging with the technology needed to stop Galactor, must put aside their emotions, differences, and spite for their creators, in order to become the heroes they need to be.Ken (Tori Matsuzaka) leads the beautiful Jun (Ayame Gouriki), the adolescent Jinpei (Tatsuomi Hamada) and often comedic Ryu (Ryohei Suzuki) as the East Asian Gatchaman squad, their fifth member, George (Gou Ayano), who has, for the past few years been fighting in Europe, returning early on after being incognito. George and Ken suffer the most complicated relationship, both of them once being in love with the attractive Naomi (Eriko Hatsune), who unfortunately died at the hands of Galactor agent Iriya (Shido Nakamura) as a result of one of them being unable to control their stubbornness.Unable to forgive each other, Ken has sworn to put duty before anything else, while George is willing to put duty aside to claim his revenge. At the same time, Jun (who is unfortunately portrayed as the love-sick young woman often encountered in Anime, though Ms. Gouriki is not to blame for this stereotype) cannot hide her feelings for George, yet occasionally, it's difficult to fathom whether it is really he she likes, or Ken, the writers also appearing to be unable to decipher this dilemma. The drama exhibited between the characters is often very intense, albeit sometimes over-exaggerated, the team frequently forcing themselves into each others faces, the threat of a physical altercation often never being far off, the actor's presence on screen working remarkably to build the tension.The costumes take little time to become acquainted with, potentially because each of them are a combined assortment of cliché designs familiar to other programs, while at the same time matching the feature's genre, the musical score furthering the superhero ideals frequently employed. Katze, during the opening scenes looks especially peculiar in the Galactor suit, while the women on the other hand, and pardon me for saying so, fit very snugly into their uniforms.The effects are incredibly alluring, and beneficially assist the action scenes in not only appearing extraordinary on screen, but feeling as equally impressive too. The vibrant assortment of color is incredibly gorgeous, in not just making the fights come alive, but assist the viewer in determining the stereotypical heroic and villainous nature of the characters.Although Gatchaman may originally appear similar and predictable in accordance with other like programs, especially in regards to the climatic moments, there are some exceptionally great twists that keep the viewer enthralled until the very end. It's a shame the feature is so male dominated, and further insult is inflicted by the female characters often being reduced to discussing relationships. Though emotional ideas are employed, the film is hardly affected by them, while the ability to produce a film without resorting to buckets of violence and continuous profanity is admirable. Character driven, fun, occasionally humorous, and action packed, Gatchamn is sure to entertain audiences familiar and new to the franchise.
David Graf
Yes, it's cliché. So what? Have you seen many Japanese live action adaptations of powered superheroes in the last twenty years? Then I rest my case. Cliché is practically a genre unto itself. But there are a few surprises here, and the moments ripped directly from the series will (perhaps shamefully, but it's dark in the cinema so no-one will see you) have you clapping your hands like a kid again.Sadly, the story was cheesy. It was too melodramatic. The plot saves were sloppy and the dialog was groan-inducing. In the hands of the Japanese equivalent of Joss Whedon (if he even exists), Gatchaman could have been something magnificent, but instead what you get is pretty much exactly what's described on the box, except with real actors and sometimes sub-par special effects. If you have complaints about this, then perhaps you should just think about the number of live action adaptations film-makers outside of Japan have been responsible for that have ruined your childhood for you. I could make a list. It would start with the Thunderbirds, and it wouldn't end there.
Jason Cheung
Although it doesn't look like the original Gatchaman (Battle of the Planets) Cartoon, it gave the 70s' classic animation all new life and made it amazing and recreational! In the beginning, when Dr. Nambu introducing Gatchman to others in the meeting, my blood was burning and I was really touched!!!When I saw Gatchman flying like superman and jumping like Spider-man, I felt very excited! Yes! they are Gatchaman indeed! My dreaming hero is back to reality now!!!I have to say "Classic can't be copied, Only innovation can recreate classic!", and this movie recreated classic successfully!I love this movie much, and can't wait to watch its sequel.
Dave (dctcool)
I'm pretty fond of Japanese Otaku hero shows, I've followed Super Sentai, Kamen Rider and after seeing how well the standard could be set with Gantz a few years ago I had high expectations for this.I saw this as part of Fantasia Film Festival in Montreal and suffice to say it sure did know how to draw me into the film.Its a really interesting plot buildup: An invading force known as the Galactor has laid siege to countries all over the world with the worst affected area being in Europe, Japan is one of the few safe havens left on the planet but is still under threat from constant attack, with Galactors personal energy shields rendering human weapons useless they instead turn their attention to powerful crystals which select their owners to become the superheroes the Gatchaman.The film starts out really strong with a fantastic opening action sequence rivaling that of many Hollywood action films with great fight scenes some decent effects (to a degree) and it really left you with some great on your seat action for the first 15 minutes.After that, it all falls apart.The next hour of the film almost becomes an annoying slog with so much exposition and back story being tried to get cramped into the film, with most plot point revealed to be rather uninteresting or just flat out silly, not to mention one rather obvious plot hole towards the end of the film where it almost felt like the director said "screw it"In fact what it actually feels like is that the movie blew its budget way on the opening scene that they had to go all melodramatic to fill in the rest of the film.The climax of the film isn't any better either whilst we do see a return to action the fights are in to close corridors making it hard to make out whats going on and one ridiculously stupid over dramatic death scene that is almost laughable had it not been for the fact that by this stage I was pretty much bored out of my mind.Comparable to say Pacific Rim which knew what it was, it knew it was a silly setup which compensated with awesome fight scenes. But in Gatchaman while the setup was strong what was holding it together was silly, yet they tried to make a silly plot serious and sadly it just doesn't work.Not helped are some of the Japanese actors bad attempts at speaking English, And while I can forgive some actors who have to learn what to say on a whim some of the spoken English dialog from one character doesn't even match the subtitles for whats being said on screen.In the end Gatchaman could have been a great film to introduce Western Audience to Japanese Super Hero films but unfortunately its incredible boring and silly 2nd act renders the whole film almost unwatchable. I would recommend finding the opening action scene on the Internet for some good entertainment while killing time but thats about it.
