 scaflowne
the Movie is a
stand alone feature-length film based on/inspired by the 26 episode
anime TV series. These and other facts about the film were learned after
watching the film, while skimming over the generally-dissatisfied Amazon.com
reader reviews.
I knew nothing about Escaflowne before I saw the film, but even
from this one viewing, it was pretty clear to me that it was based on a
TV series that had a great deal more depth than the film. Lots of
characters pop up for a scene or two, then vanish, many characters
clearly have relationships and back stories that are not shown or even
hinted at in the film, and rather than a complete film, this one seems
like a sort of rapid fire introduction to the world of Escaflowne,
with an epic plot awkwardly shoehorned in. I think the film was designed
primarily to appeal to fans of the series, since it tries to throw in a
little of everything, but never includes enough of it to satisfy a new
viewer.
To the scores, which are explained
here.
Escaflowne the
Movie
Script/Story: 3
Characters: 4
Combat Realism: 6
Humor: NA
Horror: NA
Eye Candy: 8
Fun Factor: 5
Replayability: 3
Overall: 4.5
Going into this film, I'd
long heard of Escaflowne as one of the more popular Anime series,
but had never seen it and knew nothing about it. Literally nothing; it
might have been futuristic cops in Tokyo, Sci-Fi robots battling alien
invaders, samurai fantasy from the 1200s, or damn near any of the other
common anime world settings. So I was completely new to everything, and
found myself liking the overall world and concept far more than the
particulars of this story. The world and fiction and setting and magic
and everything in the story were great. How they were used was very far
from living up to their potential, unfortunately.
In an odd way, it reminded me of the other DVD I grabbed at the library
when I got Escaflowne the Movie; The Chronicles of Riddick.
In my initial review of Riddick I
gave it a 3.5/10, and said it looked gorgeous and had some good
action set pieces, but that it was ruined by a completely worthless
plot, an excess of unimportant sub-characters, and a generally
wandering, plotless story line. A description that can be applied to Escaflowne
the Movie, unfortunately.
I love the world concept of the story, even though it's pretty cheesy.
The story takes place largely on a mythical fantasy steampunk sort of
world. They've got gunpowder and cannons and lots of dirigibles and
steam machinery here and there, but no one has a firearm or rifle, and
everyone fights with swords and magic, while riding horses. And there
are giant combat robots like in every anime, except these are somehow
ancient living suits of dragonarmor, or something like that, and they
fight with swords, except when one uses a flamethrower sort of thing.
Basically the series creators threw together everything cool they could
think of. They wanted huge flying machines, sword fights, cannons, air
pirates, magic, gunpowder, half-human animal things, and mech battles.
Rifles and guns aren't any fun in fiction since they're so impersonal
and hit from a distance, so Escaflowne doesn't include those;
just swords, since they're hella cool and close range.
Most of those elements are used pretty well, too. The film's weakness is
from the characters, all of whom are painfully stupid in at least one
way, and the story, which is weak and superficial and very unfocused.
Script/Story: 3
Nice concept, lame execution. The film opens with a nice action piece as
a little guy falls from the sky, lands on a gigantic dirigible, and cuts
down most of the crew in vicious sword combat, before running down into
the hold (not that a blimp that size could have one) and finding a
gigantic suit of armor which looks exactly like a humanoid robot mech as
seen in every futuristic anime ever. He begins chanting about
reawakening it and saying his dragon blood calls to it, etc.
The film then cuts to modern day Japan, where Hitomi, a schoolgirl with
legs as improbably long as her skirt is impossible short, is lying
napping in the sun. Another schoolgirl wakes her and conversation
ensues. Turns out Hitomi is super bored, mildly-suicidal, wants the
world to just fade away, is cutting all of her classes, quit the track
team, etc. She drives the other girl away after a bit, and then in a
series of shots that are either dreams or weirdness happening, sees
herself standing in a stadium as it fills with water, washing her away.
Next thing she knows she's trapped inside a small space as the water
drains, and as the viewer soon realizes, she's actually in the driver's
seat in the giant robot the guy on the blimp was trying to awaken
earlier in the film.
The blimp gets shot down, it crashes, the guy (who we eventually learn
is named Van) survives, the robot walks out, and when he faces it the
robot stops, the cockpit opens, and the very confused Hitomi is dumped
out, after which the robot/suit of armor vanishes in a pretty show of
lights. We soon learn that Hitomi is apparently a person of prophecy,
the Goddess of the Moon, who will bring about the destruction of their
entire world. (Which has both the moon and the earth visible in orbit
around it, as if it's something like a sister planet to our Earth.)
From there many battles ensue, we learn that Van's the younger brother
and was destined to be king until his older brother took power and drove
him out, and that the older brother has built a huge army and destroyed
most of their world. The older brother wants the suit of magical armor,
which is called Escaflowne, to destroy the whole world, and that he and
Van are both bored and lonely and that they hate the world, just like
Hatori did before she got pulled into their world. The older brother
just wants to awaken the suit of dragon armor so he can use it to
destroy the world, like the prophecy says, and he knows he needs the
Goddess of the Moon to do it. Van just wants to kill his older brother,
and doesn't really care about the world one way or the other.
Characters: 4
Mostly archetypes, and a weird bunch. Basically, all of the minor
characters are much more interesting than the main ones. Hatori and Van
are the two most-seen characters, and while Van is just the supremely
talented 15 y/o impetuous good-hearted hero you see in every anime,
Hatori is actively horrible. She does nothing during her opening scenes
in Japan but whine about being bored, and then when she finds herself in
another world she says little more than, "Where am I? I don't
understand. I'm sorry." over and over again. She is so passive and
so worthless it's impossible to root for her. I just wanted to shake
her, and I think most modern females watching this film would hate
Hatori with a passion. I know Malaya would, so it's just as well that I
watched this film while she was not home, since she'd never have sat
through it.
Eventually Hatori changes, shaking off her boredom and wanting to make
other lonely people feel that they've got someone with them. Sadly,
there's no real reason given for this change, other than that the plot
requires it. And she's not much less-annoying once she's no longer
morose, either.
The lesser characters in the film are all much more interesting than the
main ones, though that might be simply because they're not seen enough
to get boring. The older brother, Folken, is quiet and brooding and just
flies around in his magical castle, speaking to some sort of prophetic
elf woman. He's enslaved or conscripted lots of native species,
including the last survivors of various half-human clans. Lion-headed
guys, jackal-human things who are mad bombers, and more. None of whom
ever get more than a few seconds of screen time.
The rebels, a group that Van hangs with and that Hitori falls into, are
all quite colorful too. There's a knife-throwing guy, a screwy catgirl
who loves animals, a confident and well-armed woman they all call the
princess, a rebel leader who seems to be the best fighter in the film,
an old fortune teller no one much cares for, and so on. None of these
people get more than minute or two of screen time either, and none of
them ever amount to anything in the larger scheme of the plot.
Combat Realism: 6
Not really an appropriate rating for this anime, since all the combat is
very stylized. Bit slashes with swords, robots fighting and knocking
over cities, etc. There are some very cool flying scenes, and some
magical battles that are nicely-done though, with fast "burn a
trench through the earth on the way to the target" type spells
thrown.
Humor: NA
Horror: NA
Eye Candy: 8
It's a very good-looking and well-drawn film. Much better than most
anime, though they did overdo the fader tool a bit. There must be a
dozen sunset scenes in the film, all with one end of the screen bathed
in a glorious red/orange/yellow, and the other a deep purple/blue. The
machines look nice though, the blimps are fun, the cities have nice
architecture, the wildernesses are appropriately wild and untamed, and
so on.
Fun Factor: 5
A generous rating. I would be much more bored the second time though,
and I didn't enjoy this one enough to make an effort to watch the
original series.
Replayability: 3
Not likely. It had good moments, but too few and far between, and most
of them were very quick. It's not action porn along the lines of Ninja
Scroll either, where you can count on a big action/fight scene every
five or ten minutes. So I can't see watching it all again for the story,
and the best scenes aren't really good enough to fast forward just to
see, either.
Overall: 4.5
It's not bad, but it's not good. A lot of this score is on potential,
since you can see it's got a lot of good ideas and could have been a
really cool film. They just needed to spend a lot more time on the epic
struggle of the plot, and far less on the whiny teenagers, who never
even do anything. They never even fall in love; just friends who walk
along scenic paths together while muttering platitudes about always
being there for each other.
A great script could have worked in enough of the minor characters to
make them interesting, and could have given them some part to play in
the grand finale. A grand finale that didn't suck would have been nice,
too. As it is no one but Hatori and Van really matter over the last 30
minutes, and the Escaflowne vs. Escaflowne mech battle, and the big
brother vs. brother showdown the movie seems to be building towards, are
both total let downs. The brother vs. brother one especially, and the
epilogue isn't even any good, with things just sort of ending, and
Hatori apparently returning to Earth, though we never even get the
seemingly-requisite scene of her making up with her girlfriend and
living life with newfound purpose and desire.
Pretty disappointing, on the whole.
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