Hey everyone. So originally I intended todays post to be just a short notice. With my grand Gundam 00 coverage taking over the blog next up, im putting a hold on the remaining Classic Reviews and was going to do so after the Inuyasha movies were done. But then I felt bad about a day without content and I might even try to fill the gaps on Tuesdays and Thursdays so it isn’t just Gundam 00 dominating the blog for the next month (we’ll see). I realized yesterday that I did write a review that I hadn’t even posted, I kind of just wrote it after I watched the film just for the heck of it. So why not post it? Well, that post’s day in the light is today. Hope everyone enjoys this new review and hope you’re looking forward to my thoughts on Gundam 00.
Twenty years ago, the vicious outlaw Gasback was betrayed
by his own gang during a bank job and nearly killed. However he was saved by the untimely
intervention of a bumbling hostage who claimed to be Vash the Stampede. Twenty years later, Gasback is on the move
again to find those who betrayed him and make them suffer. And wouldn’t you know it, Vash is on route to
the same destination with a beautiful bounty hunter named Amelia. But Gasback’s target, the town Mayor, has
hired an army of outlaws with the promise of a hefty bounty on Gasback’s
head. It’s an all out war as Vash and
Gasback clash again, only this time a peaceful solution may be out of the
question.
I’ll admit, I was never a big Trigun fan. I guess there were several other Anime at the
time I was watching that were able to keep me interested and left me with
little time for the Space Western Rurouni Kenshin (trust me plenty of
similarities between Kenshin Himura and Vash).
Most of what I did see sort of unimpressed me and I felt the show never
really hit me with the good stuff until well towards the end. Still, Trigun is one of those shows like
Cowboy Bebop or Gundam Wing that is an easy gateway for most people looking to
get into Anime. It’s a nice mix of scifi
and western with an intriguing character and a nice story (well in the second
half more so but that’s not here or there).
It was a very successful series no doubt deserving of the big screen
treatment. And while Badlands Rumble is
sort of fun, it’s still not the big screen adventure worthy of a series with
such a rep. In a way it’s the exact
opposite of the Cowboy Bebop movie. Bebop’s
movie had a larger than life villain and a dire premise that made the situation
for the main characters greater than any they had ever faced before and made
you question if they would survive the film (most probably knew cause it took
place just before the end of the series).
In Badlands Rumble, you don’t feel like the plot is really epic or the
villain very much outside of the norm of any guy Vash crossed paths with in the
first half of the series. It feels like
a two part episode from the series merged into one 80min feature film. Even Amelia, pretty and bad ass as she may
be, is nothing the show hasn’t featured already…a pretty and bad ass spit fire
with a troubled past linked to the villain.
And everything we need to know about Gasback and Amelia is shared in an
exposition heavy first half with very little exciting action. In truth there isn’t even any reason for the
return of all of Trigun’s main players other than Vash. Meryl and Milly don’t serve much purpose and
Wolfwood is kind of just there to be cool and back up Vash when the time is
right (granted Wolfwood to me is the coolest thing about Trigun so when he gets
to kick ass there’s nothing wrong with that lol).
That’s not to say it’s all bad. When the action does get going, it’s not
terrible at all. The epic car chase
through the desert is very Mad Max in execution and the end duel between
Gasback and Vash is some of the best Trigun action I’ve ever seen. When Vash finally drops his “love and peace”
mentality and gets down to it, he is one of the best shooters in all of Anime,
downright deadly if he wants to be. I’ve also covered Wolfwood, with his
metallic cross machine gun and rocket launcher loaded with extra side arms, who
could probably benefit from his own stand alone movie than Vash could. Amelia also gets her own moments to shine and
show how she is more than just a pretty face with red hair and a cowboy
hat. She really does just suffer from
being an unoriginal Trigun plot device.
So it’s not the greatest but it is passable fun. Again, Trigun is not my cup of tea but I know
there are plenty out there who enjoy the series. And if you do like the series then it is
likely the movie will appeal more to you than it did to me. It was definitely a rumble in the
badlands…just not as epic and memorable as it could have been.
6/10
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