Hitomi Kanzaki is a girl who deems her life irrelevant. In her wish to disappear from life, she is transported to the Planet Gaea, where the Earth hangs in the sky and is referred to as the Mystic Moon. Here, Hitomi finds a land racked by war and suffering as Lord Folken and the Black Dragon Clan sweep life away in their quest for dominance. Joining up with the Abaharaki resistance force, Hitomi and a lost prince named Van discover the truth behind Hitomi’s sudden arrival. The fate of the world: the path of peace or destruction, rests on the wishes of Hitomi’s heart and the ancient suit of armor, the Escaflowne.
Well, this certainly wasn’t your dads or siblings
Escaflowne. Was it even really
Escaflowne at all? Where are the
mechs? Where was the feeling of
adventure? Why was Dilandau actually one
gender throughout the film…ok that bit I was ok with.
Suffice to say, this is pretty much a movie that lures
fans in with it’s name and then subjects them to the exact solar opposite of
the series it was based on. Much of the
joy and wonder of the TV Series has been sucked away in favor of a darker,
edgier take on the characters and story.
It’s a very out there “What If Escaflowne went this way instead of the
other?” The end result is more mixed
than the TV Series, at least for me anyway.
The main problem besides the lack of any big action or
mecha are the characters themselves.
Hitomi, once an average high school girl with friends, dreams and a
crush, is now a so-so high school girl with one friend and a penchant for
fading away from life…mostly through suicide.
Van, once a prince who thought he wanted to be a warrior but instead
wanted peace, love and understanding, is now a bloodthirsty fighter who
massacres a Black Dragon Airship (granted in spectacular fashion) during the
films opening. Somehow these two meet
are we are expected the love story that populated the TV Series to take flight
here. Problem is, there isn’t any real
time given to watching them bond when they just sort of say “Yeah we have
problems let’s kind of hook up in a manner of speaking.” This comes as a result of a very rushed
storyline, a poor attempt to cut down 26 episodes into a just over 90 minute
feature. Scenes jump from one to
another, characters appear and vanish for minutes at a time, action occurs at
various points; but it’s all more at the whim of the script more than the
natural progression of the story. And
don’t try to make sense of Folken’s plot to take over/destroy the world. Just say, “OF COURSE!!” and move on. I hate to say it but even Dornkirk (totally
absent from the film btw) had a bit more of a clear agenda and that’s saying
something if you remember my maddening confusion of the TV Series plot.
The darkness doesn’t really help either. I’m all for edgy, Batman Begins/Casino Royale
espque gritty reboots but at least those films still had a sense of wonder and
fun to them. Escaflowne is moody and
bloody for the sake of the two words.
There’s no reason for the movie to be that way than to simply be bigger
for a movie scale feature. You cringe
and scratch your head over what’s going on more than getting excited for what
comes next. I cringed especially when
Van finally got into Escaflowne and activated it through a…very painful process
that made me gasp. None of it makes
sense at all. And truth be told: the characters are such a
far relation to their original sources and the lack of Escaflowne ever present,
this could have been any other fantasy/mecha feature and it just so happened to
have the Escaflowne name attached to get people to watch it.
So what did I like about the movie? More than you’d think. I think it’s still one of the best looking
Anime motion pictures I have ever seen.
The quality befits a movie and never once did I feel like I was watching
the series (poor story and execution aside).
Even though the action is brutal and few and far between, I did enjoy
it. The centerpiece fight between Van’s
Escaflowne and Dilandau’s Second Dragon Armor is probably the best Escaflowne
fight hands down, moving violently and smoothly like a dance. And it has to be said, Yoko Kanno outdid
herself on this one. The soundtrack
updates several TV Series themes (Dance of Curse sounds better than ever) and
brings a haunting sense of scale and majesty to this project. How good is it? Well the DVD release has a soundtrack only
audio track (NUFF SAID!!!). And having
just watched the movie with the series still sort of fresh in my mind, I was at
least happy that Dilandau retained his villainous mad man menace that made him
one of the best parts of the series. His
complexity might be gone and (thankfully) he stays one gender, but at least
he’s consistent unlike so much else with this movie.
At the end of the day, Escaflowne: The Movie, is a bit of
a guilty pleasure for me. I know it’s
shortcomings and know why it confuses or outright angers fans of the
series. But I think if I ignore like…60%
of the films elements (story, characters, setting, ending) and focus on the
other 40% (animation, soundtrack, action), I can make the best of it. But from a general standpoint, if you’ve seen
the series and enjoyed it a lot, it might be best to stay away from this unless
you want to see your beloved story sullied by a Twilight level bad make over…im
not even sure if that’s an exaggeration really.
If you’ve never seen Escaflowne before, best go look at the series as
this is not a good starting point. This
was an example of a dark update of a classic that just didn’t work…unless you
count making Folken look like David Bowie from Labyrinth, now that is a
success.
6/10
Speaking of which, a little extra treat for everyone that
might make the film a bit more…watchable.
Well that concludes that little month of movie follow ups
to series of the past. We’ll be bouncing
around a bit for the next couple of weeks before we get into the long awaited
second season of Black Lagoon. But
first, another long awaited review that I’ll probably dedicate to someone taken
from us too soon. Next week we look at
the final piece of animation greatness from Monty Oum (the series will continue
just not with him) with RWBY Vol.2.
No comments:
Post a Comment