Friday, July 1, 2016

Robotech II: The Sentinels

(Happy 4th of July Weekend Everyone!!!
I was planning to save these for the actual day (along with the series finale of Gundam: 08th MS Team).  But a friend urged me to post these today, who am I to argue?  Been sitting on these reviews for a while, waiting for the right time to post them.  Fireworks and Giant Robots?  Sounds like a winning combination to me.  So here we go, I present to you Part 1 of the Robotech Trilogy.)
2022 AD. Over a decade has passed since the end of the First Robotech War.  The threat of a second war has always loomed over Earth, with the Robotech Masters on their way.  In order to avert another conflict, the Robotech Expeditionary Force is formed.  Under the commands of General Rick Hunter and his future wife, Lisa Hayes, it’s purpose, to travel deep into space to the homeworld of the Masters for a peaceful negotiation.  The impending launch and celebration of Rick and Lisa’s upcoming wedding, unfortunately blind Earth to the unknown truth: The Masters homeworld is already under attack by an alien race known as the Invid and the Masters are losing.  The unknown chapter of the Robotech Saga is about to unfold.
 
Ah Robotech, you sneaky SoB.  It along with Voltron was one of the 80’s successes at getting Anime into the spotlight of many a Saturday morning cartoon watcher.  For the uninitiated, Robotech was comprised of three separate Anime series from the 80’s (Super Dimension Fortress Macross, Super Dimension Calvary Southern Cross and Genesis Climber Mospeda) into a three arc series.  The mix of fast paced action, transforming mecha and a wide cast made it a hit with a lot of people.  When the third arc, The New Generation, wrapped up, so did the series.  But a lot of questions were left unanswered.  Robotech II was an attempt to relaunch the franchise with fresh animation not based on any pre existing Anime.  Sadly, the show never took off and only three episodes were fully completed.  They were salvaged into one film.  The end result?  Well it’s kind of hard to see why Robotech II would have been a success if I am to be honest.
 
The story takes place between Season’s 1 and 2 of Robotech (The Macross Saga and The Masters Saga).  Placing events here means we get to see the long awaited return of many of Robotech’s most memorable heroes: Rick Hunter, Lisa Hays, Max Sterling. Breetai.  It struck me as odd when I missed the end of the first season and came into the second with no explanation as to why Rick and his team weren’t around (I didn’t know at the time that all three Anime in Robotech were unrelated).  But this is the story of their adventures that began prior to Season 2 and continued throughout the series, only whispered about from time to time.  We also get to see characters who will play pivotal roles later on in the series: Dana Sterling and Bowie Grant from The Masters Saga, Vince and Jean Grant from The Shadow Chronicles and even the Invid Regess from the New Generation.  The thought of all of these chracaters from different eras come together is pretty exciting.  And the event most of them gather for is one a long time coming for fans. 
Anyone you ask about Robotech will tell you that the first saga is their favorite (it is Macross after all).  The love triangle between Rick Hunter, Lisa Hayes and Lynn Minmei is infamous and many were happy Rick got off his ass and chose Lisa in the end.  Their wedding is well deserved and a one of the most feel good moments in the franchise.  I do think it’s strange to see Minmei arriving to bury the hatchet with Lisa once and for all and move on with her life, knowing she’s lost Rick for good.  To see Minmei reminiscing about the good times with Rick reminds me why she was such a pain to watch and listen to in the series, she doesn’t know when to quit.  Even when she says it’s time to move on at the end, I don’t buy it.  That aside, the wedding is great and Rick and Lisa are just as cute to watch as ever.
 
The wedding aside, the big problem with The Sentinels is that it is really, really, really, BORING.  These three episodes are purely set up with little to no action.  What action is present, revolves around expendable characters we don’t really care about on a far off world.  And as fun as the wedding itself is, that’s all we see Rick and Lisa doing besides going to meetings to prep the REF for launch.  I suppose this is a disadvantage to working with original animation and not pre existing.  Robotech got off to a great start cause Super Dimension Fortress Macross had a kick ass opening episode.  Any excitement or magic that made it work is totally absent from this little feature.  Even the new generation Rick and Lisa, two pilots named Jack Baker and Karen Penn, fail to impress.  It probably would have made things more exciting if we saw the wedding in the beginning then got into the action with Rick and company right afterwards.  The animation doesn’t look anything spectacular either.  There’s no heart or feel and everything just looks stale and unenergetic.  Even the music seems to be more on repeat that in any of the original series.  It’s like they recorded 15-20 seconds of music and just threw it onto a loop. It’s a mess.
 
Robotech II was meant to offer a return to the characters we wanted to see in brand new adventures.  But this only existing feature is a sign that it would have crashed worse than the SDF-1 on it’s initial launch.  The story is boring, the new characters forgettable, the original cast does nothing, there’s no action worth bragging about.  This is almost the exact opposite of Robotech.  Rick and Lisa get married, that’s a good thing.  But we didn’t need to spend an hour building up to it when it should have just kicked off events right off the bat.  This wouldn’t be the last time Robotech was given the chance to continue.  But The Sentinels is definitely an example of the direction it should never have been taken in.  The elements are there but there’s lots of wasted potential and no spirit the relight the Robotech spark.
 
3/10



 

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