G-Saviour

Universal Century 0223.  The Earth Federation is no more.  In it’s wake, the Congress of Settlement Nations (CONSENT) polices both the Earth and the Space Colonies.  A dangerous food shortage strikes the Earth, leaving the planet in dire need of resources.  Freedom Fighters from the neutral colony cluster Side 8, codename Gaea, retrieve an experimental enzyme that could save the planet.  But CONSENT has it’s own plans to capitalize on this crisis.  It soon falls to a bold and kind hearted doctor from Gaea and an Ex-CONSENT pilot to take the fight to the Earth’s military.  The fate of all mankind rests on the shoulders of Gaea and their latest Mobile Suit, the G-Saviour.

Two years ago, I did a Top 5 list on the Top 5 Titles I (Probably) Wont Review on the Gundam Anime Corner.  At the top of that list (See here: http://gundamanimeblog.blogspot.com/2018/02/t5w130-top-5-titles-i-probably-wont.html) was a little known title called G-Saviour.  Even by bad Gundam standards, people called this one bad.  Knowing this, I didn’t want to touch G-Saviour with a ten foot pole, even if I want to somehow see everything Gundam related in my lifetime.  Well, somehow, I managed to get a copy of the movie…and it couldn’t be avoided.  So, for this, the Sixth Anniversary of the Gundam Anime Corner, I’m checking out the biggest, darkest blotch on the Gundam legacy, G-Saviour.  Is it really that terrible?  Is it worse than any grievances I have against Gundam Seed Destiny or Gundam Build Fighters Try?

OH MAN…even Gundam F91 is vastly superior to this stinker…and F91 is a terrible movie. 

So, a little preceeding trivia: G-Saviour was envisioned as part of the Gundam 20^th Anniversary Project which included updated relaunches of prior titles like Mobile Suit Gundam Wing: Endless Waltz and the much anticipated return of Yoshiyuki Tomino with one of the greatest Gundam shows of all time, Turn A Gundam.  G-Saviour was meant to be a landmark project, the first time Mobile Suit Gundam had ever been portrayed in a live action format.  Gundam has always been a franchise that id hoped would get a proper live action adaptation one day (a dream that can still hopefully become a reality thanks to the announced go ahead project from Legendary Pictures and Studio Sunrise).  But this…THIS…THIS IS HOW YOU CELEBRATE 20 YEARS OF GUNDAM!!!!???

First off, what about any of this screams Gundam beyond the occasional glimpse of a crappy looking CG Mobile Suit?  The sets look like they came straight out of an early to mid 90s scifi series like SeaQuest, Earth 2 or Babylon 5 (bonus points if you know any or all of those titles).  Oh and are those the exact replicas of the Mobile Infantry Armor and Weapons from Starship Troopers?  WHAT? How lazy can you be when you cant even design proper costumes and have to steal from other, more successful properties.  And no, seeing the CONSENT baddies in uniforms similar to Zeta Gundams Titans doesn’t forgive this at all.  This production is a mess if there ever was one and makes me wonder why G-Saviour wasn’t worked on by a full on Japanese production company…I don’t know if that would have made the final product any better but still, the first attempt at bringing any Anime to the big screen should be done in Japan first, come what may.

Then there’s the story…what story?  Much like Ghost in the Shell 2017 was a poor combination of Robocop and Total Recall rather than and actual Ghost in the Shell movie, G-Saviour just takes a ton of tired, generic mid 90’s scifi tropes and throws them into the blender before slapping the title on.  Environmentalist vs. an authoritarian government?  An ace pilot with a jaded past?  His rival who’s evil just for the sake of being evil?  A couple of impassioned speeches trying to mimic Bill “Lonestar” Pullman’s epic delivery in Independence Day?  What’s new about any of this?  What’s original?  None of it, that’s what.  Hell, people can give the Turn A Gundam flack for making the infamous Gundam antenna a Gundam mustache…at least it’s still called a Gundam.  The G-Saviour isn’t even identified as the latest in the long line of legendary Mobile Suits, which traditionally should be a really big deal (just look at how people in the Universal Century reacted to seeing one in Gundam Unicorn and Gundam Narrative).  Which makes me wonder…was this supposed to be a Gundam story and not some failed scifi tv pilot pulled off the shelf and repurposed into this travesty?  Even the time period is full of it.  Jumping ahead almost 100 years after the latest UC Gundam entry at the time, Victory Gundam, things look so bland and less Universal Century and more bland scifi Space Marine land…or whatever.

Then there are the characters.  I’ll admit, one or two of them might have the occasional saving grace about them (there was one line delivery I did legit laugh at).  But everyones so cardboard cut out from the cliché box it’s hard to care or get invested.  Mark is the brash young pilot with a sorrid past.  His girlfriend Mimi is an opportunist looking to get ahead in life.  Jack is the crazy rival (who surprisingly embraces his campiness towards the end which was kind of refreshing).  The only person of note in the cast is Erika Okuna as Cynthia.  This comes mostly because of her very familiar voice-she played Lady Une in the English Dub of Gundam Wing.  But more than that, Okuna gives a performance that, frankly, G-Saviour doesn’t deserve.  Cynthia embodies the strong kind of heroine that Gundam has given us over the years, from her determination to her no nonsense attitude to her caring and nurturing side.  Special mention should also go to David Lovgren, who drops the stick in the mid attitude for Jack in favor of a more wacky and campy performance in the last act of the movie…probably because he gets to pilot a crappy Mobile Suit but dammit he’s gonna have his fun in it while he can.

We had to get to this one topic eventually, might as well talk about at the end of this already long review.  The Mobile Suits.  For a Gundam project, this movie is surprisingly devoid of any Mobile Suit action until the last act.  And even then, it’s atrocious.  The CG effects are so terrible that they don’t even belong in the not so bad Gundam Evolve CG Anime Anthology or even a sub par PS1 game.  The suits move about as slow and clunky as they look.  There’s also hardly any variety in them, maybe four of five models throughout the whole film.  The titular G-Saviour hardly looks special and honestly is just as bland and boring to look at as everything else in this snoozefest of disappointment.  Like I said above, because this feels like a long lost 90’s pilot repurposed into a Gundam feature, you could always take out the Mobile Suits and replace them with generic space fighters and nothing of value is lost.  God you know you’ve done messed up with this when the dated breakthrough CG from the first season of Beast Wars: Transformers looks more compelling than this garbage.

I gave it a shot.  I can say that I’ve seen it.  Is G-Saviour, in the end, as bad as my two most loathed entries in the Gundam Mythos: Gundam Seed Destiny and Gundam Build Fighters Try?  The answer…is yes.  It could be argued that at least this movie is only 90mins long unlike those 25-50 episodes wastes of time im never getting back.  But G-Saviour is painfully boring and devoid of originality, creativity or fun.  There’s barely anything resembling Gundam’s most prominent life lessons or common series tropes (too many of those to even begin listing…just trust me, theyre not here).  At the very least, Seed Destiny and Build Fighters Try had actual Gundams and Mobile Suits in more than half their run time.  G-Saviour is someones idea of a really bad joke, a wasted opportunity that could have been a moment of greatness for the Gundam franchise if even a fraction of effort or fan love was poured into it.  Sadly, what we get is as generic as generic gets, a movie that came out in the year 2000 that looks like it came out in 1996 as a made for tv pilot for a show that never got picked up. 

Gundam…deserves so much better than this.  Legendary Pictures and Sunrise…learn from this…and let’s see that Gundam fly for real next time.

1/10

Note to self: I don’t think ive reviewed a title on Anniversary Day that I’ve liked since Golden Boy…gotta choose something that I can rate higher than a 6 or 7 for next year…or not, I had fun ranting about this one.  Ah, we’ll find out what happens on March 31, 2021.