Steamboy

London, 1866.  On the eve of the Great Exhibition, young James Ray Steam receives a package from his Grandfather containing a ball whose power can change the course of Human history.  Pursued by a shadowy organization who will stop at nothing to get this ball, Ray flees to keep it safe but ends up in the middle of a battle between two opposing scientific factions.  With dangerous ambitions threatening the nations future and all who live in it, it’s up to Ray to take the power they covet so badly and use it against them, for the future of both science and Humanity itself.

Katsuhiro Otomo is a name synonymous with Anime thanks to one title: Akira.  After that film dropped in 1988 and blew the entire world away, all eyes were on this man.  Whatever Anime film he directed next would have an impossible task ahead of it.  Granted, Otomo has worked on other Anime projects since Akira, mostly writing and production credits for films such as Metropolis and Memories.  When it comes to directing Anime feature films however, Otomo only has two titles under his belt: the aforementioned Akira and the film I’m reviewing today: Steamboy.  When Steamboy arrived in 2004, it did so after a long, 10 year production and quickly became known as one of the most expensive Anime films ever made.  Makes sense, considering it’s a project helmed by a man who single handidly put Anime on the worldwide map, a studio would want to give him a blank check so to speak.  The million dollar question is: Is Steamboy at least good?

Beyond its visuals and setting, Steamboy couldn’t be anymore different from Akira.  While both films have a heavy focus on the evolution of science in the hands of man, Steamboy is a more straightforward classic adventure for all ages and could even be seen as a superhero origin story in the vein of Disney’s cult classic, The Rocketeer.  You have a young prodigy stuck in the middle of an ongoing secret war between two competing organizations for control of a power source that probably doesn’t belong in the hands of either side.  You have machines straight out of a Manga that lean heavily and brilliantly on the steampunk aesthetic of the setting.  You have Villains who look and feel like theyre larger than life with their ambitions and aforementioned toys of destruction.  And you have the scope and vision of an epic adventure that only keeps feeling bigger and bigger as the film goes on. 

Steamboy has serious ambition behind it.  If the film succeeded in one thing after it’s 10 year production history, it looks freaking beautiful.  While there is a fair amount of digital work, it’s a far cry from the obvious CG inserts of modern day Anime.  Steamboy feels like a film on the cusp of taking Anime into new digital age but still retains the hard work feeling of every cell and frame being hand drawn.  This movie wants to feel huge and it does and the visuals do most of the heavy lifting in that area.  From exciting steampunk bike chases to the climactic battle across London, Otomo is bringing his flair for stunning and amazing presentations and showing he has lost none of that special touch that made his Akira so fondly remembered.  Every steampunk element from the constantly moving gears to the details of a vehicle or suit of armor look like they took so much time to create and the time was well worth it.  Short version: the movie is worth the watch for the animation alone, just like Akira.

The unfortunate downside is that the story buckles under the weight of expectation and never reaches the heights of the films animation.  The argument of scientific progression for power and expansion is continually argued against its need to help advance humanity through more peaceful means than militaristic ones.  But most of the people arguing both sides come off more as raving lunatics or visionaries with dellusions of grandeur.  Some of this posturing and grandstanding goes on far longer than needed and adds unnecessary time to a movie that didn’t need a two hour runtime.  There’s also some pacing issues featuring some of the more preachy bits and a sense that the movie was so focused on how good it looked that it wasn’t sure when to begin winding down.  You can only enjoy a pretty picture and the lecture about it before you begin looking at your watch and wondering how much time is left.

At the very least, Ray is a fine protagonist, full of wonder and brilliance and plenty of heroic spirit.  He walks the middle ground of the science in the wrong hands debate between two opposing factions who really shouldn’t be using the coveted Steam Ball.  That said, Ray seems like the only good guy in the movie or at least the only one with any lick of common sense.  I will say, I know the character of Scarlett can be annoying as all get out with her constant complaining and screaming for her manservant, Simon.  But I couldn’t help but enjoy her character anyway because I could see through the various presented factoids that she is a lonely girl looking for a friend.  She just so happens to find one in Ray and does go the extra mile to keep him safe throughout the film, even if she almost gets herself killed doing so once or twice.

While I don’t think it comes close to matching the perfection of Akira, Steamboy is, at its core, a very fun action adventure Anime that should please most fans of the genre and even suck in some curious casual eyes.  It’s got plenty of visual flair and some pretty inventive action sequences that make excellent use of the steampunk aesthetic.  If the movie had dialed back the grandiose speechifying and tightened the final act, maybe cutting out 30 minutes or so, it could be improved a great deal.  Still, I liked Steamboy and think it’s a very beautiful flick from a guy who knows how to use Anime to its fullest potential.  Now, what’s Otomo gonna do for a third theatrical Anime outing I wonder? 

8/10