Robotech: The Movie

2027 AD.  Eighteen years have passed since the near apocalyptic end of Humanity’s first intergalactic war with the Zentradi.  As the Human Race continues to rebuild its homeworld, the Zentradi’s overlords, the Robotech Masters, descend upon the planet to finish what the Zentradi started.  When civilian Mark Landry is given control of an experimental Motorcycle, he suddenly becomes the custodian of the key to the Masters plans for conquest.  Now Mark must dodge shady government assassins and unlock the secrets of the MODAT 5 if Humanity is to have a chance against this seemingly invincible new enemy.

Robotech.  To some it’s either a genuine science fiction masterpiece or an irredeemable insult to Anime (more believe the latter than the former).  The combination of three totally unrelated Mecha Anime, united only by the theme of transformable Giant Robots, was an ambitious project that proved hugely popular in the 80s.  And like many other properties that had both successful toylines and Cartoon TV Series (Transformers, GI Joe, My Little Pony), Robotech was also destined for a big screen adventure.  And just like it’s TV counterpart, Writer Carl Macek sought to recreate the magic he’d lucked into by adapting yet another unrelated Mecha Anime and pasting a new Robotech chapter over it.  But while the success of the TV Series may vary (especially after the First and most popular Season featuring Super Dimension Fortress Macross), Robotech: The Movie is a total disaster.  It’s so much in fact that the only way you can track down a copy is through YouTube uploads since it never saw an official wide release in North America outside of a few test screenings.  So, just what went wrong with this attempt to expand the Robotech mythos outside of the TV Series?  Well I said “total disaster” so just about everything.
 
Just as Robotech used the aforementioned Macross, Super Dimension Cavalry Southerin Cross and Genesis Climber Mospeda to craft it’s multigenerational epic, Robotech: The Movie likewise combines two Anime into the same feature.  Originally intended to just adapt the OVA Megazone 23 Part 1, the film also incorporates footage from Southern Cross to try and tie the film into the Series itself, acting as a loose prequel to the Second Season aka The Masters Saga.  Here in lies one of the bigger problems of the movie.  Southern Cross isn’t the best looking TV Anime from the 80s by a long shot but its quality is abysmal compared to the more polished and near film level look of Megazone 23.  Cutting back and forth between the two titles, especially during the choppily edited action scenes, makes for a jarring experience that lacks excitement and just offers confusion, not helped by the fact that none of said action scenes involves anyone worth caring about.
 
Anyone who truly enjoys Robotech remembers the awesomeness of the First Season.  Aside from some tweaks to lay the ground work for the other two seasons, The Macross Saga is still pretty faithful to its source material and also made overnight heroes out of Rick Hunter, Lisa Hayes and Roy Focker.  Any Robotech story that doesn’t involve these and other characters from The Macross Saga is not fondly looked upon and Robotech: The Movie continues to prove why that is.  Mark is such a whiny protagonist with very little likeability or qualities that make him a hero worth rooting for.  His love interest, Becky, is arguably even worse due to her writing making her so all over the place that she laughs off nearly being sexually assaulted in a scene that should have been left out of the movie altogether.  The film rushes through any sort of character development in favor of a more straight forward action flick and thus never establishes why we should even care about anyone in the movie, especially when they aren’t involved in any of the Southern Cross segments. 
 
As I said, the writing is pretty bad here and the dubbing doesn’t do it any favors.  While it may retain the vocal stylings of the TV Series, Robotech: The Movie almost feels like it’s a parody of that series.  Conversations start in the middle and go nowhere at such a rapid pace, you might as well copy and paste your own dialogue into any scene and it would make about just as much sense.  It just feels so improvised it’s as if they were working with an unfinished script and just deciding to make some scenes up as they went along.  Without a compelling story or memorable characters, the movie fails to tell a satisfying stand alone story or act as a significant lead in to the Second Season of the TV Series.  The only thing worth noting that’s decent in this flick is the music.  Several new tracks have been written by the same staff that worked on the music throughout the TV Series and they are a nice addition to the Robotech music library, especially “The Future is Now” and “Saved by Science”.  Too bad they couldn’t bother to add in a new orchestral score, instead opting to use every single piece of music from the TV Series as if that would make viewers think they’re watching something related to Robotech.
 
I can see now why Carl Macek disowned this mess of a film and why is isn’t considered cannon in the wider Robotech universe.  The story isn’t negligible.  The characters are jokes.  The action isn’t cool or inspiring.  And it lacks the clever creativity that made Robotech work at all in the first place.  Honestly, Macek might’ve been better off pushing to try and adapt the Macross: Do You Remember Love movie instead of trying to piece something together from more unrelated 80s mecha Anime.  If it doesn’t involve Rick, Lisa or any character from the Macross Saga (mayyyybe the New Generation too?) kicking Alien ass on the big screen, no one is going to care and no one did care about this movie.    Just…what a mess of a flick.
 
0/10