Warning possible Spoilers
It was kinda surprising to see that this movie was actually a remake of the original series back in the seventies, so I saw what the movie would offer and it wasn't as bad as I was expecting.
Story (6/10)
However just because it isn't bad, doesn't mean it has it's weak points and the story is definitely a weak point, sure it was simple as our MC Yama is a spy on Harlock's ship and tries to kill him, until he starts to realise what Harlock is doing and then a whole bunch of stuff that seemed like a ripoff of Wall-E happened, like ... the fact that after many years of suffering, the Earth is finally supporting life again just seemed way too familiar.
Although despite the story seeming familiar, it did have it's own stuff to go on, like ulterior motives, betrayal, hidden secrets and a whole religious scheme made the movie/film a little more interesting to watch, because for many years humanity has been fooled that the Earth was a safe haven, when really it wasn't and the whole government was keeping it hidden from the public.
I couldn't exactly tell whether the pacing was good or not, considering what happened in the movie/film, although I do think the ending was one big Deus Ex Machina, especially when it came to Yama's character whose look and appearance resembled Harlock quite a bit, so his outcome by the end wasn't a surprise for me.
The story wasn't bad, it just didn't have a lot of impact for me, apart from a few things that did make the movie/film stand out.
Characters (6/10)
The characters were another weaker aspect of the movie/film, because it looked like there wasn't any development for them whatsoever, well apart fro Yama and Harlock, but their the main characters so of cause there has to be some development there, but all the other characters felt like they were just along for the ride and some of them like Yuki and Miime looked like they could've been big characters, but since this is a movie/film you have to put concentration on certain character's, otherwise there'll just be too much for the viewers to handle.
It also surprises me how, apart from the bad guys and cannon fodder troops, no-one actually dies, which kinda disappointed me, but at the same time it didn't because it's setting up the TV series from the seventies.
Pretty much there wasn't much interest in the characters other than that they can kick some ass and the concentration on Yama wasn't too bad either, until it's the usual he's doing this for someone he loves that he ended up hurting, which reminds of the only surprising death in the movie/film and that was the girl Yama liked, so there was something here.
Art (8/10)
Now I haven't seen many anime's in the 3-D CGI format, but it works really well here surprisingly, the designs of the ships were very well done, especially the Arcadia, which had a menacing, but badass feel to it.
The design of the characters, weapons, armour and equipment was also top notch, although Harlock's crew's armour did look a lot like the Big Daddy suit from Bioshock, which I'll accept because it looked badass.
Even the locations looked great too, including the capital city on Mars, it looked like something out of a fantasy, but made for a sci-fi setting.
Sound (7/10)
The soundtrack was pretty good, it captured the feel of what it would be like to be a space pirate, especially during the first space battle, it captured that feeling very well, although after that I couldn't really remember much else of the soundtrack.
Extras:
The action was definitely something entertaining to watch, awesome space battles, pretty hectic gunfights with CQC elements including a fight in zero-G and there was also quite a lot of Slow-mo in some fight scenes too, it didn't spoil the moment, but added a nice extra detail to the characters movement as they started kicking ass.
Another thing is, I will watch anything in sub or dub, but I watched this in dub and thought "yeah this would be better in sub" so if you're going to watch this in dub, don't I would recommend watching it in sub, because some of the lines just didn't mix well with the lip-sync.
Enjoyment (7/10)
Overall (7/10)
Overall this was a alright space pirate adventure, kickass space battles and great looking effects, but with a meh story and characters it can be a mixed result, however if you're interested in stuff like this, then I'd consider watching this.
Alternative Titles Synonyms: Harlock Space Pirate Japanese: キャプテンハーロック Information Type: Movie Episodes: 1 Status: Finished Airing Aired: Sep 7, 2013 Licensors: Ketchup Entertainment Source: Manga Theme: Space Duration: 1 hr. 55 min. Rating: R - 17+ (violence & profanity) Statistics Score: 7.331 (scored by 31,635 users) 1 indicates a . Ranked: #26542 2 based on the top anime page. Please note that 'Not yet aired' and 'R18+' titles are excluded. Popularity: #3014 Members: 53,506 Favorites: 169 Available AtResources |
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