Title: Space Battleship Yamato
Genre: Action/Drama
Director: Yamazaki Takashi
Format: Movie; 131 minutes.
Date: 1 Dec 2010

Synopsis: The year is 2199, and Earth has been ravaged by high levels of radiation ever since mankind’s defeat to an extraterrestrial force known as Gamilas. As a result, the surface is rendered completely uninhabitable, and the last of humankind has retreated to the underground, facing imminent extinction. As the Earth Defense Force vainly battles in a losing war against Gamilas, a civilian scrap scavenger finds an alien pod that broke through the atmosphere. The cryptic message inside the pod offers Earth a glimmer of hope: a planet beyond the Milky Way known as Iscandar claims to have a device that can wipe out the radiation instantly. The only way to get there is by mankind’s last trump card: a magnificent space battleship, armed with a powerful wave-motion cannon, known as Yamato.

The Highlights
Action: Severely underwhelming; just not enough “PEW PEW PEW”.
Drama: Cheesy and poorly executed; the penultimate scene is almost laughable.
Plot: A few interesting plot twists, albeit a weak overarching storyline.
Characters: Not explored enough to be empathized.
Kimura Takuya: Still pretty as ever, but doesn’t embody his character enough.

Being one of the original anime classics, Space Battleship Yamato is adapted into a live-action movie with a massive production budget of 2.2 billion yen. Thus it would only be natural for people to have high expectations for such a high-profile movie, but disappointingly, it lacks what should be expected from a sci-fi show of intergalactic proportions. For a story of a scale that rivals even that of Star Wars and Star Trek, there aren’t enough larger-than-life action sequences that excite the audience. The overall ambiance is underwhelming, the action severely lacks intensity, and there isn’t enough tension for a story that involves a dire possibility of mankind becoming completely wiped out. The storyline is equally dull too, a textbook example of a predictable story that is no different from any other with the same “Man-Versus-Alien” theme. Although there are some interesting twists and revelations, they can only do so much when the overarching plot is unoriginal.

Another main issue that brings down Yamato is the drama which is, more often than not, cheesy melodrama. The biggest problem about it is the lack of substance and poor execution. Scenes such as those featuring the worn-out captain and the dashing protagonist Kodai pouring their hearts out, lack pathos because of shallow characters, which result in a lackluster drama element. Although there are sentimental moments where glimpses of their background are shown, it is still hard to relate to them because there is also a lack of down-to-earth camaraderie and emotional bond between them. Instead of drama with substance, it is nothing more than just bathos, with the biggest culprit being the romance development between Kodai and Mori, the latter also turning out to be a cookie-cutter example of a tsundere archetype.

There is one redeeming aspect of Yamato however, and that is the grandiose special effects. With a vast budget, it meets the expectations of high-quality CGI animation that is synonymous with the sci-fi genre. The painstaking efforts that go into meticulously detailing each frame can be vividly seen, from the alien designs of the Gamilas vessels to the imposing titular space battleship. The movie is in overall a piece of eyecandy, and although it doesn’t match up to other Western CGI-intensive movies, it has become a benchmark in the Japan live-action movie industry for its prowess in visual effects.

Yamato may have the capacity to offer the audience a visual spectacle, but for a story with an epic lineage, it is a rather underwhelming space journey. The characters are underdeveloped, the storyline is commonplace especially to those who have watched plenty of invasion-themed sci-fi movies, and the climax is smothered by dorama-style sappiness. The original 70′s anime may be timeless, but the live-adaptation is nowhere near memorable because of the absence of memorable scenes. It may be a tale about a symbolic ship on its maiden voyage to save mankind but there is nothing much to remember the movie for, particularly when the titular icon alone fails to strike a lasting impression.

The Rating: 5

Reviewed by: AC