Steamboy

Fantastic art, beautifully rendered animations that feel very fluid. For a movie titled "Steamboy" I strongly expected steam punk aesthetics throughout the movie and was met higher than my expectations. Character designs and artwork regarding its historical setting was contextually very accurate, and made for a very swift immersion for audiences into the world and beginning of the plot. Easily the strongest aspect of enjoy-ability from this movie.

The several chase and action scenes of the movie involving lots and lots of Steam powered machinery was very fun.

Most flaws lie in the writing of this movie, and it is rare for me to rate a movie ... above a 5 with lacking writing as it is arguably the heart of any movie.

Firstly, the introduction, usage, and portrayal of the MacGuffin of the movie, the Steam Ball - was very uninspired and bland. The movie never really goes into the whys and hows of the Steam Ball, which would've made it more interesting/easier for audiences to consciously care about. However its just shrugged off as this "important thing" which has insane amounts of steam power and is juggled between the several parties for the remainder of the film. It's very easy for writers to use any form of MacGuffin as a shortcut to avoid detailed exposition, but the Steam Ball was a clear example of how NOT to use it.

Scarlett's role, in the context of the story is very VERY important. As a literary character in the movie however, was severely lacking. She didn't really serve a purpose and fell into the sad trap hole of forgettable supporting female characters.

The Steamboy himself. I felt as though his most important scenes were all done and dusted by the starting half of the film, and towards the end he simply served as a "fetchboy" of the Steam Ball without having any influence whatsoever in the events that occurred, despite the heavy foreshadowing and possible implications. Of course him carrying the Steam Ball around and stopping the antagonistic powers of the movie from abusing it was what he ultimately did, BUT it doesn't mean that the way he did it was interesting or clever.

An enjoyable movie for first time watchers, and the animation and art throughout is very satisfying to the eyes. People who love steampunk will really enjoy this film. People who don't like steampunk, will still gain interest through this film. However, the aforementioned flaws are too apparent to enjoy this movie for a second or third time.

Final Wording: GEARLTY PLEASURE

The good first. The cgi and animation hold up almost 20 years later. It really is a beautifully shot and designed movie. The compositing basically seamless and the effects animation is gorgeous and had me gasping as you can feel the weight of giant machines fly and fall apart. This all pains me to rate this movie so low given the technical prowess.

The Bad. Everything else. The story, the plot is mid, the pacing is slow. There are no redeeming characters, they are all frustratingly incompetent and either terrible humans or too stupid to still be alive. There are several scenes where our hero is ... cornered and the villains take 20 secs to walk 10ft to snatch them, giving the hero enough time to come up with a way out. Motivations are confusing and the message is clunky.


SPOILERS?




Nobody gets what they deserve besides a few goons.
The main bad dude gets to walk away after destroying millions of lives.
Scarlett, the blonde, dog beating, capitalist hell spawn never had a redeemable moment, despite her suppose to be the love interest. She's dumb as rocks and doesn't realize that her company is building weapons of war despite living in the weapon castle and having free travel around it.
She beats her dog and nobody calls her out for it and never atoned.

I grew around steam and I loved it,

the art has to be some of my most favorite steampunk-esque work done to date, it feels grounded and yet I know it's not real.

Loved the Alterative history about it, and I'm a big fan of "what if's?" and so forth

I also like the fact that it looks and feels like victorian england, the arcitecture of the streets and stations feel like the UK hecc the trains look and sound like they were there (I could name some of the engines that looked like desgins lifted off the Midland railway) which I applaud,

Ok yeah some of the ... English voice dubs are grating but I can deal with them..

The premise of this movie is that steam is a ridiculously powerful source of energy (which it kind of is when you think about it) and that in Manchester, England a boy named James Ray Steam ends up receiving a metal ball filled with powerfully concentrated steam from his grandfather, Lloyd Steam. He can’t let it fall into the wrong hands or its immense power could be used to take over the world (or something of that sort). This movie features top-notch animation, great voice-acting (especially in the English version, surprisingly with the likes of Patrick Stewart), and a story that is easily comprehended by ... Western audiences. While Otomo does have surreal works that even rival some of Satoshi Kon’s, this is most certainly not one of them. Costing a whopping $22 million and ten years to make, this ranks as my overall favourite film directed by Otomo to date.

ART:
I felt like I was seeing a Disney animation, 100 Dalmatians.
The details behind every gear must have made the animators spend a lot of time.
The scenes inside the moving tower, with those elaborate doorways, full of gears, deserve a 10.
I liked the camera following the characters like a dolly rather than the usual right-left transitions

SCRIPT:
1866 quarrel between father and son, two scientists with different ideas. On the one hand, science seen as progress for the well-being of humanity, on the other, science used as the destruction of the enemy for a utopian equality of the human species. Who will be ... able to put an end to this quarrel?... The nephew. The future of the world in the hands of young people is what I have always believed in, and still believe in. Those who watch anime should feel like heroes of their own lives, like Ray, even if I think this anime didn't convey this message in the best possible way. It's not inspiring enough.

Animation is consistently good/amazing, has some fascinating ideas and approaches the morals over technology, though maybe it could use more. The movie is mostly action and the characters are mostly meh, not having much to them-rather being there as puppets to play/make the story happen. This is all steampunk style so if you like steampunk and engineering, id say this is a pretty good fantasy-like story. Its exciting, full of action, and fun to watch. I do like the steampunk style, although it is not my favorite I still enjoyed watching this movie, but I dont think Ill rewatch it.
I would mostly recommend this to ... anyone who has interest in steampunk engineering fantasy worlds. The animation does not disappoint, and the overall execution feels alright-mostly glancing over at exciting, action based moments. Overall depth of the story is.. lacking as I mentioned earlier with its characters. I rated it a 8 because it was exhilarating to watch and I was blown away by the animation and its ideas using technology. But it probably is more reasonable to rate it a 7.