The art, animation, production quality, design etc holds up well even 15 years after its release, and in many aspects the writing is strong- It's well paced, fast and exciting yet easy to follow. It has that epic, exciting feel through-out and a huge % of screentime is big, epic, 'sakuga' moments.
But like people keep saying "something is missing". IMO Steamboy is kind of thematically screwy. Some films can pull off that "theres no real bad guy" stuff, but Steamoy doesn't manage that- instead of making both the father and grandfather seem like noble, well intended men who end up doing bad stuff,the story makes them both look like assholes- The father aligns himself with amoral, profiteering militarists, and the grandfather is some weird crazed psuedo-commie, with a fixation with pointless children's toys.
Was Otomo trying to do some kind of cautionary tale about the dangers of tech? Or the opposite- a story about science being humanity's saviour? Anti-capitalist? Anti-socialist? Fuck knows- kinda seems like he was trying to do both at once.
And far too many of the characters in Steamboy were grating and annoying- the preachy, infantile grandfather who thinks he's justified telling the MC his father is dead because "he's dead to me because we had a difference of opinion", the equally preachy, robot-like father who is morally indifferent as long as his projects get funded, the spoilt brat of a girl who's meant to be a kinda-sorta love interest. Even the MC is poorly written- he isn't *that* grating, but he's generic as hell, undergoes zero developement, and generally seems soul-less and empty.
I feel like Steamboy came really close to being an amazing classic, but was really let down by it's writing in a few key areas, where it failed dismally.
I'd still give it a solid 8/10, but it's a good example of how a film can excel in some areas (say animation or design or pacing), but if that high quality isn't consistent across the board, it can ruin the whole film. |