Reviews

Sep 9, 2014
Mixed Feelings
Re: Cyborg 009 is, in a word, disappointing. As a fan of the 2001 series since childhood and a great admirer of the studio which worked on this (Production I.G., who are responsible for such wonderful series as Ghost In The Shell: Stand Alone Complex) I expected great things from this darker, more realistic take on the classic franchise. Sadly, despite a promising start and beautiful animation, the film falls flat on its' face, resulting in something which may be worth watching once, but which cannot stand up to even the most cursory analysis.

It would be terribly easy to blame this film's failings as yet another example of why remaking children's series as "dark" and "gritty" doesn't work, but to do that would be to disrespect the source material. Why Ishinomori's manga and the preceding anime series were definitely goofy, there has always been an undercurrent of mystery and intrigue to them that is very compatible with darker tones. Sadly, the writer of this film seems to have confused "dark" with "unnecessarily confusing" and "intelligent" with "random statements about God with no connecting thread".

The plot is, for one thing, completely impenetrable to new viewers. If one is not already familiar with the franchise, this film offers only a few badly-executed lines of exposition to explain to you who exactly these
characters are, and does even less to show why you should care about them. This would not be so much of a problem if the premise of the film
and it's status as a stand-alone universe within the Cyborg 009 canon did
not seem to set it up as a jumping-on point for new viewers. The main
character begins the film with amnesia for god's sake, and yet he regains
his memories incredibly unceremoniously, without even the briefest of
flashbacks to hint at his origins. Instead, this is infodumped to you almost
halfway through the film, at which point it might have been better not to mention it at all.

For all the story's numerous failings and it's failure to highlight what
makes these characters interesting, the film at least looks good. Surprisingly, even someone like me who is normally squeamish about CGI mixing with 2D animation, the action sequences are not only dynamic but fluid in a way that
evokes the best of action cinema, making full use of the cyborgs' fantastic powers. Of particular note is the film's rendition of Jet Link, who visually puts
all previous incarnations of the character to shame. A pity the same can't be said for his personality.

Overall, I would recommend this movie most to people who have not interest whatsoever in the source material, but who appreciate good fight
choreography and beautiful animation. If you care about the series at all and/or are unable to turn your brain completely off in order to soak in disjointed action scenes, then you should probably watch the 2001 TV series instead to get your cyborg fix.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
What did you think of this review?
Nice Nice0
Love it Love it0
Funny Funny0
Show all
It’s time to ditch the text file.
Keep track of your anime easily by creating your own list.
Sign Up Login