Steamboy (Director's Cut)

 

 

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As his follow-up to "Akira," Katsuhiro Ôtomo spent a staggering eight years producing "Steamboy," a stellar example of anime steampunk. It's full of detailed animation, solid direction and some really inspired action scenes, although the final fourth is extremely bloated. Dark, detailed, gritty and full of smoke, steam and grime.

In the mid 1800s, Dr. Lloyd Steam (Patrick Stewart) and his son Eddie Steam (Alfred Molina) are involved in top secret experimentation for the O'Hara Corporation. There's a disaster which leaves only one machine intact -- the Steam Ball.

Then Eddie's son Ray (Anna Paquin), a budding inventer, gets the Steam Ball in the mail -- and some thuggish Foundation men destroying the house to get the valuable machine. Ray escapes with the Ball, barely eluding the men, and ends up captured by a rogue zeppelin that tears a train apart. Great scene.

But the man in charge of this is none other than Ray's father Eddie, who was terribly burned and is now part machin. Eddie, who is still working for the Foundation, is in charge of the powerful Steam Tower and all the war inventions inside. Now Ray's loyalties are divided, as his father and grandfather battle in a war that has no clear "right" or "wrong" -- but which may wreck London, then the world.

If you're going to spend almost a decade working on a movie, then people expect a masterpiece. And while "Steamboy" won't change anime the way "Akira" did, it's still a prime example of the steampunk genre -- Victorian English surroundings, but with steam-powered tanks, subs and other technology.

The main plot is basically about a family's conflict over different ideas about how technology should be used. But Katsuhiro Ôtomo includes a deeper meaning to the conflict -- there's no clear-cut villain and hero here, since both Eddie and Lloyd have good intentions, though one believes in peace through power, and the other knows that power corrupts.

And the animation is amazingly detailed, so you can see every puff of steam and smear of grease. No big watery eyes here. It makes the action scenes -- including a zeppelin and train almost smashing into Victoria Station -- all the more compelling. In between, we have some solid character development, such as Ray getting to know the bratty O'Hara heiress, and experimenting with primitive subs and machinery.

But every movie has a flaw, and "Steamboy's" is that the last fourth is bloated. It's a brilliant battle -- especially the flying soldiers -- and the end itself is satisfying. But it's too slow and meandering, and has too many lingering shots of the bulbous tower over London. Fortunately it regains its footing in the last few minutes, especially when Ray takes control of the plot.

Ray himself is one of the most compelling child-heroes ever -- he's genuinely smart, resourceful and mature, but he's still young. He's only learning that not everything in life (even your family) is what it seems. And the supporting cast is also good, with a subdued Molina as Eddie and Stewart as the feisty Lloyd, who seems like an older version of Ray. And then there's Scarlett, a spoiled brat who is pretty annoying up until the final battle.

"Steamboy" suffers from a rather slow finale, but the movie itself is a brilliantly-animated, solidly-plotted adventure. Definitely worth checking out.

Stylistically distinct from Akira, a similar theme of great power is subtle enough not to be transparent until after reflection upon what is a beautiful and fantastic work of art.

to be direct, it surpassed my expectation.If your fan to the steampunk genre or don't know it, then this is the guide.It stayed true to it and a good movie to pull in more steampunks.my only problem was with the message i don't think it fit with the time period and became little annoying but still worth watching numerously.if your not use to watching movies on the PSP small screen then get the DVD it is an enjoyable movie.

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5.0 out of 5 stars Beyond the boundaries of Anime, its just a great adventure film
An engagingly beautiful and thrilling (in the way boy's adventure stories with airships and metal men tend to be thrilling) film with a Neo-Victorian Steampunk setting, Steamboy... Read more

Published on Oct 23 2007 by Perschon

3.0 out of 5 stars Looks great, but the plot itself doesn't build up much steam
I'm still learning the ropes when it comes to anime, which means I can't compare Steamboy to Katsuhiro Otomo's legendary Akira. Read more

Published on July 27 2006 by Daniel Jolley

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