The movie Steamboy is an excellent piece of work, not only as a steampunk work but as a movie in general. You could say that Steamboy utilizes all the possible themes of a typical steampunk work, all thrown into a single piece of art. Not only is does the movie have the word “steam” in the title, but also there are so many impossible technologies and inventions for even this day and age that come to fruition through this alternate world of steam. Steam is a major part of the novel. There is almost never a scene where tons and tons of steam is not leaking out of some machine about to do an impossible feat. Secondly there is again the theme of a Hero overthrowing not only just an evil villain, but the villain is a scientist trying to use the technology to cause harm or pain. This is seen through Ray and his father. Once again I am in space as the Starwars theme that is prevalent in steampunk genre appears of the son vs the father for the fight for good and evil….blah…blah…blah. It is always the same, however in this movie there is a slight difference as the father does not deviate from his evil ways of thought but does aid in stopping his plan as to not cause pain or death to the citizens of London.
The anime format fit well in the movie as it allowed for the great and unbelievable steampunk inventions to easily be put on screen instead of having to be created or generated using green screen. This adds to the effect, because the whole movie is anime you don’t mind that the amazing inventions are there because it’s a cartoon and anything is possible in a cartoon. The cartoon gives you a scene of comfort in knowing that because its animie anything can happen. This allows the view to overlook the impossibleness, and I know impossibleness is not a word but I feel like it was necessary and it should be, of the inventions of the movie, save for one. One thing that the movie did was up until the end was that although the inventions were highly unlikely to have ever existing, they were possible to have conceived or thought of by scientists. This is true until the very end of the novel when the “Steam Castle” lifts off the ground. This is where I just said…no. I’m not buying it. The fact that in 1850 science was to a point where humans could lift a one hundred story 1 million ton building off the ground move it around by using steam powered jet engines was just too much for me. Even the legs that came out and started walking were more believable than it actually floating. Oh well that anime for you. Anyway I thought all in all the movie was worth watching and epitomized the steampunk genre in almost every way it should be epitomized in. I give Steamboy a 8.5/10 for coolness and its ability to keep my attention even though its anime. Go watch it!
No comments:
Post a Comment