I saw it a couple of weeks ago and have thought about it a bit. I don't know how it's out in the rest of the world, so if you want to see Miyazaki's allegedly last film unspoiled and your expectations untouched, I suggest not reading this post. That's why I'm putting my thoughts in spoiler tags.
Got that? Good.
So there's my 2 cents. How about you?
Got that? Good.
...I'm underwhelmed. Not disappointed or devastated due to MovieBob's article on the film already colouring my expectations a bit, but the film still fell way short of the mark. Sadly I'll have to count this as probably the least of Miyazaki's films. Howl's Moving Castle was a total mess, but it at least had fantastic characters and incredible visuals to look at. If this is really to be Miyazaki's last film, I'll view it as more of an epilogue than a final chapter: him being given as much money as he wanted to do whatever the hell he wanted, as a sort of congratulatory prize for his career.
My fear that the film being animated would feel pointless turned out to be true for the most part. Aside from a couple of dream sequences, there was IMO nothing in the film that justified it being an animation. Even the earthquake sequence involved mostly just panicking crowds, something which could have just as well been live action. Had it been a spectacle of destruction, then I'd have seen the point of animation. There's very little of Miyazaki's visual magic going on here: there's next to no big set pieces that would show off the animation like Ponyo raising the tsunami or the bathhouse in Spirited Away. And since the setting is also in the real world (and not even in a stylish or exotic place like in Porco Rosso), there's not much interest to the visuals at all. At one point I thought the characters were supposed to be abroad, but turned out to be Japan after all, but I couldn't tell because there was so little visual distinction between locales and the movie didn't spell everything out either.
The second biggest problem was the main character. I don't know how much his personality was based on historical fact, but in this film he's not really all that engaging. He's depicted as a man of peace to the point of boredom, and so is his life almost all the way through: He almost never faces any significant danger, severe emotional turmoil, self-doubt or moral ambiguity, despite facing the nazis, the Tokyo earthquake, WWII and being hunted for his views. Neither does he really express much emotion, as he always seems to be cool with whatever he's faced with. Part of it is Hideaki Anno's performance, which sadly proves that he's not a professional voice actor. It took me something like 20 minutes to accept his voice, and it was jarring as hell in the beginning to hear a voice that sounds like 50 coming out of the mouth of a character in his 20s at most. Usually Miyazaki has made up for the the lack of conflict in other areas, but that is sadly not the case here.
The third problem was the subject matter. To aviation (history) enthusiasts who also like anime this must be the Holy Grail, and knowing that Miyazaki himself is a huge aviation enthusiast, I like to view this as him using his opportunity to indulge in as obscure and niche subject matter as he could. But for the rest of us... well it's really not that interesting. There's lots of talk about the technical aspects and designs of the planes, how the wind affects the flight and so on, but unless you're already interested in the subject, I really don't see this film opening your eyes. Couple this with the 2-hour running time where not that much really happens, and I have to say it was quite boring.
That's not to say the film's completely without merit. The score was nice, the animation of course gorgeous, the romance was sweet and there were some moments of the classic Miyazaki magic here and there. There was also one character who was really strange and interesting. One thing I thought was really weird but also really liked was the fact that some of the sound effects were done a cappella. It gave some scenes a very odd, unearthly feel which I thought was really cool.
My fear that the film being animated would feel pointless turned out to be true for the most part. Aside from a couple of dream sequences, there was IMO nothing in the film that justified it being an animation. Even the earthquake sequence involved mostly just panicking crowds, something which could have just as well been live action. Had it been a spectacle of destruction, then I'd have seen the point of animation. There's very little of Miyazaki's visual magic going on here: there's next to no big set pieces that would show off the animation like Ponyo raising the tsunami or the bathhouse in Spirited Away. And since the setting is also in the real world (and not even in a stylish or exotic place like in Porco Rosso), there's not much interest to the visuals at all. At one point I thought the characters were supposed to be abroad, but turned out to be Japan after all, but I couldn't tell because there was so little visual distinction between locales and the movie didn't spell everything out either.
The second biggest problem was the main character. I don't know how much his personality was based on historical fact, but in this film he's not really all that engaging. He's depicted as a man of peace to the point of boredom, and so is his life almost all the way through: He almost never faces any significant danger, severe emotional turmoil, self-doubt or moral ambiguity, despite facing the nazis, the Tokyo earthquake, WWII and being hunted for his views. Neither does he really express much emotion, as he always seems to be cool with whatever he's faced with. Part of it is Hideaki Anno's performance, which sadly proves that he's not a professional voice actor. It took me something like 20 minutes to accept his voice, and it was jarring as hell in the beginning to hear a voice that sounds like 50 coming out of the mouth of a character in his 20s at most. Usually Miyazaki has made up for the the lack of conflict in other areas, but that is sadly not the case here.
The third problem was the subject matter. To aviation (history) enthusiasts who also like anime this must be the Holy Grail, and knowing that Miyazaki himself is a huge aviation enthusiast, I like to view this as him using his opportunity to indulge in as obscure and niche subject matter as he could. But for the rest of us... well it's really not that interesting. There's lots of talk about the technical aspects and designs of the planes, how the wind affects the flight and so on, but unless you're already interested in the subject, I really don't see this film opening your eyes. Couple this with the 2-hour running time where not that much really happens, and I have to say it was quite boring.
That's not to say the film's completely without merit. The score was nice, the animation of course gorgeous, the romance was sweet and there were some moments of the classic Miyazaki magic here and there. There was also one character who was really strange and interesting. One thing I thought was really weird but also really liked was the fact that some of the sound effects were done a cappella. It gave some scenes a very odd, unearthly feel which I thought was really cool.
But the good things weren't enough. Unengaging characters, next to pointless animation, uninteresting subject matter, long runtime, weak voice acting from the main character and a lack of conflict without making up for it make for a slow-paced drama that has some nice moments, but is merely a shadow of the legacy preceding it.
So there's my 2 cents. How about you?
