Space Pirate Captain Harlock (2014)

Sorry, this movie sucks

hyped garbage

A brilliant film that helped define a genre

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

Action movie, fine. Point the gun shoot it. 100 SPACE SHIPS ALL SHOOTING. They all miss! A person in the middle of a corridor, being shot at from either side. THEY ALL MISS. This is so we can see a person kill them with a sword in an age when the sword is a pointlessly outdated weapon.The plot? The 'twist', or dark secret that emerges at the end, at this point the movie is hinting at complex themes. Then all the plot lines converge in a complete mess. What is 'dark matter'? Sounds sci-fi, right? No, it does whatever the magician wielding it wants to do. Not to mention some kind of magical 'space clock' thing that doesn't make any sense. This required the characters to put things in places, thus enabling the ship to go different places. Then the Gaia council has a super space weapon FROM NOWHERE. Guess what. IT MISSES. Why? Well...erm...dark matter...So the ship crashes and everyone is pictured dead. One of the characters literally disintegrates in front of our eyes. Then everyone wakes up, the disintegrated person walks back into the room, and the ship just 'wakes up' and they fly off.I think there's incest in this story. There was a bizarre love triangle that barrels its way into the final act, alongside the other plot elements. Some of the characters may or may not be related. It is not clear. Nothing that happens makes any sense. Two characters point guns at each other so often, we forget who's on what side.If I am to watch this simply as an action movie, then guns that always, always miss don't make any visual sense. Everything in this movie is a complete and total mess. This was all CGIed, so such poor choreographing cannot be blamed on budgeting. You would literally have to plan out a digital image story board where over one hundred ships miss, (or seem to explode around the ship not doing it any damage), and you had to story board those corridor scenes. Unforgivably stupid movie on so many levels. Fails on every level.

WARNING: POSSIBLE SPOILERS AHEADEvery once and a while, I like to take a survey of films and television shows of a certain genre. I've done superheroes, vampires, vampire slayers and spies. My current survey is Anime, as it was the one genre of which I hadn't done much watching. I'm currently making my way through Death Note, K and Blue Exorcist. I've actually purchased Akira and frequently watch it on a regular basis. I've seen select episodes of Attack on Titan, Kill la Kill, Sword Art Online, Black Butler and some others. I've finished watching Akame ga Kill, as well. Full Metal Alchemist and its following series are on deck. And, this weekend, I came across this one while looking for something shorter than a series. Glad to discover this one, as I have very little experience with 3D Anime, as well.As a Harlock virgin, I knew nothing about the menga (another entertainment genre I've not dabbled in) or the following anime, so the universe was shiny and new for me. And I enjoyed the presentation, for the most part. Despite needing to go back a few times to keep up with the subtitles if I looked away from my screen, as I enjoy foreign films and shows in their original language, I followed the story pretty well. Due to my slight understanding of Japanese culture, I was able to overlook most of what my fellow reviewers may complain about (i.e. the dramatics (over-the-top-weapons), the focus on the childish romance and the need to maintain balance by closing the circle.) For the con side of coin, the story needed some serious work. It needed to be clearer on who we were to follow: Yama or Harlock. Also, it needed to be clearer in what the endgame was, to present an origin story to "Captain Harlock" or if it was a resistance plot. Granted, it could be both but we needed clarity. Also, the antagonist wasn't real enough or constructed well enough to make the hero work for his title. Besides Isora being competently built as a character, he still was relatively flat. It is a must that we feel for both the hero and the villain. Both Yama and Harlock failed to earn their mantle as hero, despite each of them being built competently and Yama being the most dimensional character in the film, which isn't saying much. The others aren't built at all they seem to exist so that the dialogue doesn't sound monotone. We must care for these characters, the must make us empathize, but none of the characters made me do that, so the core of the film was hollow.On the positive side, the production value was excellent. Despite the re-use of some of the action cuts, the animation was top notch for my first outing. I enjoyed the Gothic cathedral design of the Legion ships and their technology, all the details, from the arch above the bridge to the insignia on the front of their ships spoke to their power and philosophy. My favorite ship, however, is not a surprise. I loved…LOVED…the design of the Arcadia!! It also spoke to volumes as to Harlock's mission and the attitude of his crew. I enjoyed its submarine-like design with its steam-punk flair, down to the old-school ship's wheel. It was rich in history and yet it still fit in the space theme. Its use of black smoke to conceal its arrival opposed the light used by the Legion ships. This juxtaposition highlights the conflict at the center of the universe. The music was well composed and the artistic value was well done. I enjoyed that the female characters were mostly not simply eye candy as most anime pieces tend to present women as. Granted they were not well utilized, but hardly anyone was anyways.As part of my survey of the anime genre, this was a good choice to study. But, due to the core being hollow, I can't say that the film was "well-done." If I needed to watch on a rainy afternoon, this one'll work as it takes you away from your living room and into a new world for a time. Just don't expect to remember it years later as the impression will most likely be fleeting.

From the moment I began to watch I knew the visual design was going to be epic, and it was. The computer Generated animation that I seen in the latest video games was use to make the thing look as real as possible, while creating a Fantasy world that portrays a far futuristic space opera.the story told was really slow and I did not think I would like it because of that but I did. If this was a live-action movie I would think differently most likely (but no way a film studio would shell out the 300 million dollars it would probability take to make this epic melodrama). This story was perfect for animation.It reminds me of movies like Dune and Blade Runner. If you like those movies you should check this one out.

There's a strange tendency in Japanese animation , it often uses cryptic and vague script to give the illusion of depth. Those who are familiar with animes or games would recognize this outdated pattern, the quirky storytelling would seem to be meaningful as the characters brood over a crisis, yet it barely tells anything relevant to the audience. In some cases it might even alienate the viewers.This is the persisting problem with Harlock. It certainly presents good quality visual as it floats across the light show, but the vague narrative hurts the presentation. The dialogues may sound flamboyant, yet it is actually shallow and superficial. Backstory is glossed over while the interactions are deprived of enjoyment. The characters, even though looking attractive, just can't generate enough interest as they banter with foreign jargon.It even resembles teen drama instead of space voyage at times. Development is often crude, only to give dramatic scenes without substance. The main story follows Yama as he tries to catch the titular Harlock. Both of them are not that audience friendly, they are already in lamentation with barely any introduction. It's hard to relate since they look like generic RPG cast with average mellow issue.Then it becomes heavily convoluted as the movie tries to mix strange terms, they sound ominously impaction like dark matter or ancient race, but material is too thin. After a hefty amount of scenery changes, cool poses and starship fights, the movie can barely hold interest for characters and with relatively long runtime it turns into a plodding endeavor.This is Final Fantasy: The Spirit Within all over again, glossy effect and drab boring story. It will be hard to either garner interest for new audience or please old fans with such lackluster narrative, but at least it works for an eye candy.