I saw Akira on the big screen in 1989 with my friend Fiona, and most of that night is still lodged clearly in my brain. Akira was the first animated Japanese film that I’d ever seen. I loved the speed, the insanity and the screaming refrain of TEEETSSSSSSUUUUUOOOOO!!!! AKKKKIRRRRRRRRAAAA!!!
So Steamboy – 8 years and $20 million in the making – was a pretty bitter disappointment. Technically excellent and with some promising opening action scenes, the film ends up being too long and too boring. Alfred Molina and Anna Paquin deliver such excruciatingly bad Manchester accents that you suspect the director did something very, very bad to them at some point. Patrick Stewart’s attempt is no great shakes either, but holds up against whatever it is the other two are doing.
The story is all about mad scientists and steam. The reason that society advanced beyond an exclusively steam based technology is clearly spelt out over a period of what seems like several years – steam based gadgetry is just too dull for any society to sustain a meaningful interest in.
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