Rachel Manija Brown wrote this review.
Steamboy looks great in the trailers. The camera swoops through an impossibly detailed animated world filled with elaborate machinery emitting clouds of exquisitely rendered fog: steampunk in sepia.
So you rush to buy your ticket. Eagerly you sink down into your seat. And then the actual movie begins. You know. The part where the characters start talking to each other, and the audience starts expecting a plot. Uh-oh.
Katsuhiro Otomo, who wrote and directed the anime Steamboy, is best-known for having written and directed the seminal anime film Akira, which was based on Otomo’s manga of the same name. Many eager young fanboys were sucked into anime fandom after seeing Akira. I saw it too, as an eager young fangirl, and was almost spat out.
In Akira, Tokyo became post-apocalyptic some years back when a mutant kid went insane and used his psychic powers to destroy the city. Scientists trying to recreate those powers in a more controllable manner are shocked, shocked when Tetsuo, the biker boy they give powers to, goes insane and starts destroying Tokyo. The remainder of the film consists of Tetsuo rampaging through the city, all the other characters rushing about shouting “TETSUOOOOOOOOOO!!!!”, and stuff blowing up. Then there’s a big, incomprehensible apocalyptic light show. The end.
Akira was amazing to look at and certainly an eye-opener for anyone who had never seen anime before, but the plot was stupid when it wasn’t vacuous, the dialogue was functional at best, and it was impossible to like or care about any of the characters.
Steamboy, which has even better and more visually astonishing animation and art design than Akira, suffers from the exact same problems with story, dialogue, and characterization. Only more so.
It’s set in an alternate Victorian London, and for a while I was content to luxuriate in the fabulous detail of the animation. It’s like a sepia postcard come to 3-D life. The story begins as an appropriately low-key introduction to this painterly world. Ray Steam, a boy whose father and grandfather are both inventors, is sent a “steam ball” by his grandfather. It’s a power source the size of the bowling ball, and everyone wants it. A witty chase sequence ensues after suited thugs come to get the steam ball, and Ray escapes on a steam powered unicycle, and then transfers to a train, which in turn is attacked by a blimp. That’s the first twenty minutes, and it’s charming.
Then the movie goes to hell. If you see the subtitled version — the dub is cut, and for once I agree with that decision — this is virtually everything that happens in the remaining 106 minutes, though not necessarily in this order:
- Someone gets the steam ball from Ray.
- Ray gets the steam ball back.
- An adult makes a long, megalomaniacal speech.
- An elaborate door slides open, revealing either a) an astounding piece of machinery, b) a jaw-dropping interior, c) a character making a dramatic entrance.
- A piece of steam-powered machinery malfunctions and jets of steam hiss out.
- Someone fixes the machinery by opening a valve or closing a valve.
- The token female character, a spoiled brat named Scarlet, wanders around aimlessly.
- Something blows up.
Repeat each of these events, in any order, about fifty times. The end.
You think I’m exaggerating for comic effect, but I’m not. The door shot? Minimum twenty times. Valves being opened or closed to save the day? Minimum twenty-five.
There are no interesting characters — Ray’s a generic Plucky Kid — and approximately one-fourth of the total dialogue consists of “Open the valve!” “Close the valve!” and “I’ll open this valve, and you close that valve!” Though there’s some amusing commentary on the military-industrial complex, the themes and politics of the film are simplistic at best. As for the plot, it’s all about stuff blowing up.
If you want to see a semi-steampunk anime set in an alternate Europe which has complex and likable male and female characters, thoughtful political commentary, and an intricate plot, watch the TV series Fullmetal Alchemist. (If you hit the “subtitle” button on your DVD remote rather than choosing “subtitle” from the DVD menu, you will get accurately translated English subtitles rather than a transcription of the censored and dumbed-down dub track. Or you could just watch the fansubs.)
But if you want to feast upon shots of beautifully animated steam-powered machinery, valves opening and closing, and stuff blowing up at great length, Steamboy will give you all you’ve ever wanted of that. And more. Lots more.
(Steamboy Committee/Sony/Tristar, 2004)
