Here are some frame enlargements from the actual film: Cosmo Tigers in formation at the Battle of Mars! Cosmo Tigers engage Gamilus warships at the Battle of Mars! Construction of the Earth's last Space Battleship, Yamato! The Yamato casts off for her voyage to the planet Iscandar! The last hope of mankind, Yamato, leaves Earth orbit! The Yamato attacked from all sides by the Gamilus forces! Powering up the Yamato's ultimate weapon: The Wave Motion Gun! The Wave Motion Gun chamber is compressed! The Wave Motion Gun is fired! The Gamilus task force is utterly annihilated! Robot Analyzer springs into action on the planet Gamilus! Analyzer fires upon the hordes of Gamilus soldiers! The final conflict... Can the Yamato survive? Source:TV Dogatch
Well, the reviews are in. And, 36 years after it's first airing on Japanese TV, what we have here is essentially a $22 million dollar remake of what British newspaper "Teh Grauniad" once called "The best TV show ever made" ... "Battlestar Galactica". Take Starbuck ... sorry, Yuki Mori, an ace fighter-pilot with a severe case of penis envy that can only be cured by sleeping with a member of Johnny's Jimsho. SMAP member Takuya Kimura is happy to oblige, after which she decides to give up flying for good and stay in the kitchen. This is practically a reversal of her role in the original. The 'acting' is wooden at best. Characters ONLY MOVE when it is their turn to speak (two options here: scream or speak melodramatically) after which they become seemingly paralysed again. Is this a nod to the marshal style of the original? Who cares ... It is long (two&1/2 hrs), spectacular (well, duh), and boring. http://yamato-movie.net/index.html
This "review" seems to be lifted from Cristoph Mark's which appeared in the English edition of the [i}Daily Yomiyuri[/i]: http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/features/ar ... 002172.htm Still, Mark's mostly negative review concerns itself with the writing, acting and drama of the film, but its obvious that the reviewer doesn't understand or know enough about the franchise, and relies mostly upon comparing it to the recent BATTLESTAR GALACTICA redux. Of course, these comparisons are an easy crutch for a reviewer, much like how everyone compared the original GALACTICA to STAR WARS. I saw the film, too, and I felt that it was much better than he is giving it credit for — and as a YAMATO fan, I didn't feel it missed the mark. It's especially ironic since (according to legend) the late producer, Yoshinobu Nishizaki, who created YAMATO, was asked by Glen A. Larson — when he was being sued by 20th Century Fox over GALACTICA being too similar to STAR WARS — to speak on his defense. Larson asked Nishizaki to recognize that GALACTICA lifted from YAMATO and not STAR WARS! Nishizaki found the whole incident to be rather amusing. It seems that 32 years later, the two series are still connected in their rebirths! Here are two far more positive reviews: http://www.otakuusamagazine.com/SearchA ... _3908.aspx http://www.scifijapan.com/articles/2010 ... d-tragedy/ (Too bad the latter reviewer cribbed my same-day comment, when I saw the film at the AFM screening in Santa Monica on November 6th, from my Facebook posts: "Director Takashi Yamazaki does for YAMATO what JJ Abrams did for STAR TREK!")
Here's a positive review of SPACE BATTLESHIP YAMATO by the Japan Times' redoubtable Mark Schilling: http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/ ... 126a1.html
zOMG, such barefaced plagiarism! This Daily Nomyuri you speak of shall be hearing from my lawyers Sir!!! (Although I understand they're busy building up a case against COOP atm :p)
They ring similar, that's all I'm saying — unless, perhaps, you're Christoph Mark. Then, if so, I owe you a kick in the balls.
