The gentle sound of ticker and tap rattle against the air inside a humble home along the Manchester countryside. Deeper into the home, up the stairs, and down a short corridor, a bedroom lies ajar, spewing from it a cacophony of soder and hot iron gear grind. Beyond the door, a small child burns away yet another precious summer day with his latest obsession, a new power cell for the engine to his patented "monowheel" bike collecting dust outside in the shed. It's taken months of meticulous work, but with a few more slips of his soldering iron, he feels it's finally ready.
With anticipation burning deep within his eyes, the boy quickly jabs a plug running from a short standing lamp at his deskside to his new power cell. From there it's only a matter of flipping a small switch and suddenly with a delightful click, the cells internal gears go to work.
It takes a few seconds, but soon a series of flickers herald a steady glow within the lamp's bulb, stretching a delighted smile across the boy's face. However, such celebration becomes short lived as an ominous buzz hits the air and the bulb begins to burn brighter and brighter, until finally … POP!
Startled, the boy turns away to shield his eyes, only to discover his power cell overheating and singeing a black mark into his desk. Quickly, he reaches for the cell, burning his finger upon the first few attempts to shut it off. But oh, fifth time's the charm and with a quick bap, he finally powers it down, knocking it off his desk in the process.
In the still of the aftermath, the boy initially stares off with shock at the black circle smoking on top of his desk. But given a moment longer, his smile returns. For regardless of the outcome, he knows progress has been made this day. However, the cost of such progress is soon made known to him when his mother suddenly bursts into the room.
"James Ray Steam! What on earth is going on in here?!"
Ray wants to respond, but with his mother already glowering at the damage wrought by his experiment, he knows all too well the trouble he's in, as well as the swift punishment that is to come.
In 2004, Writer/Director Katsuhiro Otomo, in conjunction with Sunrise and Bandai Visual, bestowed upon the world the steampunk action anime drama that was Steamboy. In this film, young, aspiring inventor, Ray Steam, tinkers away everyday at various would-be inventions with varying success. However, when a package from his grandfather containing the mysterious Steam Ball arrives at his doorstep, it puts him dead in the sights of both the British Government as well as the infamous O'Hara Foundation, pinning him in a tense conflict that threatens to change the course of England's future forever. But the question of whether or not it will be for the better or for the worse, is anyone's guess.
Without a shadow of a doubt, between jaw dropping animation, thrilling action sequences, an imaginative steampunk alternate history world, as well as a star studded voice acting cast, this film truly is a "must see" experience, but in my opinion, only once.
Starting with the presentation, the animation team for Steamboy knocks it out of the park and then some. Animation of this caliber makes the film feel like it could have come out today, say for a few mildly spotty 3D animation shots. When everything slows down, one's eyes can't help but delightfully meander through every gorgeous frame this film sets before them. And when it cranks the Nos, be ready for some of the most stellar animated renderings brought to life. The train sequence in the beginning alone makes the movie worth the watch, but if there are any such thoughts that the film may have blown its creative dollar solely on the first act, you'd be dead wrong. Wherever the movie may lack, the visuals are always there to hold your attention. But let's not forget the unbelievable cast that was somehow pulled together for what at the time was the single most expensive Japanese animated film in history.
Leading the charge on the performance end of things, we have Sir Patrick Stewart (Dr. Lloyd Steam), Alfred Molina (Eddie Steam), Kari Walgren (Scarlett O’Hara), and Anna Paquin (Ray Steam). Now there are a handful of delightful side characters that offer a fair bit of contribution, but by and large, the four previously mentioned make up the bulk of the screen time. However, despite their efforts, all performances are held back by lackluster material. Don’t get me wrong. It’s not a matter of delivery on the actors’ parts, but rather a lack of substance within the dialogue itself. It offers enough to explain the characters on a surface level, move the plot forward, as well as spin and handful of great themes the film wishes to evoke, but beyond that, there isn't much of anything between or from the characters. But like I said, they are not completely devoid of substance; just lacking in it.
The long and short of it all goes as follows. Dr. Lloyd Steam believes science should never be used for nefarious purposes and should only improve civilization. Eddie Steam believes that there is no progress without sacrifice and has no problem implementing technology independently of the government and using it for more dangerous applications, such as tools of war. Scarlett is a spoiled, aristocrat type that is only there to act as a mild love interest for Ray, his damsel in distress towards the end, and possibly a soft foil for him as well, maybe. And finally, we have Ray, who, if I’m being honest, isn’t a very active protagonist. He does do things throughout the movie and have some relative bearing on the plot at points, but mostly he comes across as the object at stake rather than the titular hero.
To offer further clarity, Ray is portrayed as this idealistic, young inventor, who throughout the film is constantly pushed and pulled between his grandfather Lloyd’s and his father Eddie’s ideology. It’s almost as if the whole adventure is more or less a battle for his soul, which is certainly an aspect of a protagonist in many films, but in this one, Ray feels devoid of agency and personality to an extent. He’s hardly a major player in the ending conflict and is just sort of there. On top of that, I don’t believe he has any overly driving strong needs or wants and thus gives him and the film a severe lack of anything emotional to latch on to.
So to cap off my rambling, this film’s story is hardly anything to write home about. As stated before, there is somewhat of a battle for Ray’s soul, which coincides with the dueling ideologies of his father and grandfather, but it never feels like a real conversation of any kind, making the film feel a bit lifeless. The film seems far more concerned with spectacle, which it has in spades and which carries the film through its overly bombastic ending. However, by the third act, it feels like things are just happening and characters are making choices for the sake of progressing to the end, making the finale a nearly incoherent crescendo of beauty and madness.
I can’t say the film is bad, nor that it lacks heart. Clearly a lot of love and surely money went into this film, all of which paid off in a few key areas. But with a lack of compelling characters and story, everything hinges on the action and visuals, which as dazzling as they are, can’t sustain the film to a fulfilling conclusion. But that’s not to say it wasn’t enjoyable, because it was. I just probably wouldn’t enjoy it more than once.
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