review: harlock

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+=================
+ Captain Harlock
+=================
+:CreationDate: 2014-03-19 12:04:26
+:Id: anime/review/captain-harlock
+:tags: - anime
+       - review
+:rating: 3
+:original: http://www.easternkicks.com/reviews/space-pirate-captain-harlock
+
+After "`Space Battleship Yamato <../yamato/>`_", another one of
+MATSUMOTO Leiji's (松本零士) works gets a movie reboot: *the* space
+pirate, Captain Harlock.
+
+Harlock first appeared on television in 1978, saving the Earth of 2978
+from invading aliens called Mazons. That Earth was dying, its
+resources long depleted, dependent on imports of food and materials
+from other colonised planets; all work was done by machines, and the
+population was kept docile through subliminal messages in every
+entertainment broadcast. Harlock had rebelled against the world's
+governments, and had taken to the skies to live free, with a small
+crew, on the Arcadia. He and all his shipmates had been branded as
+traitors and criminals, but they still fought against the invaders,
+because they still loved Earth and cared for its people.
+
+This movie opens with a voice-over that sets a different premise: in
+an unspecified far future, humanity left Earth, but they ended up with
+stagnating and dying societies spread over the Galaxy. They tried
+going back to Earth, but there were too many people, and a war
+ensued. To end the war, Earth was declared an untouchable sanctuary,
+nobody was allowed to go back on it, and all the various colonies were
+essentially left to wither and die. Harlock fights the sort-of
+government in charge of keeping people out of Earth, because he has a
+plan to allow everyone to go back. His whole motivation is a bit
+unclear, and this Harlock is not the same one we see in the various
+animated series and movies: I'm not going into details, because I
+don't want to spoil the only interesting plot twist, but let's just
+say that he's not the paladin of justice and freedom he'd like to
+appear. I'm not sure if Matsumoto had any part in this change, but it
+felt like an unneeded dirtying of the character.
+
+What's more upsetting, though, is that Harlock is not even the
+protagonist of the movie: it's Yama, a new character, who drives the
+story and through whose eyes we get to know all the other
+characters. And with Yama rests my biggest complaint: he's the most
+blatant `Mary Sue </mary-sue/>`_ I've ever seen on film. He manages to
+get accepted on board by uttering a single word; as soon as he mans
+the guns everybody notices how good he is; he saves the Arcadia from
+destruction *twice*; the resolution of the whole plot is in his
+hands. I mean, I understand the viewer's need for a character to
+identify with, but this is a bit extreme. Yama has one big redeeming
+feature, though: he is able to change his opinion in the face of
+updated information; when he realises that the beliefs that informed
+his previous actions did not match reality, he uses the new
+information to take different actions. Too often I see character who
+keep doing the same things even when it doesn't make sense anymore!
+
+Another, minor but not small, problem I have with this film is the
+excessive use of off-screen commentary (I can't really call it
+"narration", apart from the first few minutes when it establishes the
+setting), of long expositions by the various characters, and of
+useless technobabble. On this last point, I want to underscore that
+Matsumoto very rarely seemed to care about how his science-fictional
+creations worked: they just did, in the exact way that served the
+story; he didn't need to dazzle the audience with random big words.
+
+On the plus side, the film is visually quite good, with very good use
+of 3D, spectacular battles, and well detailed faces and costumes
+(let's ignore the way the characters move, animated as they are
+without motion capture…).
+
+If you can track down the first TV series, I suggest you watch at
+least the first and the last episode, to get a feel of Harlock as he
+was conceived. If you want something more recent, try Cosmo Warrior
+Zero. If instead you like your heroes very, very flawed, and you can
+ignore some shaky characterisation, or maybe you're looking mostly for
+engaging space battles, you'll appreciate this movie much more than
+I did.
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