Tetsujin 28 - The Movie [2005] [DVD]

Its a bad live action movie. People on youtube do better cgi. I thought this was the animated film and bought it thinking I would get to see some awesome fight scenes.Godzilla from the 50's animation would be a good comparison. Excellent seller however. Perfect condition and fast postage.

Tetsujiin the movie, got to say this sets the way for robot movie & seeing this, glad I did. Like the anime versions by manga, as Live anime.....AMAZING!!! Glad to have to my collection!

Made in 2005, 'Tetsujin 28' is a live-action movie of the early Japanese manga and anime series which is probably better known to western audiences as 'Gigantor'. Created by Mitsuteru Yokoyama, the story of the giant remote-controlled robot and the boy who operates him first saw print in 1956, and perhaps reflects Japan's interest in the emergent technologies of the post-war period and their influence upon the newly reconstructed 'consumer' societies. Which boy of the period would not have wanted a remote-controlled robot of his own? 'Tetsujin 28' also kick-started the giant robot, or 'mecha', genres of Otaku culture. Shotaro, the boy protagonist, has lost his father whose spirit survives, in an oblique way, through the figure of 'Tetsujin 28', the giant robot which was both his father's last creation and his legacy to his son.Aside from there being scenes where the absence of a Hollywood budget does show, the only real flaw in this film is having Shotaro react physically to punches that are actually being delivered to his remote-controlled robot. This makes little enough sense in itself and it also slows down the pace of what should be the film's most taut and climactic scenes. It might also be true that one or two of the more emotional scenes were slightly beyond the range of the young actor who played Shotaro, who is otherwise good throughout.Neverthless, I do feel that 'Tetsujin 28' has a lot to recommend it. The film is generally well structured and a number of the individual scenes are both well directed and well played, making them quite memorable to this particular viewer, at least. The film does have a good visual style, which is infused with an understanding of both Japanese and western popular culture, and which also exhibits the precision and attention to detail that one has come to associate with Japanese pop culture, in particular. I also thought the elements of comedy were quite funny. Tokyo's chief of police and his elderly chain-smoking subordinate might have stepped straight out of a Japanese version of 'Dad's Army'. And I did find it quite amusing to see the Japanese using what might be regarded as western stereotypes of asian culture to send up some of their own characters. In this vein, I particularly enjoyed the old boy who served as assistant to Shotaro's grandfather and who rides around, with his chauffeur, in a pristine Japanese saloon car of the nineteen-sixties. That little ensemble reminded me of an ageing Green Hornet and Kato. The film has been made with that kind of knowing and gently self-parodying sensibility, and this does add much to its charm.So, although not flawless, 'Tetsujin 28' is certainly good enough to be worth watching, and much of it is good enough to be worth remembering, too.

Now normally with Amazon the reviewing practice is that whilst one reviewer gives a particular film a one-star review the next in line gives a five star review whilst implying that reviewer number 1 is in some way lacking in insight, understanding or mental faculties.Not this time - Mr Kim Lui above is on the button. For a children's movie based around such exciting and stimulating original material to be as dull as this is unforgivable. Imagine if, say, Peter Jackson had created a film built around Tom Bombadil, the inner political manoeuvrings in Rohan and the evolution of poetry in Middle Earth and you're close to feeling the torpor that this film induces.It is obvious that the makers thought they would do for the source material what the Shusuke Kaneko did for Gamera in the mid-90s, but failed dismally. It lacks any vitality at all - long sections go by with no action and when it comes, still nothing happens. In the Gamera films we see battles, massive property damage and monsters screeching at one another - here the two robots simply swivel their wrists at one another then seize up, as if instantly rusted to the spot. The cast is pretty repellent - the film is cursed with the most obnoxious juvenile lead since Scrappy Doo first opened his mouth - one so dislikeable that you'll be rooting for the school bullies when, an hour into the film, they beat the living tar out of him on the understandable grounds that he had it coming.But the adults are no better - there's a completely interchangeable pair of pretty girls, one of whom is supposedly a cop with an attitude and the other is the world's most advanced robo-scientist. However, since the actresses in question have chosen to respectively pout and grin inanely they fail to make the slightest impact. The two opposing scientists appear to have been told that they should dress up like the Thompson twins for dramatic irony but whilst one has gone to the Tintin books the other, to hilarious effect, has sourced the lame 1980s pop-group. That, at least, would explain why neither of them has a look anyone remotely sane would adopt.This isn't worth even a couple of quid being punted at it - remember you'll also lose two hours and your will to live.Avoid.