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| 7. moskun
It's depressing how close to being really good this movie is.
It's got great animation, gorgeous music, and an entirely serviceable, if compressed,
plot. I'm not opposed to the reworking of Escaflowne at all, but at times
the characters change their minds or do something unexpected on a total whim.
Twenty more minutes or so of solid character development would have made this
a solid flick. As it stands, it's a very good looking, great sounding medicore
movie. |
| 6. Mechaman
 
The big problem with fantasy films is that they need to be
very long in order to be good. You need to use time to establish the characters
AND present a whole new world with rules of its own to the audience. Escaflowne,
even though its creators have clearly tried very hard, is simply too short to
tell its epic story properly. The result is that the character development feels
rushed and unconvincing and there are too many characters for you to really get
to know any of them. The movie IS worth seeing, however, for its rich and well
designed fantasy world and its excellent soundtrack. |
| 5. Olmanek
So perhaps it deserves more than one star, that is presuming
you haven't seen the series before hand, this freakish nihilistic self pitying
depressed inexcusable pathetic wretched bastard-child of a movie should never
have been made, not only do our wonderful characters come to be deformed into
hideous monstrosities, but the animation style become just as deformed to give
a good surface representation of the evil that has happened. The people responsible
for this, ought to be jabbed repeatedly with a spoon just so that they can appreciate
the sick torture they put me through. The only good thing about this entire movie
is the hauntingly beautiful theme song by Maaya Sakamoto entitled Yubiwa,
which, on its own is crushing, but then attached to this beyond measurable depressing
movie makes it quite hard to breathe at some moments. Avoid this movie and watch
the series, if anyone tries to get you to watch the movie run as fast as you can,
or destroy the medium that the movie is on. |
| 4. Leliel
This bastardization shares more than just a name with its televised
cousin, it has the same great audio-visuals and the characters have the same names
and general appearances. Same setting. Why do I hate this movie? It has had the
very soul slashed out of it. The main characters are turned into hollow angsty
imitations of their former selves and get thrown into an action movie. There's
a lot of wasted potential here, but the Escaflowne world was already masterfully
crafted. 26 episodes would never condense to a feature-length movie in any case,
and this "retelling" is a horrible blemish on the Escaflowne
name. There isn't anything to make you care about what happens. As an action movie,
it would stand on its own; something abusing an already established setting like
this is just unforgivable. Don't try to "save time" by watching this
instead of the original series. |
| 3. End
of Hearts
Oh God, what a boring movie. This is nothing from what I had
expected. I have never seen the Escaflowne series, that butchered FOX
version does not count, and this movie probably represents nothing the original
Escaflowne would be. Hitomi is summoned to Gaea because she no longer cares
about life or whatever and the main villain, I have no idea what his name is because
he’s not developed much at all anyway, wants to use her to accomplish to
destroy everything so there would be no more sadness. Sorry if that’s wrong,
but I really got bored. Escaflowne did make up with some stellar animation
but I couldn’t stand the music. The main vocal song was played six times
throughout the movie and they never once made it run the whole way through. The
action scenes were pretty good, but I never imagined that mecha in Escalfowne
move so slow. I mean Gundam slow, like in MS 8th TEAM slow. If you’ve
never seen the the original series like me, stay far away or you’ll get the
impression that this represents the series which I’m sure it does not at
all. |
| 2. bremmi
 
The Escaflowne movie, I think, would probably seem pretty
strange to the viewer who has not seen the TV series before, even though it is,
really, watchable by itself. The storyline is, at times, a bit lacking, but what
it lacks in storyline it makes up for in visual and audio effects. Not surprisingly,
the music in the movie (by Youko Kanno) is the best part. Hitomi, very
depressed in her own life, is summoned to Gaia where she has the chance to save
that world from depression and destruction not unlike her own. While I would rather
watch the TV series if I wanted some deep plot, the movie holds its own quite
well and is very sweet and enjoyable. |
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