For the most part when I review any media I like to go in as blind as possible so I can get my purest
impressions untarnished by the opinions of others. While this is
hardly a solid rule, it is for my used bookstore purchases.
Such is the case with today's feature, Odin: Starlight Mutiny,which I
had never heard of. To be quite honest even had I know of this
film's poor reception and the strong pedigree of it's producers; I
still would have not been prepared for the true awfulness contained
on this disc.
The story, if it can even be called
that,is an utter mess that is littered with plot holes. Okay, I'll be
nice and say that the title is indeed accurate. There is a planet
called Odin and there is a mutiny on the spaceship called Starlight.
Everything else like coherence and pacing are left to the winds in
favor of terrible metal music and odd animation. Events seem to happen at random and there is this incessant prattling about sailors being the greatest. The sailing theme is used mostly to justify the crew acting like reckless fools.
They explain that Earth has developed space travel via laser propelled sails and the titular
Starlight is unique in that it isn't reliant on such a stupid method. The technology on both sides is poorly explained and the cast is surprisingly knowledgeable about the alien technology that they've had little exposure to. Characters throw around high grade techno-babble that a
person with a first grade education can tell is complete malarkey.
Once the plot gets going,in a loose sense, it barrels into complete
idiocy.
Apparently the Norse tales of Ragnarok
were inspired by the planet Odin's destruction,yes really. These
aliens made first contact ages ago and that's why we have Norse mythology, I guess. Then they made some super computer that decides
organic life is useless and decides to go the genocide route on them.They
blow up the MCP knock-off at the cost of a few casualties on their side and that's
the end. They were clearly expecting a sequel had this
movie not bombed,mostly because people realized that the latter half
could have been avoided had anyone had half a brain.
The mutiny promised in the title
happens due to the fact that the government called them back and they
wanted to find the planet Odin. At no point is it mentioned that they
wont be able to complete this mission at a later date or that they'll
even be pulled from the crew. Nope they do it because they need to
prove themselves. So they hijack the ship and run this dangerous
mission in a ship that has the bare amount of armaments,they have to rig a few lasers to give themselves a fighting
chance. Instead of going back later,better prepared against an army
they know is technologically advanced with superior weapons. To say
this is a stupid idea is an understatement but considering these
characters this is the best they can do.
I'm not even going to mention most of
the cast as they are so one note and bland that it could have been a
crew of rocks and it would have made a difference. However,main
character Akira is a walking example of how not to write a chracter. Our introduction to him is watching the launch of the
Starlight,lamenting how he could have been on the crew had he not
punched an instructor. I honestly figured he was either a minor
antagonist or just a throw away character,not the hero. There is
nothing wrong with a protagonist that does out of line actions
provided they are justified or it's part of him growing as a
character. However it isn't and his brash attitude is treated as
lovable and heroic despite the fact that had he taken a minute to
think about his actions; He would have realized how pointless that
mutiny was,and probably avoided the needless death.
I usually don't talk to much about art
anymore because I can only say it looks nice and flows well so many
times,except here it doesn't. The character design is generic
complementing the writing perfectly I might add. Everything glows with
this weird irradiated looks, like they animated this while in
Chernobyl. On the sound side, nothing works either. Many of the big
set piece scenes are given this ridiculous hair metal soundtrack that
doesn't work. The Japanese voice cast does as well as it can given
the script, specials note to someone shouting “St. Elmo's
Fire” unprovoked during a scene. I genuinly don't know if that was in the script or someone did some impromptu riffing.
This is a movie that doesn't even know
the meaning of the word “work” which is weird since this studio
is responsible for the Space Battleship Yamato series. The animation
is blinding to the point of almost inducing epilepsy,the soundtrack
never fits, and the story make little to no
sense and hopes the techno-babble will distract you. This movie is so
painfully bad I had to do three separate sittings just to be able to
stomach it. Not much left to say expect don't get suckered like I did
into blowing six dollars on this.
Till Next Time:Stay Positive.
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