Review of Steamboy

Steamboy does seem to have been overly criticised in every review I've seen. In my opinion the film should be seen more as a family friendly adventure movie rather than comparing it to 'Akira' or 'Memories'. In this genre it can be fairly considered.

The story in particular has been attacked by fanboys. If you do a story vs. animation quality argument then there is a massive imbalance between the two. But it's not a bad story. I always compare heavily criticized stories against something like 'Pirates of The Caribbean' Which is largely worshipped, but has one of the weakest, messiest scripts I've ever seen.

Interestingly the main struggle is between three members of the same family, rather than a hero and random villains. Also, to it's credit it's not immediately obvious who has good intentions, which kept me guessing. Toward the end of the movie the early excitement and momentum is lost to a rather slow and drawn out ending. Which does leave things on a down note, but doesn't ruin the movie.

Steamboy does seem like a bit of an odd choice for someone like Otomo to make. But, Otomo's not following in anyone else's path so all credit to him.