User Reviews

The movie at its core was beautiful, though I was only able to get the translated part that made absolutely no sense at times. This had amazing artwork and colors that send you spiraling through a more vampiric/steampunk/futuristic/pirate feel. So much to it but, yet it kinda fits some how.

The Visual Effects were stunning but, what about the story and its animation? Well the animation was good just not great.

Things happen to fast and the characters just never feel real or believable. It does have that unstoppable anime feel that you might also find in final fantasy movies. All their movies were also visually stunning, just hard to take things on a believable scale that measure up to us humans, so at times you can feel as though their a bit too distant.

Characters are usually something you want to feel or believe in. Having some sort of connection either to hate or like them. In this movie they didn't provide that and instead just threw you in the story expecting that you could make sense of it all. Even when characters die I could feel nothing for them since their purpose in the story was so small.

In the beginning they would simply throw you a character and still they would flip from one to another, then again without slowing down just a little to get you used to the main plot of the whole film.

Which I still could not understand....

Visually - 9/10

Story - 2/10

Realism - 5/10

Pace - Roadrunner Fast (Too hard to follow and so you kinda had to say "eh" and shrug it off just so you could watch the rest of it)

The human race has spread to the stars but, having reached 500 billion, they have overpopulated the universe, so they have all decided to move back to the Earth. The problem is that the organisation in charge of everyone has decided No. However, there is this space pirate called Harlock who has his own plans.

This is based on a manga which I haven't read. It is a CGI feature, and it looks great.

And it's a muddled mess which hasn't been thought through. It's frustrating sitting through stuff which looks so good, asking yourself questions about things which are illogical or worse. Next time, get the script sorted out first.

***Spoiler Alerts***

The first thing you will likely notice about this movie is the absolutely GORGEOUS animation. And well, that's about all you'll see. I've not watched a lot of Matsumoto's work, but I'e read enough to know this isn't the true backstory for some of the main characters. In general they tried to make a series from the 80's that could very well take weeks of binge reading and cut it down to about 2 hours. Which will not cut it. If you are already investing some $300 million on a movie, it means you have enough money to make a 3-4 parter. Because that's how long it would take to inform the average Joe of everything that's going on in the universe. Because aside from that, nothing would be memorable. If i hadn't read or seen some of the manga or anime beforehand, I would think that this started out as Star Wars in the beginning and throughout, combined with Halo 2, with Final Fantasy, and combined with Cowboy Bebop. Here's the story for you poor confused souls, 1) Big war happened because of too many births. Apparently they found this out when the human population reached 500+ billion. 2) Resentful from the way he was treated and cast away from home, Captain Harlock uses the power of the dark matter, basically super nukes made from the alien's essence, and decides to rid the Earth of all life. 3) Ridden to the core in guilt he flies around the galaxy looking for a way to just end all suffering because he royally f*cked the Earth up, so he finds some 100 galaxy sized nukes that was basically like doing an easter egg hunt inside an empty barrel. 4) Kiddo from the basically Star Wars Empire (Here its called the Gaia Coalition) decides to try to make his unappreciative brother happy for a mistake he did as a kid, and plays a saboteur. He becomes attached to a pirate crew (pirate being used loosely because they're only after the big galaxy nukes) and decides, "Imma be a pirate!" and plot twist happens. 5) Plot twist happened and after a small discussion with his older brother, he decides after having a flashback of an accident that happened when he was like 8-10 years old and only wanting to do his mom proud that he will finish what started. Plot twist happens again. 6) After this plot twist he finds himself unable to kill the captain so he decides to take a stroll on Earth, somehow still inhabitable by one person because a patch of flowers are still alive, but don't worry about the ash and debris or smoke filling you up, and picks some flowers while an interstellar war is going on. This i guess was a way to show the captain life still lives, but life adapts. It doesn't mean that that flower is a symbol that the Earth is safe again. 7) So after the heart-felt moment between Captain Harlock and his flower, we decide its time to take back the ship. Well that goes about as awfully as they could've planned, as the entire Coalitions fleet is there, and they got a toy still functioning after one use in 100 years. Looks like an exact replica of a Halo (video game) ring. And it fires what appears to be the Death Star on meth. And it misses the Earth AND the Arcadia (The ship). Threads that tiny space needle. But if the ship auto repairs why do they ever fear it being completely destroyed? In fact the original pirates of the Arcadia were fearless freedom fighters that often mindlessly obeyed Harlocks orders. But they cowered time after time in some really basic concepts of being rebels. Fighting the government. If you made it to the end of this movie still wondering what happened, you weren't alone. The movie made an impression like it was Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of The Black Pearl, if it was in Will Turner's POV the whole time, whereas it mentions very little about Captain Harlock, his crew, or even the main kiddo here that cant decide which side to be on. The movie failed to even deliver to me memorable names, because aside from Harlock,I hardly remember any of them. It was space fight, go find the big bomb detonator that for some reason is in plain sight, another space fight except a little less action, and then finish with the kiddo becoming the captain even though the original came back to life from the powers that be. Overall a very boring and time consuming experience, but worth a watch to allow all these greedy game devs or 3D animation studios that top quality graphics can NOT cover a crap story. Because I remember the manga in the 80's featured a lot more depth. This is like the shadow of the real story. If that much.

Like almost all the Italian kids of my generation I grew up watching Matsumoto's series like Battleship Yamato, Galaxy 999 and of course Captain Harlock.

I was surprised to see that a movie had been developed and I had nothing about it, I saw the trailer on TV and even if I'm not a CGI fan at all I decided to give it a chance...well I wasn't disappointed.

The plot is simple, doesn't have anything to deal with the previous TV series of the 70s, the 80s or Arcadia of you Youth, the Endless Odyssey or any other OAV, it seems that the Japanese have never been interested in developing a consistent continuity or mythology of any kind while they are more focused in re-creating the same..."atmosphere" perhaps is the right word. Here we have the same basic ingredients of Harlock's history: he's a pirate, an ex captain of a military ship in a previous war that he lost, he fights for freedom and for Earth, a place from where he is banned (this time everybody is banned, for the matter), his dear friend Toshio is dead, his crew consist in outcasts and among them his right hand is Key and left hand Yattaran. I don;t know why in the FAQ it is written that his love interest in the previous movie was Esmeralda because as far as I remember she was Toshio's girlfriend and the alien Mime is again the woman who dedicated her life to him, the last of her race that here we are informed were the Nebelung,who possessed an esoteric technology that is the center of the story. The main antagonists are the gerontocrats of the Gaia Coalition who banned Humanity from Earth, some real life references to aging population and the decline of Civilisation are new and interesting elements that reflects some themes of our actual times especially in Japan (I guess) but also in Western Europe.

Without giving too many spoilers the story makes relative sense until the end when something unclear happens: on one side it seems there is a cosmic regeneration ongoing and the baton is given to Yama (that here like in the original series always looked a "young" Harlock) but in reality it doesn't seem that Herlock's original plan was carried on...perhaps the movie has been cut for the European release or there has been something lost in translation ( for instance certain dialogs of Z Gundan in Italian or English don't make any sense at all,it seems the characters are discussing about Philosophy during a duel), I don't know but however the romantic atmosphere of the movie has not been disturbed, at least for me.

Talking about CGI: this incarnation of the Arcadia is cool but from the outside I preferred the original blue version or the green one of Arcadia of my youth, the turrets and the interiors have a real mechanical feel that rarely CGI can give (I think about the "fakeness" of Transformers first), the ship of the Coalition have a beautiful retro' style that seems taken from Alien and Aliens, the 3D works great too, without feeling too intrusive.

CGI as usual fails portraying realistically humans: Harlock and Yama look a little like Big Jim dolls, Key on the other side being a woman and "smooth" is more similar to a real actress covered with make as it is fashion today, of course the "best" looking character is the Alien Mime, much better than anything we have seen in Cameron's Avatar. All the character and costume design are faithful to Matsumoto's original design, so men and women are slender and ethereal, the hairstyles are pleasantly 70s (Kay looks like a Norwegian model of that era) as well as the costumes (I want Yama's leather jacket! Or at least, it looks like leather), it is surprising what the Japanese can do with a budget of just 30 million dollars, the American directors and Hollywood managers should watch this movie, they can learn one thing or two.

In conclusion, I liked the movie, in comparison to the Hollywood's crap-fest we are watching on screen in the last years it is a masterpiece, the weak points are the traditional "Matsumoto" flaws: a certain lack of consistency, no real relation with the other media, evanescent plot, but if you are familiar with him and generally speaking the world of Japanese Anime you have to deal with that.

Another movie that is completely destroyed by the poor quality of the chain of events. The absurd numbers of side changes the main character has, the big speech from the captain that clearly goes to another movie, the commercial poses of everybody, the plot, the plot itself is a huge waste of time. Character develop is a joke in this movie.

In other hand, the visual photographic scenes are very good, that brings the necessary balance to watch this movie till the end.

It seems the tried to make a change to normal workflow, by putting the main fighting scene at the middle of the movie, in an action film that is a big risk if you don't have enough plot to make a comeback. This film just fill the space after the fight with useless words, with character introduction, its a mess....

I would NOT recommend this to friends

WARNING: POSSIBLE SPOILERS AHEAD

Every once and a while, I like to take a survey of films and television shows of a certain genre. I've done superheroes, vampires, vampire slayers and spies. My current survey is Anime, as it was the one genre of which I hadn't done much watching. I'm currently making my way through Death Note, K and Blue Exorcist. I've actually purchased Akira and frequently watch it on a regular basis. I've seen select episodes of Attack on Titan, Kill la Kill, Sword Art Online, Black Butler and some others. I've finished watching Akame ga Kill, as well. Full Metal Alchemist and its following series are on deck. And, this weekend, I came across this one while looking for something shorter than a series. Glad to discover this one, as I have very little experience with 3D Anime, as well.

As a Harlock virgin, I knew nothing about the menga (another entertainment genre I've not dabbled in) or the following anime, so the universe was shiny and new for me. And I enjoyed the presentation, for the most part. Despite needing to go back a few times to keep up with the subtitles if I looked away from my screen, as I enjoy foreign films and shows in their original language, I followed the story pretty well. Due to my slight understanding of Japanese culture, I was able to overlook most of what my fellow reviewers may complain about (i.e. the dramatics (over-the-top-weapons), the focus on the childish romance and the need to maintain balance by closing the circle.) For the con side of coin, the story needed some serious work. It needed to be clearer on who we were to follow: Yama or Harlock. Also, it needed to be clearer in what the endgame was, to present an origin story to "Captain Harlock" or if it was a resistance plot. Granted, it could be both but we needed clarity. Also, the antagonist wasn't real enough or constructed well enough to make the hero work for his title. Besides Isora being competently built as a character, he still was relatively flat. It is a must that we feel for both the hero and the villain. Both Yama and Harlock failed to earn their mantle as hero, despite each of them being built competently and Yama being the most dimensional character in the film, which isn't saying much. The others aren't built at all they seem to exist so that the dialogue doesn't sound monotone. We must care for these characters, the must make us empathize, but none of the characters made me do that, so the core of the film was hollow.

On the positive side, the production value was excellent. Despite the re-use of some of the action cuts, the animation was top notch for my first outing. I enjoyed the Gothic cathedral design of the Legion ships and their technology, all the details, from the arch above the bridge to the insignia on the front of their ships spoke to their power and philosophy. My favorite ship, however, is not a surprise. I loved…LOVED…the design of the Arcadia!! It also spoke to volumes as to Harlock's mission and the attitude of his crew. I enjoyed its submarine-like design with its steam-punk flair, down to the old-school ship's wheel. It was rich in history and yet it still fit in the space theme. Its use of black smoke to conceal its arrival opposed the light used by the Legion ships. This juxtaposition highlights the conflict at the center of the universe. The music was well composed and the artistic value was well done. I enjoyed that the female characters were mostly not simply eye candy as most anime pieces tend to present women as. Granted they were not well utilized, but hardly anyone was anyways.

As part of my survey of the anime genre, this was a good choice to study. But, due to the core being hollow, I can't say that the film was "well-done." If I needed to watch on a rainy afternoon, this one'll work as it takes you away from your living room and into a new world for a time. Just don't expect to remember it years later as the impression will most likely be fleeting.

This movie is simply completely incoherent and delirious. The plot make no sense. The characters are meaningless. The conversations are at random.

The whole plot is based by an incomprehensible plan that none has understood, but for some reason the crew still follow the captain, even if no one has an idea of what they are doing.

A character that change side 4 time in a movie with ridiculous reasons is one of the worse thing I ever seen.

The only thing that save this movie is that the CGI is beautiful, and the ship is a true masterpiece of design.

But a beautiful CGI cannot save a whole movie from being horrible.

With a very famous protagonist in the anime, and great animation work behind, they have made a great movie. Thousands of hours it takes to make these works of art to bring it to life, but the final results are really very good, thanks to all a great team and a lot of work.

First off I would like to say that I grew up watching Harlock I am a die hard Harlock fan I have collected his Toy's, Models, Records, Movies, TV Animations and just about Everything Leiji Matsumoto has put out so my knowledge on this matter is immense. Now as for the new Harlock Movie, visually it was fun to watch. Seeing one's childhood hero in full on CG is always going to be entertaining but that was all it was. This movie lacked so much of the Essence and Soul of what is Leiji Matsumoto that I sort of considered the insert of a old Leiji Matsumoto drawing at the end of the credits a bit of a insult.. It's like saying "Hey we have the comics story's and art but we didn't use any of it" It was a slap in the face. I don't know what it is these days with buying the copyrights to something and then putting out something that is in no relation to the story.. What are the things that are wrong with this movie? Well here's a short list.

1. Harlock's back story is different from that of Arcadia of my Youth.

2. There is nothing about Leiji Matsumoto's art style in this movie asides from the appearance of his characters everything else is vacant his style of drawing city's buildings and computer rooms is not in here. The Gaia city looks more like Asgaurd from The Thor movie.

3. The enemy is GENERIC and forgettable.. there is nothing memorable. There is so many influential villains in Leijiverse you could have pulled something from the past like (Count Mecha, Queen Promethuem, Faust the Black Knight, The Mazone, or Illuminads.

4. In this movie Harlock's crew are portrayed as cowards Harlock's crew are not cowards! They might be pre-occupied but when Harlock asks for Volunteers those who sail under the flag of Freedom on the Arcadia VOLUNTEER.

5. In this movie Yataran is portrayed as a coward as well, Yataran is not a coward and never doubts Harlock, the XO has always believed in the captain and is far more important than what he is portrayed as in this movie. His love for building battleship and airplane models was also missing in this movie. The personality's of these characters was totally different from how they are portrayed in previous Harlock story's.

6. Spacewolf Fighters (Arcadias Space Fighter Jets) None to be seen in this movie.

7. Leiji Matsumotos love for WWII Airplanes and Battleships does not show in any of the mechanical designs. None of that. The Arcadia looks like a mix of HR Gigers Aliens and a giant penis. Even the enemy's fleet has no Leiji Matsumoto influence in the design of their ships.

8. No DR.Zero, No Masu chasing a Mi Kun with her Knife, No Chief Engineer Maji No Kiddodo and Taro Ama.

9. The story is a MESS, this story makes absolutely no sense, At first they present to you a crew that sails for freedom so much to the point that to board the ship it's the one word that will get you onboard the Arcadia yet as the back story goes according to this movie Harlock wasn't even about Freedom he was just some cursed pirate mutation who was spawned from black matter. Random weapons are being pulled out by the Gaia Coalition on the fly, giant space bomb, what?

10. Tochiro is like some almost un existent element in this movie. the Arcadias main computer where Tochiros soul lays is totally bares no resemblance to Leiji Matsumotos desgin which has been on each and every Arcadia previous to this movie. Furthermore it is like a non relevant thing in this movie. Tochiro and the Arcadia are a essential part to the Harlock Universe cutting that out is like pizza without the cheese it just doesn't work. Tochiro isn't just Harlocks best friend and traveling companion they are freaking Bro's before Hoe's brothers! With past life history you don't just brush a character like that under the rug.

11. There are no Mechanized people in this movie.

In short this movie was a great big FAIL.

Anyways I hope this movie was a one off and if ever there is to be another it will be giving to someone with some insight into Leiji Matsumotos Vision and history of Captain Harlock someone like Rintaro who has a history with Harlock and Galaxy Express and would understand the character and behavior of Captain Harlock and his followers.

I enjoy a lot of SF and this type of animation is a very good vehicle/medium for it (like in Vexille, ST Invasion, GITS Innocence...). But this particular story was not very good for me.

Reviewer Andrea Daviddi summed it up well; incoherent back story, clueless characters...

...that are implementing grand plans without any idea why. One of them was a turncoat who changed sides at least 4 times. He was that much confused.

At one point a dark matter powered ship is destroyed in an explosion but transforms into a different ship sporting a human skeleton hood ornament. Dark matter is a mysterious force that also loves design.

At some time in out future, or perhaps past, Earth has colonized the galaxy with 500 billion people or so. As it turns out , it is not like Star Trek and inhabitable planets are inhospitable and there is only one other intelligent species out they are down to their last one. So even though we made it to 500 billion in space, we couldn't sustain it and everyone is told to come back home, apparently not a well thought out plan as the Earth couldn't hold everyone, ergo "The Homecoming Wars." A truce was made and a Gaia Coalition was formed telling everyone to stay away from earth, i.e. go back and die or something.

After creating plot holes big enough to drive a dark mattered powered starship through, enters Harlock a space pirate who is stealing detonators from dead planets. Logan signs on as a crew member although he is really an operative for the Coalition who want to prevent Harlock from returning to earth, which becomes clear later on. It is confusing as to who are the good guys and who are the bad guys. The plot twists at 30 minutes, then twists again at an hour, and then again. The pirate soldiers wore outfits that looked like there came out of "The Fifth Element" while the Coalition opted for classic Starwars storm trooper outfits.

The entire film is CG. There is a cute blonde, but I am an old fashion guy. Tifa is my first and only love. About an hour into the film it attempts to build character through some flashbacks, but it really sucked at it.

The film is about two hours long and my interested started to wane at about the third plot twist, which seemed more like a sign of bad writing than good. I enjoyed the graphics and an introduction to the Harlock character, another in an infinite series of Japanese animated characters I never knew about. The plot could have been tighter.

Parental Guide: No f-bombs or sex. Brief areola-less shower nudity.

It is currently 3:37 am in Boston Massachusetts right now. I took the time out from going to sleep,just to comment on how bad this movie was....

So much plot holes!!! The movie started off pretty cool, I was excited for the visuals, it seemed like boy was about to embark on a journey with these pirates and one dimensional characters!... Harlock seemed so cool.

Halfway into the movie, it was all about the boy's past and him flipping sides, which he ended up doing like 4 times. His brother has no other emotion but anger, non justified anger I might add.

Harlock is insane and the crew still follows him after they learned that they were mislead for all those years.

The ending leaves you with a stupid look on your face. I kept wishing that it was going to get better...The plot has ZERO foundation. It holds a theme for twenty minutes at a time. 30M dollar budget for the greatest CGI I've ever seen, horrible story, should've spent some of that money on the script, heck give me six figures and I would've sat in Starbucks all day for a year typing away.

Did I mention one-dimensional characters? Sorry, I'm done and off to bed... I feel like I have just finished my civic duty to mankind.