Steamboy Hodgepodge

Just to get you psyched for tomorrow's Steamboy premiere, here are a list some new info about the movie:

• New Video Clips and a Director Interview.
  
  
• A list of theatres is available on the official website.
  
  
• In a recent interview, actor Robin Williams comments on his anticipation for the movie. I'm not sure why I included this other than to prove to myself that I'm not the only one excited to see this.

Reviews

The reviews -- whether positive or negative -- all pretty much say the same thing:

• Too little character development. The characters' personalities are unoriginal and/or stereotypical.
• The characters' dialogue tends to be overly philosophical.
• The story is not as original or engaging as Otomo's previous directorial hit, Akira.

BUT...

• The animation was awsome.
• The mechanical designs were original and imaginative.
• The action sequences were top-notch.

All of these points are in every review, the only thing that determined whether or not a reviewer liked the film was what they tended to focus on: visuals or story. Check out the reviews to see what I mean:

• Negative Review
• Positive Review
• Summary of Reviews at RottenTomatoes.com
• LATimes article calling Otomo the "Kubrick of anime"

Here's another review that sums up reviewers' attitudes nicely. It basically says that Steamboy isn't as bad as reviewers tend to make it out to be. It's just that everyone expects it to be another Akira and it just isn't.

I'm not going to be able to see it until Sunday, *Sigh*. But for anyone in the Detroit area, it will be showing at the Main Art Theatre in Royal Oak.