From Mamoru Oshii, the world-acclaimed director of Ghost in the Shell comes an award-winning story of an exciting but endless war with heroes too young to understand the meaning of their battles. A group of eternally young fighter pilots known as Kildren experience the sudden loss of innocence as they battle the enemy in astonishing dogfights above the clouds. With his only childhood memory consisting of intense flight training, the fearless teenage pilot Yuichi’s dogfights coexist with his struggle to find his missing past. When his beautiful, young female commander Suito is reluctant to discuss the fate of the pilot that Yuichi is replacing – or the strangely perfect condition of that pilot’s former aircraft – Yuichi’s curiosity becomes heightened. Mamoru Oshii’s The Sky Crawlers (2008) plays like a mixture of Top Gun and Serial Experiments Lain. Although teenage fighter pilot Yuichi lacks Tom Cruise’s good looks, he’s the ace of his unit at the Rostock Corporation, performing elaborate maneuvers and bringing down enemy planes. Yuichi and his fellow pilots are mysterious beings known as “Kildren:” they never age, but remain teenagers their entire lives. When commander Suito learns that the Kildren are products of a mysterious genetic experiment, she begins to suspect that she and the pilots are used, discarded, and replaced, like so many spare parts. Yuichi doesn’t just resemble Jinroh, the former pilot of his plane (and Suito’s lover); he’s the reincarnation of Jinroh. These revelations would pack more punch if the characters weren’t such nonentities. Yuichi and the other pilots express so little emotion, they make Keanu Reeves seem like a dynamic presence. Oshii uses computer animation for the elaborate aerial dogfights, although the realistically rendered, three-dimensional aircraft never mesh with the flat, two-dimensional characters. Sky Crawlers had a decidedly mixed reaction in Japan, and its limited theatrical release in the U.S. failed to generate much excitement. It’s a disappointing effort from the creator of the watershed Ghost in the Shell. (Rated PG-13: Violence, sexual situations, alcohol and tobacco use) –Charles Solomon
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March 5, 2010
#1
I was so dissapointed in this dull, veeeeery slow moving movie. It really did not make any sense. I wanted to return it. Now that I think about it; it does not deserve “One Star”.
March 5, 2010
#2
Here is a movie toted as being the best film by this oh so famous anime creator since Ghost in the Shell, but what we have is a shell of a movie.
It attempts to have a huge meaning, but fails miserably, as the plot just drolls on for most of the movie and barely scrapes the surface of what’s going on until the very end. Yes, you do get some clues about the big shocker in the movie, but they are so few that it’s hard to piece together anything concrete. To top it off, one character that seems to just be thrown in to try to give the movie an ending drops almost all of the plot right at the end. That’s the cheapest route to make an ending when you hit a road block. Insert an odd, out of place character who observes and makes some comments for most of the film and then spills the beans of everything right at the end. When everything was lain out in front of me, I was thinking, “Seriously? This is the best he could come up with?”
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The only thing remotely inventive about the plot is what the characters are. And their big enemy? Umm… I’m guessing he watched Star Wars too much, as their enemy is their former teacher. Ooooooh! How “un”predictable.
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After watching this movie, all I could think was about how much I was ripped off, and about how there is no doubt in my mind that people would do what happens in the movie and not think anything of it. Yes, Sky Crawlers does have a philosophical plot, but it gets beaten out by single episodes of Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex 2nd Gig and Hamtaro.
The end seems rushed and it never goes anywhere. Though Oshii claims the characters have changed, the don’t change one bit during the movie, only before, and then they revert back to what they were before.
Here’s a hint, Oshii: If people decide to do something drastic, there’s a high chance they’ll do it again as they have already done it before.
The animation is good, except the CGI stands out and takes you out of the movie. The characters are horrible. Oshii tries to make it look like they change while they don’t change at all. The dogfights are cool, but the movie is horrendously abysmal.
Sky Crawlers is a good name for this movie, as the movie is crawling ever so slowly to it’s demise.
If you want to watch this movie, you should smack yourself in the back of the head and say “No!”
If you want to watch a movie where you also will think “Given the circumstances, people would do this and not care about who (or what) gets hurt,” just watch Michael Clayton. It’s a much better film, and it’s probably cheaper on Blu-ray, too. (Though it doesn’t have any dogfights, it does have an exploding car.)
March 5, 2010
#3
Crap crap crap, not only have the character designs been changed from Jin-Roh/GitS to make everybody look like emotionless robots but the general pacing and ‘plot’ is pathetic. Its a time of war, there’s dogfights out in the sky yet you wouldn’t even think they’re actually pilots judging by the way they act. Nobody seems to get that angry even after their base gets blown up and everybody ends up having sex yet don’t even give the hint that they like eachother
As soon as the main character arrives he gets assigned a new plane and starts asking all these stupid questions throughout the movie
“who’s plane is this? why isn’t the pilot personally handing the plane over to me? it looks brand new so obviously he wasn’t shot down. what was he like? how did he die? did you love him?”
Honestly, STFU!
The animation looks nice sometimes (cockpit view) but I really hate the blend of CG, whenever I see it I can never get excited because it looks so out of place and bad. I don’t know why japan consistantly uses it, unless its a 100% CG movie don’t bother or use it lightly like in Howl’s Moving Castle instead of making it look like some old videogame.
The movie itself does raise questions about what war means but everything is so uninteresting you’d be better off reading a book, seriously
March 5, 2010
#4
Oshii, he specialized in slow movies and obsessive on his passion for the dogs. The movie is a circle without an ending and does not develop. The character is very traumatic and the only way to survivor is fight against peace, a peace that will never come. A rival plane who’s impossible to destroy and at the end he will destroy any one who come across his way. The movie did not really impress me; this is “Oshii styled”, slow and boring. This movie is nothing like Ghost in the Shell’s. The plot does not save the movie at all! I also don’t like the design of the characters. I prefer the characters design from the Ghost in the Shell and Jin Roh, Hiroyuki Okiura.
March 5, 2010
#5
Sky Crawlers has some interesting Dog Fights and imagery, but little else interesting.
Chris