Steamboy

The beautiful visuals and some great performances in the English dub help make this a little better than it would otherwise be. It's about half an hour too long, although it didn't necessarily bore me at any point, and the story's nothing particularly unique. I was digging the sort of "steampunk Treasure Island" vibe it had going for it for the first half hour or so, and there was some funny satire of capitalism during the climax. The Scarlett character is insufferable, though.

What a wild ride. Great animation and some shots (like a reverse dolly thing) that I'd never seen before in an animated movie, to the best of my recollection. Plot was a bit convoluted for a kids movie, and a bit long too.

Extremely well animated and completely action packed. Clearly Miyasaki inspired animation-wise, but shares nothing with his fine eye for storytelling. Instead the story is very bland, unnessecarely complicated and goes on for way too long.

Great animation and entertainment, but pay no attention to the story, it's yawn-tastic.

I felt pretty bored by this film, but that's not to say it doesn't have some great animation is probably worth a good look.

A billion plot holes, but the main theme (countries vs. corporations, father against son) was a great idea, wish they could have pulled it off. Great visuals, Alfred Molina does a nice job with speaking, as does Patrick Stewart. The background art in the credits would probably have been a better movie IMHO (make sure you watch it).

Creatively designed animated saga starts with a bang, with an appealing evocation of 1800s London combining well with some eccentric “modern” designs and characters. A pity that a good start is all this film can offer, with the characters and their plots and plans becoming dull and repetitious, eventually devolving into scenes of frantic activity, and leaving narrative coherency in the dust. A fun (English dub) cast do their best, with Paquin, Stewart and Molina injecting what they can.

To succinctly sum this anime up -- it's _steampunk_ based. Those who can't conceive this genre will most likely find it displeasing, those who have absolutely no idea what steampunk is will likely have varying views and opinions, however, to those that know and in some way _like_ steampunk, this anime is for you. The downside is, it's very generic steampunk. Biggest grumble is the animation, really had to do some savvy contrast adjusting to view the almost pitch black scenes.

20 minutes trimmed off would help.

Technically and visually incredible animation is only slightly undermined by an underwhelming story and largely weak or unlikable characters.

Really pretty tedium.

Alternate history and overall aesthetic are very appealing. Themes of technology, militarism, the state / capitalism / science are compelling. The script, particularly the pacing and weird character arcs, is a big problem.

It got a little confusing around the middle, making me wonder who I was supposed to be rooting for... But overall, this was a really cool movie with great art direction. I thought the final action scene started to get pretty tiring, but not in the Transformers 3 "I no longer care what's happening" kind of way, but in a way that stays tense. It makes you feel exhausted when it's all over. I know the word "steampunk" gets misused a lot... But I think this is one? Right?

Fun anime, nothing deep. The animation theme is memorable.

Definitely not one of the better anime films I've seen. I was glad at first that it didn't have supernatural content, like most animes. It started off really well, I thought. It was intriguing and had some exciting action scenes. But then it just went downhill from there. A story about steam really isn't that interesting... There's only so many shots of steam leaking out of machines and subsequently blowing up I can watch.

The best part of this movie was the imaginative steam powered machines, and a particular favourite for me was the steam powered monowheel. Other than that the concept was incredibly outlandish and taken to the point where it became more of a hysterical joke than anything else. The animation in the action scenes saved the movie to a certain extent. Probably more at home in an RPG video game than a movie.

Pretty lame adventure, and especially disappointing coming from Otomo. Much of the revolutionary spirit that was so prevalent in Akira is sorely lacking here, with much of the characters and plot points relying heavily on cliché. It is astonishingly beautiful to look at, however, so you'll probably enjoy this more if you turn the sound off and skip over the endless, boring expository scenes.

Too long to stay interesting all the way to the end.

Overwrought, over-thought anime spectacle with some absolutely mind-blowing visuals from the mind of Otomo. Could have benefited from some wise surgical editing.

Less thoughtful than Otomo's other works, but it has more heart. The plot is just an excuse to get some fantastic traditional and CG animation on the screen, but that's not a bad thing when a movie looks this good. I preferred the original language track, but the English dub is competent, indeed.

The voice acting from Molina and Stewart make the English dub bearable, and Otomo's super detailed backgrounds and machinery make for one great steampunk epic. Paquin's voice work was annoying though....

Highly disappointing seeing as this is from the guy who gave us Akira. Akira, not only the film, but the comic even moreso, was incredibly compelling. This is overlong and boring. A shame.

Goes on forever, has a couple annoying characters, and is too complex (though not too hard to understand) for it's own good. Disappointment. Nice animation though, particularly of the central steam castle.

A neglected gem. The visuals are very impressive, although the plot is a little complicating to follow.

Visually very impressive, especially the mechanical shots, although not as detailed as some of Hayao Miyazaki's work, particularly the castle from Howl's Moving Castle. The plot line is a bit dodgy and seems to be mostly an excuse for the imagery, but its perfectly tolerable. The ending seems to last about half an hour though, and the accents are terrible, with no option to listen to the original Japanese on my DVD.

A boy's adventure story on steroids. A truly unique creation that rewards close attention if you're a grownup as well as if you're a kid. Exactly the sort of story that probably works better as animation than it ever would with live-action/CGI/whatever

steampunk anime trash

Visually beautiful animation, but the story is complicate and stiff like a steam machine. There is sure enough action and cool Victorian machines to track attention for my 10 years old boy, but the ending lasts way too long.

Steampunk Akira. Very Cool.

Nice visuals, grueling story, punishing "philosophical" dialogue.

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It's got phenomenal animation, and the voice cast is great as well. It's a bit long, but it doesn't hinder the experience very much (if at all).

Intense, vivacious, exhililrating spectacle. I love you, Otomo.

Went into this thinking it was going to be right up my alley. I was disappointed though to find very little of any of this film enjoyable.

A fun, well crafted, but forgettable anime.