BraveStorm (2017)

"Our power is justice!"

Based on two television shows from the 1970’s, Bravestorm combined the Silver Mask and the Super Robot Red Baron to try and save the Earth from an alien invasion. The film used a combination of time travel and mecha suits and while it resembled a television episode more than a film, for fans of the genre it might be enough to entertain them.

In 2050 after an alien invasion that resulted in the Earth being terraformed for the aliens’ benefit, the human population is next to extinct with 96% of the population eradicated and a small portion enslaved. Siblings Koji, Haruka, and Kozo are sent back to their grandfather, Kenichiro, in 2013 to prevent the invasion. In 2018, Kenichiro’s ne’er do well brother, Ken, is recruited after an alien confrontation at an underground fight ring. Kenichiro has built a giant mecha suit for Ken to control in order to combat Black Baron, the aliens’ giant terraforming robot. Ken is less than enthused about joining the gang but is finally convinced to help.

The siblings’ abilities were varied. Koji was the brave brother who wore the silver suit of armor capable of 500% of a human’s strength. Haruka, had one expression throughout the film and few lines. She was gifted with second sight, perception, psychic ability, any power they needed her to have in a pinch, and swordswomanship. Poor Kozo had little to do and was stuck being the techie. He had a special pair of glasses that could determine whether a person was human or not. Ken was a boxer who earned money in illegal fights and was quite angry with the brother who disappeared a few years earlier. This character came across as an idiotic jerk for much of the film until he was given what he considered a better reason than humankind’s imminent demise to finally suit up. Kenichiro was the most interesting of the characters as the robot and AI specialist and surrogate father to the group.

The CGI ranged from cheap television effects to proper film CGI. Red Baron and Black Baron for the most part were well done. There were also alien robots in human suits, such as the fearsome Bald Borg. The creepy Chigrises, which I could swear I’ve seen in another movie, could also take human form. The Killgis CGI was uneven, terrible in one scene but better in another. Interestingly, the Killgis chose our planet because of humanity's warlike nature and destiny to self-destruct. Might as well move the timetable up. Harsh.

The music was drawn from a variety of films. There were times I expected to see Christopher Reeve’s Superman fly in, or Luke Skywalker, or the Rebel Alliance. It was like a patchwork quilt of famous action movie scores.

At just over 80 minutes the movie sped by and there wasn’t much time for character development. When dealing with giant mechas all can be forgiven if the battle is spectacular. Disappointingly, the final battle was short and definitely not epic and the heroic actions felt rushed particularly in the villain’s lair. The movie also ended on a cliffhanger apparently in the hopes of a sequel. For fans of the old tv shows or the genre in general, it is one to check out. For everyone else, if you keep your expectations quite low, you might find parts of it entertaining.

10/17/23

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So this was going to just be a comment and I'm throwing it up here in reviews instead... As my drama lists can show, this is way out of the park from what I usually hit the play button and indulge in, but why not, eh? I had just enough time for it and while I doubt I'll ever go the wuxia route, I do like quite a lot of Japanese content, so completely blank-slated, I dived in.

My overall thought? Over the top in both the intended ways (big CGI effects etc) and also unintended ones (music that was loud and annoying, dorky as I'll explain, acting with facial expressions that made me double check if it was really from Japan-I cringed quite a few times; the voices were also really unnatural sounding, especially the lead who seemed really out of place here) and kind of sloppy in terms of how it started. It was just thrown at us without any real connection between scenes. Too many times it jumped to places that were given no explanation. They were whining at each other or silent when information needed to be delivered one way or another, a way besides 'let em figure it out in a few minutes' ideally.

The visual effects were pretty good. The OST was a bit obnoxious in that it was ripping off John Williams. After such obvious knockoffs of Star Wars' saga's more trumpet-heavy songs with some Indiana Jones/Raiders of the Lost Ark and even some swooning bits like Jurassic Park's most iconic number tossed in a couple of times, etc, I was expecting the signature 5 notes from Close Encounters of the Third Kind to be the final finish. It made watching it distinctly less fun because over the top music paired with some over the top acting and I couldn't bring it higher than the 5 I gave it-and I did that a bit mercifully because this is my first time watching this genre. For anything that isn't a straight up sequel, I firmly believe a work should stand on its own no matter the audience as long as it isn't something too complex for said audience-it shouldn't require me to be entrenched with the kind of show it is in any way. On that, the story does an alright job as basic as it is, the characters only good in the sense that it's 'to be continued' since the things that ARE cool=not explored enough (namely the girl I think was called Haruka-only girl that is there more than a few mins)... The acting went from flat to exaggerated, like zero expression to twitchy, overdone motions face-wise-the girl in it was better but she was supposed to focus and gaze intently, so yeah, not so hard to do. The action was alright, nothing amazing but I do like the girl's psychic power and sword deal. It would be better, I think, as a drama. As a standalone, it's definitely more fluffy than I tend to like (and I like sci-fi and fantasy and futuristic stuff, just not Power Rangers on whatever rare metal is the bot equivalent of steroids which it felt like).

Nothing much to spoil with the plot-can't expect an enormous amount of plot in this quick little installment, but it was an interesting thing that I honestly wouldn't have watched if it hadn't 1) popped up on Kissasian yesterday and 2) been in a category I definitely hadn't marked any 'plan to watch' pages for the 2019 Watch Challenge (https://mydramalist.com/discussions/forum-games/37178-2019-watch-challenge )! The challenge served a unique purpose, though, cause wow, yep, I knew this stuff existed (but honestly thought it was more the modern equivalent of Saturday morning cartoons made live action) and saw it on Kissasian often enough, but all the Kamen Rider sorts of shows, probably because anything with a dozen parts is intimidating, couldn't have gotten a total newcomer like me to jump down the rabbit hole. I don't regret it at all. It was an interesting enough watch. Some special effects were over the top (like the whole thing), and I can't figure out for the life of me why it's rated all ages ie a 5 year old doesn't need mom/dad to be there in case the initial scenes of violence are, yknow, upsetting (generally that rating is reserved for Disney Channel and Nickelodeon kid-aimed programs) or the slimier/less human creatures perhaps not what all little kids will be okay watching alone). Mind you, I watched worse in my youth, but it doesn't mean it got rated the same as Ozzie and Harriet/Andy Griffith sorts of family programs or Sesame Street.

I'm sure there are better examples of this category (I've seen some from other countries that are basically higher budget or more classic versions of the basic premise here-heck, some of what Williams composed the scores for was right in line with it), and I think people who already like this kind of storyl will find it a fast-paced light easy watch (kind of welcome after watching stuff that makes ya cry a storm). That said, it wasn't anything new or terribly original. It's a bit like Harlequin romance novels-they take the same general set up options and shuffle details so with 100 different details to pick 20 from, you get a whole lot of "unique" combinations that in cinema need a bit more than some musical chairs and translating other works into every language everywhere. It felt like a grab bag-a handful of show 1, a sprinkle of 2, a big chunk plagiarized from 3 then visually altered a touch, etc. Still, It wasn't terrible, just not anything I'd recommend or watch further installments of. The pilot should be strong, super strong at that, even if it's 90% grabbed from other works, kind of!

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