Kidô Keisatsu Patorebâ: Gekijô-ban |
Japan • 1989 • 100m •
  • Directed by: Mamoru Oshii. • Starring: Toshio Furukawa, David Jarvis, Doug Erholtz, Mîna Tominaga, Briony Glassco, Julie Ann Taylor, Ryûnosuke Ôbayashi, Peter Marinker, Roger Craig Smith, Yoshiko Sakakibara, Sharon Holm, Megan Hollingshead, Yô Inoue. • Music by: Kenji Kawai.     In the near-future of 1999, Japan has developed giant robot suits, dubbed ''Labors'', which they have employed in various contexts both military and civilian. In the midst of a massive Tokyo land redevelopment program called the Babylon Project, Labors begin moving on their own, sometimes against their pilots' inputs, and sometimes without even any pilot present. The motley crew of TMP Special Vehicles Section 2 Division 2 must investigate and stop this phenomenon threatening the project and indeed the entire country.
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Review:
Now you're probably wondering why I gave this movie such a low rating right? Compared to great anime series such as Death Note and Code Geass (although these are TV series) which also has the same investigation-type story to it, Patlabor comes nowhere close. What these other two anime's do so well and what Patlabor lacks is the bringing in of the "why" and "how", leaving necessary hints throughout the films, which gives a mind-blownadrenaline rush when everything that's happened and happening finally clicks. Death Note does a fantastic job at explaining on the go of the intentions and plans being put forward, and if information is left out, it will explain it soon after on why things happened the way they did. Code Geass does very well with explaining the mysterious power behind it and how it works exactly. Sadly these key elements are nowhere to be found in Patlabor.
A typical "robot malfunction" story just done in a different way, which in some aspects actually reminded me of the I Robot film starring Will Smith. However the issue in which I soon came to realize is the drastic lack in given information and explanation for situations that arose. One simple example of this is the dry story of the villain (Hosha)--and I say dry because they really don't give you any information on him--in which you find out he's the one who started the malfunctions. But if you think they'll give a background story you'll be disappointed, neither are his motives explained when it comes to "why" he planted viruses in the machines. You'll understand quite vaguely that (spoiler alert) the reason behind the robots defections are due to a program the creator (Hosha) pre-installed. Kind of like a virus that goes off when activated by a specific situation, with this a certain wind velocity did the trick (which also wasn't explained).
Looking from this perspective you might be disappointed, or it might just be me. But going from this angle while watching this film you might now notice the overall lacking of information given, and this is just one scenario. This movie however just doesn't do a good job in bringing explanations into play, which help push the story along.
Besides the fact that there are sequels to this, there still needs to be an understandable plot and story without the help of its sequels. But alas there isn't, and because of this Patlabor: The Mobile Police shouldn't be on one of your top lists of anime films to see, there's so many animated seriesmovies out there that has a lot more in store for you than this.
Review by jacobdiamse from the Internet Movie Database.
Movie Database