Steamboy (2004)

I need to start off this review by saying this: if you are looking for a film with a mind-blowing story or deep meanings, this is NOT the film you are looking for. If however you are looking for a film that is a spectacle from start to finish with wonderfully animated and intricately detailed scenes, a musical score that goes incredibly well with the action on screen, and in general just an enjoyable steampunk action-adventure film: read onwards.

The film's story is where the main issues are: the story follows the same action adventure formula you've likely seen many times before: protagonist gets macguffin (in this case a ball that somehow can contain incredibly highly pressurized steam) and must attempt to keep it away from the villains who intend to use it for their own mysterious and no doubt nefarious purposes, the characters are all very one dimensional with the main character being rather bland and boring, it also has numerous issues with pacing during the second half leaving the viewer slightly lost as to what is happening, despite this it's still an acceptable and mostly enjoyable plot. (Apparently there's a directors cut which adds about 20 minutes more but that's not the version I saw).

The animation is spectacularly well done and shows the ten years of love, devotion, and ambition the director Omoto Katsuhiro (mainly known for the incredibly famous anime movie AKIRA) put into the project, blending surprisingly detailed (for 2004) 3D CGI with intricately hand drawn 2D images smoothly. Even the English dubbing which is usually a problem in foreign films was surprisingly well done, with voice actors such as: Anna Paquin (X-men, Laputa castle in the sky), Alfred Molina (Spider man 2, The Da Vinci code), Patrick Stewart (Star Trek, Macbeth(2010)), and Kari Wahlgren (FLCL, Last Exile), the quality of the dub isn't too surprising however as Katsuhiro oversaw the dubbing personally.

The reason I'm giving it a 4/5 is because whilst I can appreciate the animation of the film, the excellent dub and amazing soundtrack, the lackluster story is something I cannot just ignore, If I could give it a decimal rating between 1 and 10 it would be an 7.6.

In conclusion, if you are willing to sacrifice story for a well crafted musical score, beautiful and masterfully constructed animation, and an incredibly well done English dub, give this one a shot.