Robotech: The Shadow Chronicles

4c3T

Jul 12, 2022

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So, I watched this by accident, and although it's been several decades since I watched the TV show on which this and the collection of movies are based on, I had actually hoped for a more mature story telling than the show, from what little I can remember. This movie is a mess, and the writers and director clearly show that story telling is not their forte. It's confusing at times, and I probably should've re-watched the show and the other movies (I think it was one movie before this, not sure) first to understand the characters and their development, but from what I can deduce, these characters are others than the original show. I'll reserve that statement since I didn't actually look up any of the characters before writing this review. It does feel a bit rushed story-wise, and the CGI, although it's not a big Hollywood movie, feels kind of plastic at times. Fully watchable though. As for the story-bit. They didn't re-cap the characters other than some brief history. More like simple comments really, some back flashes here and there. Graphics-wise it's definitely a face-lift compared to the old cartooned show, that's for sure, but it does feel a bit Babylon 5 at times for the space scenes, and you can almost see the seams of objects, almost. Being just a couple of minutes shy of 1 and a half hour, it should have been at least half an hour more to pick up the story telling a bit more/better. For children, age 10-12 or so, this is probably nothing they'd think of, but as an adult, you question some things, like accuracy, tech-jargon, likelihood and probability of certain things. I don't even remember what proto-whatever they called it, was, and exactly what it is and used for (other than powering misc. devices/machines), but it's probably and most likely explained in the show and other movies. This, like many movies and shows are for aspiring kids that has not been blunted by decades of movies and shows, and one can't help to comparing it with previously seen ditto. So, if you disconnect your brain it's quite enjoyable, and you don't think much of backstories and what's happening overall, continuity and so on. My younger self would've loved this, but the adult in me says "Meh, average...". I'd give it 6 out of 10. Partially because of Mark Hamill and also for sentimentality's sake.