Space Battleship Yamato (2010) Live Action

 

First you should watch this youtube.  It's the theme song for the English version of Space Battleship Yamato cartoon called "Star Blazers" for the western world.  The lyrics give a basic overview of the plot line and the live action film 2010 is surprisingly accurate to it, even down to the character's haircuts.

When I was a kid, I used to watch this whenever it came on, so when I somehow became aware that a new live action version was in the works I knew I would want to see it.   And on a recent intercontinental flight, I finally got that opportunity.  Now you can watch the trailer which unfortunately incorporates some Aerosmith.

 

This film is basically what every Hollywood Sci-Fi space adventure movie that came out such as the recent Star Trek, Star Wars movies should have been.  While it had it's shortcomings it stayed fairly faithful to the source material, didn't get too bogged down in bloated storylines and didn't get sidelined by a romance or too obvious conspiracy.  Basically humans are dying and they get a ray of hope in the form of a message from another world.  So with their last star ship they set off on a mission to save the world and humanity from extinction.  Everything moves toward that goal and the relationships between the characters don't get in the way.  The action sequences could have been a bit more elaborate in my opinion but other than that it's a well  executed Sci-Fi Adventure Flick.