Film Mobile Suit Gundam 00 A Wakening Of The Trailblazer
OK... It has ALIENS in it. Shocking! Once that's out of your system, how about we judge the film on the basis of, well, the film itself, rather than its subject matter? To begin with,the plot (ELS aside) is actually standard Gundam fare: one side is fighting another, when really, they should just be friends, and the main protagonist must see that it ends up that way. In this sense, it is no better or worse than any other franchise member with this premise.
As for characters, the movie suffers from lacking real development, however, that may be due to it being intended for veterans of the series. As such, I can say that for the most part the characters are the same ones we know and love, though the acting didn't recieve the same boost the animation got. In particular, Richard Ian Cox's Hallelujah performance was not as strong as it was in the series. That said, we do have Graham Aker, who is fun in both languages.
The animation, despite some Conspicuous CG, is actually beautifully done: the level of detail and high frame rate far surpasses the series, and the level of movement borders on that of Nichijou. This really shows itself in the visceral battle scenes, which serve as a nice increase to the movie's pace.
Unfortunately, however, it feels rushed in places and over-condensed in others, creating a series of peaks and troughs that can really disrupt the pacing. As such, it may have been better suited to an OVA to flesh out the storyline a bit, and maybe give some more screentime to the frankly awesome Seravee 2. Also, said condensation also has an effect on the message of the film, which gets pushed up to almost Kira Yamato levels of preachiness in places, and is completely absent in others.
In short, this movie may have shocked the Gundam fandom to its core, but that's to be expected. What we have here doesn't exactly justify its hype, but if you see it as what it is, what you actually have here is just a damn fun movie. Nothing less, nothing more.
Film Yeah it's pretty awful
00's plot... if you dug it, you're going to dig it here? Like, I despise every aspect of 00 from a storytelling perspective, but I can tell that if you liked the series, you will probably like this movie. In fact, if you enjoyed the series somehow, stop reading this. You'll get mad at me and post angry comments. Just go watch the movie. You'll think it's a great movie! Go ahead! Really!
If you're like me and hated 00, this movie is not that much better. Really, the only thing improved is the production values, and they're wasted on terrible designs (What the fuck is wrong with Raphael in general, why is Qan[T] so underwhelming, etc etc) and uninspired action. I followed the action, and yes, there are a bunch of big lasers and shit, but here's the thing: even if the action can be followed, it was still a bunch of big lasers. It wasn't intense, they were just fighting a bunch of goddamn mooks. It wasn't entertaining in the slightest, not like some of the mobile suit vs mobile suit fights in the original series.
And Aliens in Gundam, or anything, are fine if they're DONE WELL. These just come out of nowhere besides a passing mention in the VERY LAST EPISODE. It just... happens. They're given a very fuzzily explained backstory and a completely stupid ending (Space flower? Are you fucking with me?) and that's about it.
Character stuff is as bland as usual, moral stuff is about as offensive as usual, really, this was just a bad movie by my standards. Maybe you have different standards and you liked 00. That's fine. I don't hate you, but if you're like me, this movie is pretty bad. Skip it.