Sky Crawlers

Ok, so I thought i'd try out this film off the back of its association with 'Ghost in the Shell' which was indeed excellent - this was not. It tries to capture the feel of child pilots caught in an eternal war for some vague goal (which is not really explained) and I feel is a long way off the mark. Whilst the aerial battle footage is amazing, for the brief time that it lasts - the actual animation of all the 'ground story' is rather weak and uninspired. I felt a bit reeled in at the beginning and then found myself utterly bored for the remainder. The plot was so dull that I had to watch this film in two halves. I felt like the story was flatlining most of the time, with the occasional jump start when they get into their planes and fly about for a few minutes. Seriously, out of 2 hours, they are in the air fighting for about 20 minutes at the most! The animation quality is excellent when in the air, I found myself hooked to these bits - then seems to drop a huge level of presentation for the actual characters who seem devoid of detail and emotional content. There are scenes where they just sit and stare at things for long periods or just drink beer or sleep... Maybe they were trying to illustrate something I completely missed as I think this film was very disappointing. I've seen a lot of anime films and love the genre, but this is one of the weakest i've watched. Finally, I found it also vaguely disturbing that these fighter pilot 'kildren' (children who never grow up) are cooling off with prostitutes between the air battles...adult prostitutes - and everyone seems okay with it...and one of these eternal children has had a kid of her own...weird.

Your sat waiting for something to happen and you just cannot work it out!

WHY IS THIS FILM 2 HOURS LONG.

This film was so long and about as exciting as porno in a old peoples home.

Kind of looked ok altho i can't say it hit the spectacular realms of anime i am gonna stop writing cos I cannot see anymore but i was well disappointed i wasted 2 hours of mylife hoping this film would do something decent

Visually the film is impressive, the contract in used animation styles is very striking and from an aesthetic view an enjoyable film.

The story? Well you've got to persevere with it, and I wouldn't recommend it for anyone who isn't into their true thought provoking anime's.

Ultimately, the whole film will only make sense in the last 20 minutes, at which point it'll all click and it'll seem worth it.

Overall, i'd watch once, but i'm glad it was a rental as i will not be renting again.

Amazing to look at, sounded incredible, but the story was dull and the characters unsympathetic.

Such a shame.

I'm not sure how the original Japanese books stretch the story arch out, but I was left feeling empty watching this.

A story of meaningless life set in an alternate world to ours. A very well put together piece of art, is the best description.

This is not an all action Anime like Akira or Ghost in the shell, though it is at times equally as brilliant as both of the previous titles i haved mentioned.

The 3D Arial battles blend very well with the 2D Animation used on the ground. It is a very subdued piece, as life in this world isn't very enriched or precious, so the laid back slow approach to most scenes adds very well to the story and life in that world.

I would very much recommend this movie to those who enjoy and appreciate the beauty of Anime.