Gundam Seed Movie: The Empty Battlefield (DVD) - Anime Reviews


	Language Options English/Japanese/English Subtitles Released by Bandai Entertainment Extras - Letterbox Format - Gundam vs. Gundam Zeta Game Trailer
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Gundam Seed Movie: The Empty Battlefield (DVD)

Year 70 of the Cosmic Era. The Coordinators, a group of genetically-enhanced humans, have moved into colonies orbiting the Earth. But that hasn’t quieted the tensions between them and regular humans; the conflict soon escalates into a full-scale war.

On the neutral colony of Heliopolis, Kira Yamato, and his friends are going to school and just being kids. But when the ZAFT commando forces attack, Kira’s life changes forever. Left with no choice, he and Federation officer Murrue Ramius are thrown into battle in a prototype mobile weapon, which Kira christens “GUNDAM”. Now, Kira must defend himself, and his friends, from his own people. For unknown to anyone else, Kira is a Coordinator. And the enemy he faces on the battlefield is his childhood best friend, Athrun!

I’m usually not a big fan of anime movies for TV series. Most movies break down into two categories: 1: “non-canon” movie: meaning that they don’t take place in the main story-line of the series or worse don’t apply at all to the series (see Naruto movie, any of the DragonBall Z movies); 2: a movie-length synopsis of the series distilled down to a few action sequences (see the original DragonBall movie). The Gundam Seed Movie: The Empty Battlefield is of the 2^nd variety, although instead of covering the entire length of the series, it covers the first 20 episodes or so. It’s a good way to catch a friend up in the series through 40% of the series, as long as you pause the DVD and explain what they missed.

Starting with the invasion of Heliopolis, we get quick dissections of the major events. The ZAFT forces are using a quick-strike attack to allow their special ops team with Athrun to get the five Mobile Suits being built by Earth. In the course of the attack, Kira manages to save Cagalli, and then links up with Lieutenant Murrue and ends up escaping the facility with the prototype Strike. During the course of the attack, the Archangel is able to launch and is going to try and escape to the Terran fleet with the Strike and the remaining survivors. Through a series of small skirmishes, the Archangel is able to approach Earth and eventually make planetfall, however, not before all Earth forces that they link-up with get destroyed while protecting the important ship.

Now on Earth, the Archangel links up with the resistance and ends up battling against the “Desert Tiger”. Not only is most of the character interaction pared off, but all of the major battles have been shortened to only show major swings. It really

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doesn’t do the major battles much justice to have them shortened to such a short time period.

Using mostly footage from the TV series, only a few scenes have been added, and not necessarily ones that add any new depth to the featured characters, unless you consider two shower scenes with Kira and one with Cagalli to being “character driven.”

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I found the edits of the series to do a serviceable job of getting the basic plot across, but most of the supporting cast really aren’t given much face time (or even mentioned in some cases). In particular, I felt Mu LaFlaga and Rau LeCreuset really didn’t get much good face time in the movie and weren’t given much development as characters. This movie would have benefited greatly from a longer running time – another 30 minutes would have allowed for some more character interactions and a chance to show a little more of each battle. It wouldn’t make the movie perfect, but it certainly would make the editing less jarring to watch.

- Tazman

(August 8, 2005)

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