Oh my goodness! I know Chris Roberson may scoff, but I just saw this teaser trailer for a Japanese-produced live-action "Space Battleship Yamato" movie and got completely giddy. I watched the Star Blazers series religiously as a kid in the late 70s, and loved both the war against the Gamilons as well as the second-season Comet Empire saga (I've never seen the Bolar Wars episodes, sadly). Admittedly, as science fiction it make George Lucas' Star Wars movies look like Carl Sagan's Cosmos, but this was the first animated series I ever saw that actually tried to incorporate real human emotion with action and adventure. There were real stakes involved. It might not hold up well today, but I've watched some of the subsequent stand-alone movies on DVD and enjoyed the heck out of them, flaws and all. Is it too much to hope the limited run time of the live-action movie will force the elimination of much goofy excess that undermined the original show? Who knows--but from what I can see in this teaser, it will look good at the very least!
I have to confess that my fanboy self has toyed with the idea of a Star Blazers scriptment for a live-action movie from time to time. I never developed the idea much beyond establishing a reason why a sunken World War II era battleship would be flying around in space (beyond the fact that it looks cool, mind you). It doesn't look like I'll ever have reason to pursue that idea any further, now. But you know what? I don't think I mind.
Scoff, nothing. I'd like nothing more than for this to be Awesome!
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