Mobile Suit Gundam 00: the Movie - A Wakening of the Trailblazer Blu-ray Review
Can't we all just get along?
Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman, July 3, 2011
When Rodney King uttered those now legendary words directly above, he of course probably wasn't thinking about any number of multimedia enterprises built upon layer after layer of interminable conflict. And just as certainly, without conflict there wouldn't even
be any number of multimedia enterprises.
Mobile Suit Gundam throughout its several incarnations has had a slew of warring factions, as befits one of the longest running anime franchises in history, and the strata of its intersecting storylines are so complex by this time as to defy easy characterization. But suffice it to say when writers run out of ways to introduce (and reintroduce and
re-reintroduce) various internecine conflicts into a franchise's basic plot, there's always that standby bugaboo of an external force on which to fall back, and that's exactly what happens in
Mobile Suit Gundam 00 The Movie: A Wakening of the Trailblazer. For those of you new to the
Mobile Suit Gundam 00 universe, this next bit may be a bit incomprehensible, but here goes: forget everything you knew about Celestial Being, A-Laws, Union, Human Reform League, AEU, Gundam Meisters, and any of a hundred (a thousand?) other little dribs and drabs that made the two season series on which this film is based so labyrinthine. Why, you may ask, should we forget about all of this? Because the refuge of any exhausted writer (and the writers of
Mobile Suit Gundam 00 must certainly be
very tired by this time), namely a vicious alien attack, makes everything else kind of secondary in
A Wakening of the Trailblazer. That's right, we're dealing with big bad (metallic) aliens in this film, but that doesn't mean Celestial Being and A-Laws, not to mention Union, Human Reform League and AEU, all settle down in harmony to battle a common enemy. This is
Mobile Suit Gundam, after all, and "getting along," even if the very survival of Mankind depends on it, isn't readily in the cards.
Have you ever been at a party and moseyed over to a distant corner where you hear the end of someone's private conversation, and instantly wonder exactly what the context is and what they've been talking about? Anyone coming in cold to
Mobile Suit Gundam 00 The Movie: A Wakening of the Trailblazer is going to feel exactly that way. In fact, even the length of this film's title hints at the complexities within, and even those familiar with the
Mobile Suit Gundam 00 universe are going to be scratching their head (as, frankly, I was) at least some of the time. This is one convoluted movie, filled to the brim not just with returning characters, but at least a couple of new ones, not to mention the big, bad aliens. But this film cartwheels so uneasily through its embarrassment of riches, character wise, that it can be next to impossible to keep everything straight.
Mobile Suit Gundam 00 The Movie: A Wakening of the Trailblazer picks up a couple of years after the second season of
Mobile Suit Gundam 00 ended, in the early 24th century.
Mobile Suit Gundam 00 dealt with the fallout of a major energy crisis (sound familiar?), with a bunch of warring factions, including a number of Black Ops-like organizations that were supposedly doing the government's wishes but which actually had their own (often nefarious) plans. The series ended in a truce, more or less, but the film barely takes a breath before things devolve once again into total conflict.
This is a film which lives and breathes by its action sequences, and the good news is,
Mobile Suit Gundam 00 The Movie: A Wakening of the Trailblazer delivers in spades in that arena. The first major battle turns out to have a very clever punchline, one which harkens back to the best elements of the
Mobile Suit Gundam 00 series, but (without posting spoilers) the serendipitous humor of that punchline isn't something this film really exploits, and that may in fact be one of its problems. This is a film so relentlessly serious, and so decidedly stuffed full of characters and set pieces, that what little plot there is takes a decided back seat. But there's absolutely no denying how visceral the action sequences are, and for that reason alone this film will probably be loved by the adrenaline junkies who have long made up a large part of the
Gundam fanbase.
Ultimately, though,
Mobile Suit Gundam 00 The Movie: A Wakening of the Trailblazer is a paper thin film blown up to be a summer blockbuster action epic (sound familiar?). The film's central thesis can basically be summed up as, "War is bad; peace is good," and unfortunately there's little depth added to that over obvious premise. And so what we're left with is a lot (as in a
lot) of characters running around reacting to various threats, indulging in some admittedly exciting action sequences, and then settling down to the realization that all that horrible, horrible fighting wasn't so great after all. At around two hours in length,
Mobile Suit Gundam 00 The Movie: A Wakening of the Trailblazer is both too long and too short, as odd as that may sound. The film drags when the visceral action sequences aren't taking place, but on the other hand the glut of characters, most of whom aren't explained to newcomers, could have used extra time devoted to giving more backstory and context. As it stands, this is a film that will probably be exciting enough for longtime
Gundam fans, despite its flaws, while leaving other audience members wondering what all the fuss about the long-lived
Gundam franchise has been all about.
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