スチームボーイ

STEAMBOY

MOVIE

MOVIE
Dubbed
SOURCE
ORIGINAL
RELEASE
July 17, 2004
LENGTH
126 min

DESCRIPTION

Ray is a young inventor living in the U.K. in the middle of the 19th century. Shortly before the first ever Great Exhibition, a marvelous invention called the "Steam Ball," behind which a menacing power is hidden, arrives at his door from his grandfather Lloid in the U.S. Meanwhile the nefarious O'Hara Foundation has sent men to aquire the Steam Ball so that they can use its power towards their own illicit ends.

(Source: Anime News Network)

CAST

James Steam
Anna Paquin
Scarlett St. Johns
Kari Wahlgren
James Steam
Patrick Stewart
Edward Steam
Masane Tsukayama
Robert Stephenson
Jorge Vasconcellos
David
Guillaume Lebon
Archibald Simon
Javier Rivero
Alfred Smith
Susumu Terajima
Jason Baker
Tetsu Inada
Ray no Haha
Keiko Aizawa
Emma Redmond
Sanae Kobayashi
Thomas Redmond
Aiko Hibi
Eikokusha Gensui
Osamu Saka

Episodes are being prepared. Check back soon.

RELATED TO STEAMBOY

MANGA ActionSteam Boy

REVIEWS

TheWatcherMG
60/100
A Steampunk Fan’s Dream Come True but Lacking in Everything That a Good Story Needs
Steamboy is known for being the work of Katsuhiro Ootomo, Akira's creator. When it was made, it was one of the most expensive Japanese films ever created.

That budget is what saved this movie. It looks really good. All of the steampunk tech is incredible looking, and you can really feel the machinery due to the incredible sound design.

But that's all this movie is. TLDR, It's a steampunk fan's wet dream. It's lacking in every other aspect. The plot is whatever, and the characters aren't compelling. Let me break it down for you. SPOILERS AHEAD. Do not read if you haven't watched the movie

The Plot

It's an action heavy movie with a plot that is barely holding itself together.

There are two factions in this movie. Introduced as the antagonists, the O'Hara Foundation is comically evil. The movie starts off with them abducting the main character, Ray, in their comically large and destructive vehicles. One would think they'd want to hide their tracks regarding all the evil things they do. They're war profiteers and build weapons using the latest steam tech.
Introduced as the good faction is the British Empire, which turns out to be no different from the O'Hara Foundation in the end. Big surprise there.

The rest of the movie is about the O'Hara Foundation basically starting a war with THE FUCKING BRITISH EMPIRE just to demonstrate their weapons to foreign militaries. What amount of money for a private organization was enough to pick a fight with the British Empire? Even worse, there are 0 consequences to this. The company's shenanigans probably killed 1000s of people in central London. They simply escape/move to America and continue their company there.

The theme of this movie seems to be a very blatant and loud WAR IS BAD and SCIENCE CAN BE DANGEROUS. A movie with anti-war or man vs technology themes can be very good, Steamboy just fails at it terribly.

The characters are unsatisfactory. We see hints of development but it never happens.

Scarlett, the typical ojou-sama character, has half a realization that war is bad and people dying due to their war profiteering is "awful." This goes nowhere. She has a big moment where she contributes to averting the great danger, but that's it. Can't forget the romantic interest she has in the MC that also never gets explored.

Ray's father, Eddy, represents the O'Hara Foundation's will. He became a mad scientist after a workplace accident made him an ugly cyborg. He basically fulfills his dream of launching the Steam Tower as he contributes to probably killing a lot of people. By the end of the movie, however, he shows a spark of humanity and helps avert the great danger which could kill millions. But he just escapes at the end of the movie. A shallow egotistical mad scientist.

The main character, Ray, is probably the most disappointing of them all. One of the core aspects of the movie is how Ray has to choose between the ideologies of his father and his grandfather regarding science and technology. But he never gets to making that choice. The O'Hara Foundation is so comically evil, and the grandfather's ideology ends up becoming the 'right' one due to how the Steam Tower might end up killing a lot of people. The plot deprives Ray of any character depth; he just gets pushed around by it, and all his actions are based on superficial motivations. The vast majority of the movie gets spent on showing cool things while the characters try to avert danger.

Overall, a visual spectacle but mediocre and disappointing.
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