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After 45 Glorious Years, Mobile Suit Gundam: GQuuuuuuX -Beginning- Delves Into What Ifs….

This cinematic presentation of Mobile Suit Gundam: GQuuuuuuX -Beginning- brings the first four television episodes together and shows an alternate future for this franchise.

GKIDS
Spoiler Alert
Now playing at select cinemas near you.

Mobile Suit Gundam is back with GQuuuuuuX -Beginning-! Not only does it reimagine the events from the original television series but also explores a huge what if scenario. Here, Char Aznable (Yuuki Shin) is the antihero who claims the RX-78-2. He’s the ultimate Mr. Bad Guy, and after he steals that said mech and christens it as the “Red Gundam” to win the One Year War, both he and his mech disappear! As for when that happens, before or after Char’s Counterattack, I’m not sure. The first act moves very fast, and I’d have to rewatch.

Consequently, I have to ask will he return? Instead of getting to the answer, the movie presentation jumps ahead by a few years, and introduces Amate Yuzuriha (Tomoyo Kurosawa). This teen finds life in a colony space habitat frustrating. Life in high school isn’t all that good either, and this leads to the usual tropes involved in many an anime.

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Oh My Heavens: The Boy And His Robot is set to Explode at Fantasia Fest 2024!

Despite being a very cliche-ridden plot, Heavens: The Boy and his Robot is fairly entertaining and worth the watch on the big screen.

Screening July 27, 2024 3:35 PM
Auditorium des diplômés de la SGWU (Théâtre Hall)

Singapore filmmaker Rich Ho has an idea, and that’s to create a franchise that is “Heavens” above all other giant robot films. In Japan, they’re known as mecha, and what I’m seeing in Heavens: The Boy And His Robot is a genuine love letter to the genre. After a very Transformers and Macross inspired introduction to explain how the Second Great War started, Kai (Jonathan See) becomes the focus of this tale. The boyish charm that this actor has sold the fact he’s a fish out of water. Or should I say he’s a small fry?

After his father died in a prior conflict, he’s anxious that his mother won’t come back either. She’s been called to duty, and even though his god parents raise him well, he still wishes mom to come home. Nothing is directly said if she’s dead or not, but I think she’s gone. Upon turning 18 years old, he wants to join the Mecha Corps with the goal of finding his parents. Instead of asking to join the science arm of this military group, he wants to be in the field.

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It’s Just Classic Toho Fun with Giant Robot Hellboy!

The concept behind this Giant Robot Hellboy is simple. It brings some of that classic Pacific Rim vibe into what is otherwise a Toho film featuring a certain other big G….

Dark Horse Comics
Spoiler Alert

Kaiju fans will love everything Mike Mignola has dreamed up in Giant Robot Hellboy. This story is inspired by the sketches he drew and got published in The Quarantine Sketchbook, and due to demand, he’s crafted an excellent story that blends Japanese style action to a familiar concept.

The first issue sets up something that I would expect in Patrick McGoohan’s The Prisoner. He gets a phone call and soon gets gassed. After passing out, he’s whisked away by unknown agents to some bunker, where he’s hooked up to various neural devices. As for the mysterious giant box, all I see is that it’s destined to some island said to be located east of Africa.

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Very Little is Elevated in Pacific Rim Uprising

The worry with Pacific Rim Uprising is in whether it is going to be like one of Michael Bay’s Transformers films.

Pacific Rim Uprising By Ed Sum
(The Vintage Tempest)

* Spoiler Alert

The worry with Pacific Rim Uprising is in whether it is going to be like one of Michael Bay’s Transformers films. When considering filmmaker Steven DeKnight is part of the writer’s room for the latter franchise and is new to directing blockbusters, my fears are justified. Before this film, he’s only handled TV productions. After seeing the atrocious Transformers: The Last Knight, the thought of this film echoing a similar idea with Amara (Cailee Spaeny) and her companion ‘bot, Scrapper, in the trailer scared me.

Technically, she has to pilot this small ‘bot. Later on, it is modified for remote control. When the story jumps 10 years into the future and we are dealing with a Robotech “Next Generation” scenario, I am still worried.

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