Forum - View topicGundam Compilation Movies: Worth it or Not?
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Punchey Monk
Posts: 29 |
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Hi there, one and all. I'm currently in the process of catching up on all of the Gundam DVDs that I haven't picked up yet. So far, aside from Gundam Wing: Endless Waltz, and volumes 4-10 of Gundam SEED, I've picked up every other Gundam title that Bandai has released in the US. The only other titles aside from the aforementioned that I haven't bought are the compilation movies. Specifically, I'm referring to:
Mobile Suit Gundam I-III 08th MS Team: Miller's Report Mobile Suit Gundam SEED I-III I'm hesitant to pick these up since, they're predominantly "recycled" material from the series they represent. Is there really that much in any of these that makes them markedly different or more enjoyable than the source material? Is there anything that makes it worth paying $20-$30 per movie all over again? I'm not criticizing, merely curious. Help a guy out here! 
Thanks. |
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MilkManX
 Posts: 47 Location: Tucson AZ USA |
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I haven't seen Millers Report or the SEED movies yet. The Gundam 0079 Movie trilogy though in my opinion is a must get. Its Sub-only though. The great thing is that the 5.1 sound is really good. Its been cleaned up alot and it has new animation in scenes of 2 and about a fourth of Movie 3 has new animation. I find the 0079 movies to be more enjoyable than the series. Movie 3 is especially nice.
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zaphdash
 Posts: 620 Location: Brooklyn |
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The First Gundam movies are completely a matter of taste. Some people like them more, some don't. Personally, I think they're better than the TV series. They trim a lot of the fat out of the show, but they really don't sacrifice character development, especially not to the degree that people sometimes complain they do. There are a few minor story changes made to accomodate the much faster pace (for instance, White Base is too late to participate in Odessa in the movies), but for what it's worth, the movies are the official version of events wherever they conflict with the TV series. And the movie DVDs are also subtitled, unlike the TV series (but they aren't dubbed, if that's what you prefer to watch).
Miller's Report...actually never watched it. I don't much care for the 08th MS Team anyway, and I assumed that it probably wasn't an outstanding movie. Aside from the First Gundam movies, Gundam compilations really aren't very good. They're generally forced to cut far too much material into far too little time, so unless you've already seen the TV series anyway, you'll have trouble following the action. First Gundam and, for the obvious reason that nothing was actually cut to make it fit into a movie, Endless Waltz, are the lone exceptions. The Zeta movies, Turn A movies, and the SEED compilations all suffer from this problem (the Turn A movies are especially bad), and god knows the Gundam 0083 movie was just a horrific train wreck all around. Even Gundam F91, which is based on the first thirteen episodes of an aborted TV series, has tons of problems of this nature. What you gain from movie compilations is a little bit of new animation. What you lose is a coherent story and almost all character development. The First Gundam movies are an exception. They stand alone very well, so it's really your call whether you'd rather have the Gundam story in TV or movie form, or both. All other Gundam compilations, steer clear unless you just want to see some new footage that badly. |
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Nagisa
Moderator
 Posts: 6128 Location: Atlanta-ish, Jawjuh |
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Like zaphdash said, the Mobile Suit Gundam movie trilogy is really a matter of personal preference. The movies and TV series both tell the story rather well, it's just that the TV series focuses more on character development, while the movies focus more on upping the Newtype storyline and streamlining the story into a fast-paced cinematic experience.
Miller's Report really works better as a sideplot to the series than a compilation. I remember when the series ran on Toonami, they mixed the new footage from Miller's Report into episode eight and turned the episode into a "45-minute special," and it worked really well. I didn't even realize the episode was tampered with until I got the DVD. I mean, as a compilation of the first eight episodes told through a bunch of flashback sequences, it's really not bad. But I still think it worked much better with the new footage of Alice Miller's interaction with Shirou Amada being blended into the actual episode eight. The SEED Special Editions, however, are a waste of time. They're so horribly mixed that unless you've seen the TV series already, it will not make a single drop of sense. And the new footage used to draw in fans of the show is far too scant to make it worthwhile. There's maybe five minutes' worth across all three volumes. Not to mention a lot of the new footage and redone scenes only damage the story as a whole. spoiler[Beneath the mask, Raww's...completely normal-looking, despite all that talk about "disfiguring accelerated aging" or what-have-you. The rather spectacular way in which Yzak and Dearka dispatched with the Raider Gundam is replaced by stock footage. Mwu's helmet is removed from the Strike Gundam's destruction to give him an out to return in Destiny. Azrael's given this exceedingly weak backstory of being picked on by Coordinators as a child as a means of justifying his prejudice.] It's all ridiculous, and it's all utterly meaningless. So basically, the Mobile Suit Gundam movie trilogy's worth it, Miller's Report is somewhat worth it (but if you buy the current 08th MS release, you'll be getting it anyway by default), and the SEED Special Edition is best avoided completely. |
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Digital Dreamer
 Posts: 287 Location: Sydney, Australia |
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It really comes down to how badly you want to see the orginal series that this is the about the only known legal way of seeing it all in English. Last I heard was that they stopped release the orginal TV series after about 20 episodes. It might be recycled material, however it's touched up a lot from the orginal as I have seen both. It really comes down to how much of a gundam fan are you. |
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Punchey Monk
Posts: 29 |
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Well, owning all ten volumes (and forty-some-odd episodes) on DVD, I know that minus an episode that was removed by request of Tomino, I've seen the series from beginning to end. I know that Cartoon Network cancelled the televised version of it prematurely, though. It sounds like the "First Gundam" movies are worth picking up in any case, though I remain leery of the other movies. |
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Fenrir
 Posts: 369 |
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the Zeta ones aren't that bad but the others are a waste when it comes to Gundam movies stick with THe first Gundam movies, Char's Counter Attack, F-91 its got problems but its not bad. The rest are just horrible.
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