If you loved the Infini-T Force TV series and like the way that it ended, you may want to skip this movie. In fact, even if you didn't love the ending of the TV series, this film may not be worth your time, because not only does it fail to build upon the relatively hopeful finale of the series, it also comes to a rather unimpressive ending itself. Were there more Infini-T Force looming on the horizon, I may have had a different recommendation, but as it stands, this feature-length movie is simply underwhelming and more bitter than sweet.

The main action of the film starts after a roughly twenty-minute recap of the events of the television series, with a fairly heavy emphasis on the role Ken Washio, AKA Gatchaman, played. The reason why, apart from arguments that his original series is the most storied of the bunch, becomes clear when the new material begins: when Emi wished for all of the worlds destroyed by her father to be brought back, some of them were perhaps worlds that would have gone unmourned. One such world is an alternate version of Ken's, where the Case, known as the Nexus in in-world parlance, has been seized by a corrupt Dr. Nambu, the man who not only created the Science Ninja team Ken was part of, but also raised both Ken and his teammate Joe. Nambu not only allowed the other four members of the team to die on his watch, but also murders Ken when he tries to stop him. It's not entirely clear whether the deaths of the other four heroes caused Nambu to become unhinged or if he was corrupted by the Nexus' power before that, but the result is still that Nambu, freed of the moral constraints he may have felt when his team was still around, is now fully focused on using that power for his own goals: creating a team of superheroes whom he can control.

Ken initially stumbles upon this world because he's looking for his teammates from his world, having made the educated guess (possibly with Joji's help) that they may also have been sent to alternate earths. He discovers not only the corrupt Nambu, but also the Joe from his world, who is working to stop Nambu. It's not Joe, however, but Nambu's corruption which leads Ken to seek out his former Infini-T Force colleagues, hoping that the five of them can once again put an end to the way the Nexus' power leads otherwise good people into perdition.

All of that sounds fine, and even potentially interesting in concept, but things stumble when it comes to the way they play out. Because of the constraints of film versus television series, the plot is truncated in its execution, with too many characters attempting to do too much. This necessarily means that pretty much no one gets to play a full part, with Emi taking the biggest hit in terms of her role in the story. While that does make sense – she's got the least action-reliant element of the plot – it also makes us question why Ken even bothered to grab the other four characters in the first place. (And it is just four – Friender, Casshan's dog, is not in the film.) Much more effort is made to show us the basic philosophical differences between Ken and Joe, which is a highlight in terms of plot, not only because it helps to drive home the idea of Ken that we had from the TV series, who's hyper-aware of the ideas of fairness and justice, but also to cement one of the TV show's themes, which is that each team is made up of individuals with their own ideas and methods, working together for the common good.

In Joe's mind, the common good in this case is emphatically tied to Nambu's destruction. He believes that the only way to stop him is to kill him, something that Ken is morally opposed to, in large part because he cannot separate this Nambu from his Nambu. But Joe witnessed Nambu kill the Ken of this earth variant, and that to him is what makes Nambu's own death both warranted and just. Even seeing that the Ken from his world is alive and well doesn't soothe the rage he feels, and there's some question as to whether Ken simply can't picture his death at Nambu's hands because he himself is still alive. In any event, the fact of Nambu's corruption is never questioned; it all comes down to a difference of opinion as to how it should be handled.

Elements of the ending are foregone conclusions long before we get there. There is some attempt at a plot twist involving a UN ambassador from an unnamed country (she's blond, so in anime that means one of two or three places), but it largely falls a bit flat. The voice acting is very well done in both languages, with the actors managing to make even the cheesier lines sound solid, which is important here, since the sincerity of shows from the 1970s and 80s really can feel corny today. The updated versions of Joe and Nambu are likewise well done, although Nambu's is very clearly rooted in 1972, with his regrettable mustache and suit. (Oddly, no one else in his world looks as much of the 1970s, which is a little jarring.)

There are some changes in the art and animation in terms of how they're done. There are no more thick outlines and the textures look a bit more rubbery, particularly on faces, likely due to the rendering technique used. There's a little more dependency on bloom to soften the edges, and it appears that they're no longer using a game engine for the animation. But it still looks good and more fluid than you might expect, although that quality does drop a bit when characters aren't fighting or running.

Overall, however, this is something of a disappointment. It still has the fun factor of mashing up classic shows and characters in a new way, but the plot is thinner and the ending a little inconclusive. Mostly it just feels like the TV series did the concept better, so while this isn't terrible, it's also not necessary viewing – at least until more stories are forthcoming.