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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Not bad...not as good as it could be, September 14, 2005
This review is from: Mobile Suit Gundam SEED: The Far-Away Dawn (Movie 2) (DVD)
The second movie was definitely better than the first. While the first was more like a clip show with a couple of flashy new scenes thrown in, the second was smooth, the transitioning was great and caught the essence of the story and characters almost well as the series. It still had some issues though
This movie starts off with Cagalli and Athrun meeting each other after shooting each other down. They are saved by their respective groups. The Archangel and Athrun's team do battle along the territoral waters of the neutral nation of Orb. After the Archangel manages to to safely land in Orb (thanks to Cagalli) and moves towards the Earth Alliances Headquarters in Alaska. Kira disappears after a fierce duel with Athrun, ending with the destruction of both pilots' Gundams. Kira returns from the Plants (piloting a new Gundam)to save the Archangel from a nasty fate and they end up heading to Orb once more. During the Earth Forces attack on Orb, Ahtrun and Kira manage to get back together and Athrun pledges to help defend Orb. After Orb begins to lose to the EA, the leadership choose a plan that leads to a heart wrenching ending that helps to change the course of the war and the lives of the main characters.
Though the movie was ten times better than the first, there was hardly any new stuff at all. The only thing that I could see was that the battle scenes weren't reused. The ending sequences were the only significant new shots that I saw.
The ending of this movie was by far the highlight of both movies. It was perfectly done, from the editing, to the music and the voice acting; it caught the sadness much better than the episodes that it was taken from. The insert song for the last 5 minutes was poignant and fitting.
The lack of new scenes was a little disappointing, and the character development(Murrue, Mu, and Lacus) was lacking; especially with Murrus and Mu falling in love seemingly out of nowhere. However, the ending was so good that it made up for some of the shortcomings. I recommend this for Gundam SEED fans, but I'd watch the series first or you may get lost.
Rating: 3.5/5
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A Better Attempt, August 8, 2008
This review is from: Mobile Suit Gundam SEED: The Far-Away Dawn (Movie 2) (DVD)
This second installment of the three Gundam Seed movies covers episodes 22-40. Most fans took a liking to this one more mainly because the transition from scene to scene was handled better. That's not to say fans can't find something negative to point out.
Cagalli is now suddenly on the Archangel, no explanation as to why. Reducing Kira's first battle with Marco Morassim to a few clips was one thing, but most of the last battle should've been shown since it resulted in Cagalli crashing on an island. You see her crash mind you, but it happened to quickly and if you're shaky on the storyline you might not notice that Athrun was on the carrier shot down. It could be confusing for someone to piece together how Athrun wound up on the island. More scenes should've been shown between Cagalli and her father, particularly the one when Uzumi talks about war and if she would die he would hate the person responsible. As for Kira struggling with being a Coordinator with the earth forces it would've been nice to see his conversation with Mu La Flaga about how he's afraid his parents might resent hime for being a Coordinator, so he won't visit them. Another thing that was reduced to a brief flashback was Kira calling it quits with Flay. This was a huge turning point for both characters, it should've gotten better treatment.
My biggest problem with this movie was the major shortening and intercutting of episodes 29 and 30. These were two of the most important episodes of the whole series. Given how little we've seen of Nicol up to this point they could've at least shown the scene with Athrun, Yzak and Dearka in the locker room following Nicol's death in it's entirety. Athrun looking at the inside of Nicol's locker was one of the saddest moments ever in the series. The fact that there is only a few seconds between the two battles is confusing and really kills the overall impact of the events and outcome. While the rest of the crew of the Archangel was happy about the defeat of the Blitz Gundam (Nicol), Kira was devasted about taking a human life. The only thing we see in the movie that conveys this is Mu La Flaga telling Kira in a brief clip, "We're not murders, we're in a war!"
Afterward when Tolle is dead and everyone believes Kira is dead we see very little grieving from the Archangel crew. The scene were both Miriallia and the Flay both try to kill Dearka, who is now a prisoner on the Archangel is reduced to a brief flashback later on in the movie. This was a turning point for both Miriallia, loosing Tolle and getting past her grief and distancing herself from Flay's hatred toward all Coordinators and Dearka, who finally starts feeling something besides hatred toward Naturals. Being a very powerful moment in the series it was disapointing to see it only breifly shown.
The rest of the movie actually flowed pretty well, everything from Kira recovering with Lacus and Athrun recovering with Cagalli, The indroduction of the Freedom Gundam and Justice Gundam, the Battle of Alaska and everything all the way to Orb's collapse. I just wished they showed every second of Kira, Athrun and Dearka's battles with the three new Earth Forces Gundam Pilots, Orga, Shani and Clotho. Those were some of the best fights ever. The new images shown during the end credits were nice.
The problem I'll will mention with every Gundam Seed movie is the length, each one of them could easily be at least 30 minutes longer. That can make all the difference. So even if you weren't pleased with the first Gundam Seed movie this one you'll most likely enjoy better.
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3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
pawns the first one, September 18, 2005
This review is from: Mobile Suit Gundam SEED: The Far-Away Dawn (Movie 2) (DVD)
i think this movie is way better than the first one cause the first one had just random scenes in it, but this one keeps its setting and looks like it also has some kind of story, i watched this special edition movie 2 without watching the episodes for it but still enjoyed watching it cause i watched the episodes before it and kind of new what was happening, but now i have watched all the episodes for that was compiled for this movie, and think this movie still stands out well, i did not really care if there was new scenes in it or not but you got some what different feeling for it compared to the tv one, the new things i noticed is that they kind of made it just a little bit graphic, by showing people exploding with a dust of blood which it thought was pretty cool, and the music was redited for some of the fight scenes which was quite enjoyable. the ending to this movie was a great one it just felt like a fitting ending cause that is the ending of this setting, the music was also good for it even though you get the same song for the show but, as i said before you get more of a emotional feeling, so yah this movie was more about friendship, i would reccomend this movie to any of you people, dont stop watching the special edition cause of the dissapointing first one, i think this was worth watching.
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