Customer Reviews

Robotech: The Shadow Chronicles [Blu-ray]

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Robotech the Shadow Chronicles [RtSC] is Harmony Gold's first real attempt to breath life into what had become, at least in the US, a dormant giant.

I personally feel the movie ranks 3.5 out of five, so I rounded up. RtSC is basically the 88min pilot for what will become the next Saga of Robotech, adding a fourth to the previous three of the original show. I consider it to be more of an OAV episode than a stand alone movie, and indeed HG is at the moment working on a new sequel, Robotech Shadow Rising, and a live action adaptation of the original series with Tobey Maguire and Warner Brothers.

My only real complaints stem from the fact that RtSC did not have nearly a big enough budget. Lets face it, bringing back a dormant franchise after nearly 20 years is a risky business. There are a few little things that could have been fixed, mostly minor animation problems or goofs.

On the whole RtSC is a fun start that came closer, I think, than anyone realistically expected to recapturing the elements that made the original so great and enduring. If you are a Robotech or anime fan this one is a must, if you are curious, I would suggest starting with the original series first, then getting this movie when you are done.

First and foremost, the source material for Shadow Chronicles is the Jack McKinney novel "End of the Circle."
To even begin to appreciate Shadow Chronicles for what it is, you MUST MUST MUST read the Sentinel novelizations by McKinney...

That being said... I liked the CGI/ traditional animation blend. It reminds me of the animation style of Macross Zero... although, with Peter Chung's traditional (ugly) style of animation.

I'm not particularly a fan of Peter Chung's writing or storytelling, but he DOES give Robotech the political intrigue to put it on par with contemporary Macross equivalents.

My biggest problem is that this tries to do too much too soon, and there are severe character development issues in the film.
For the pre-established characters from previous RT series, its not a problem as it is assumed, however with new characters (not including those in the Sentinel's novels) they are not given adequate time for them to be redshirt fodder.

In that sense at its worst, Shadow Chronicles is like the horrendous HK English dub of "Clash of the Bionoids" that was released in the 80s... but when at its best (the last 2/3s of it) it is an amazing film that actually serves to separate itself from its Macross source material, and thrive as its own universe.

I love the Original series and purchased this item to finish my collection. This add on is not very good it lacks the feel and draw in appeal of the original. I'm sure others will like it but the computer slap on art work just didn't mix well for me and it didn't appeal to my artistic side. Would I want it anyway? of course - it completes a great series.

This seemed to be a good opp to clean up all the continuity issues, false starts and other stuff.

If anything I am more confused. Retcon seems to be the word of the day for this offering. Retcon is fine if clearing up previous continuity issues but uh it seems lke the retcon stuff made more to me.

The music was great. The animation of the characters was pretty lame - they look like manga toons, the CGI stuff was lame.

Why is it so hard to explain what happened to the 99% of the other original characters we wanted to see? Where are they all? Why are some around and how did they get there (Louie for instance) but not the others? Okay the rest of the third generation stayed on earth and left behind for good prolly but it would have been nice if you could have thrown us a bone and they made cameos at least.

Where is the rest of the first and second generation? I understand there is a comic that preceedes this that has some of them in it.

Why do new characters need to be introduced when there are so many you could have chosen from? I was hoping there would be mixing and matching from the three different generations. I understand if there is some matter of copyright or what not but just spread the word about that if so and there would be a little more understanding maybe.

Good to hear the old voices. All this did for me was explain nothing and raise more questions.

Overall the production was flat, everyone seems in slow motion talking and walking around (for instance character A asks Character B a questions...5 seconds later character B drones out a monotone answer), new characters are sort of weak, too much purple hair. One character with purple hair is fine but mix it up a little more.

This is like Sentinals all over again.

I found the story interresting but that anime suffer from the studio that has done it. The anime style feel like and american anime, not a japanese anime. If that does not bother you, you can add a star. I still succeded to enjoy the story but not enough to watch it a second time. It take me half of the anime before suceeded to begin to enjoy it.

If you are a Robotech fan, then this movie is a must-have! It continues the story after the third generation. There is only a slight logic-flaw in the continuity after episode 85. Not all of the Next-Gen players are there, but you will cheer when Scott Bernard makes his entrance.

I only want more.

Anyone that has watched the original series is likely to like this movies as well. The quality is great. I have the complete Robotech series and movies and I love them all.

Pelicula para los fans de la serie, sigue la misma linea de la serie, tiene poca aportación en cuanto a su temática. Con mejor animación que la serie sin ser muy exigente.

first off, the computer animated space scenes look like they were made on a Commodore 64 computer.....

second, we ALL know that they are going to release a special edition on dvd, then another on blu ray.... then another special edition, ultimate edition, supreme edition, paramount edition.... etc.....

WTF!!! this makes me so mad because instead of MILKING this movie (don't misunderstand, the movie is great), they should concentrate on MAKING A NEW SERIES, OR MOVIE SERIES OR ANYTHING!!!!!!!

When Harmony Gold gets their act together, then I will be just as big a fan of Robotech as I ever was (I was HUGE!)

the movie gets 5 stars, but the way the franchise is being handled gets zero stars!!!

don't make us wait another 500 years like the period after the whole Sentinels debacle..... I love all things Robotech, but enough is enough.....

This Blu-Ray version of the movie is exactly like the DVD version. Just at a lower price. BUY for fans. RENT for others.