Steamboy (Review)

Steamboy is a Movie that Runs Out of…Wait for It… Steam.

For years, Steamboy has popped up around video stores and my Netflix queue as something I might be interested in. Even those who aren’t exactly fine connoisseurs of anime have probably at least heard of it. So, when I finally bit the bullet to sit down and watch a film from the acclaimed director Katsuhiro Otomo, who’s responsible for one of the most iconic anime of all time (Akira), I was more than a little disappointed with it.

While it’s certainly a visually striking film filled with creativity and spectacle, everything else about is lackluster at best. More importantly, though, I can’t help but really dislike the protagonist (voiced by Anna Paquin), who came off as a whiny brat who really deserved to have a lesson or two taught to him.

Essentially, Steamboy is a “what could have happened” film. It takes a look at 19th-century England and attempts to imagine all the steam-powered possibilities that could have been. At the center of it is the young hero, Ray Steam (get it? His last name is Steam). His father, Edward (Alfred Molina), and his grandfather (Patrick Stewart) run off together to create this incredible device that give unlimited power (steam power, that is), and, of course, bad guys want the device. So, as you’d expect, young Ray gets sucked into a grand adventure that leads to a lot of death and destruction.

To be honest, Steamboy is boring. It’s about a half hour too long, and most of the time it’s spouting off some frivolous nonsense about what the true purpose of science is. Needless to say, it doesn’t offer some great insight into the nature of man or anything even remotely close to that. Instead, the characters seem to have their own philosophies and stick to them without really offering any arguments for why their ideas are the best. Instead, it’s something of a cautionary tale, but it’s never really certain what it’s cautioning against. Is science bad? Are people bad? Is capitalism bad? Maybe everything is just bad. Either way, nothing really profound is ever offered to the audience as tribute for sitting through more than two hours of British people shouting at each other. Really, the only thing certain about Steamboy is that it most definitely is about steam.

So, besides the fact that the characters are boring, the act structure is a mess and the plot seems to be paint-by-numbers at best, Steamboy is a lot of fun to look at. Otomo takes the popular steampunk movement that has been growing over the last few years and gives it a film that almost looks like it should be worth watching. It’s filled with brilliant designs and breathtaking visuals, and it oozes with creativity. It’s just too bad that was all missing from the script, because even such grand designs do little to ease the comfort of a boring story. Still, the film shows the audience a fascinating universe.

In the end, Steamboy is a little too awkward for its own good. The action sequences are reminiscent of a doe standing up for the first time, and they do little to create any sort of sense of either suspense or urgency. The characters aren’t likable in any stretch of the word, and it’s way too chatty. Ray Steam flip-flops so many times it’s confusing who you’re actually rooting for by the end of it. So, while it was awfully pretty, it’s too vapid to warrant a second screening. Pretty can only get you so far before the mind-numbing drivel starts to wear thin. Really, if Steamboy lost about half an hour, it might be enjoyable. But as it stands, it’s hard to recommend this flick: It is merely competent at its very best.