A young inventor named Ray (Anna Paquin) receives a mysterious and powerful invention called a "steam ball" from his grandfather, Lloyd (Patrick Stewart). But he must protect it from his off-his-rocker dad, Eddie (Alfred Molina), who seeks to use it for his own ambition, in "Steamboy," a visual feast undermined by a bland story.
Writer/director Katshurio Otomo shows off a grand artistic vision, which is no surprise considering his past work, the quintessential anime "Akira." However, instead of "Steamboy"'s plot being good but confusing as in "Akira," it's merely uninteresting. The depth of the story is about ankle-high, and the characters are slightly annoying, like Scarlett, 19th century London's answer to Paris Hilton (she even has the chihuahua). Still, by the time it gets boring, someone straps on a steam-powered jetpack or starts firing a bazooka while wearing a suit of armor to grab attention.
Despite these flaws, "Steam-boy" is by no means a bad film, but it is ultimately a disappointment. It's promising that Otomo's concept differs greatly from "Akira," but it seems that he is trying too hard to appeal to a wider, global audience. "Steamboy" ends up cribbing too much from anime filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki, whose 2001 film "Spirited Away" was an international success. The end product doesn't justify the 17-year gap between films, especially considering "Steamboy" has been in development for 10 years and is the most expensive anime film ever made.
Landmark E Street Theater is offering the film in two versions, one in Japanese with English subtitles and the other dubbed in English. While subtitling would be the no-brainer choice, in the case of "Steamboy," the film takes place in England in the 1800s, and the dubbed version has its characters speaking in English accents. The end result makes the dubbed version oddly more appropriate, especially with legitimate talent such as Stewart and Molina lending their voices to the film.
In Otomo's case, he didn't need to bring back giant stuffed teddy bears bleeding milk (one of the more mind-opening elements of "Akira"), but after waiting 17 years between films, he should have come back with something epic. "Steamboy" is not.
