Space Warrior Baldios, directed by Kazuyuki Hirokawa and Hisayuki Toriumi, was the The End of Evangelion of its day, a feature-length, big screen release designed to tie up the loose ends for an early 80s television series that had attracted a small but dedicated following. Hacked together from 30-odd TV episodes and capped with material rearranged from unaired instalments, Baldios may trudge moment-to-moment but the plotting covers enormous ground, picking up on a seemingly alien planet choked with pollution and ending on an Earth facing a similarly destitute future. In this telling, Baldios seems notable for being a version of a super robot show that barely features its gleaming mechanoid. Although extraterrestrial sorties and transforming spacecraft are frequently deployed, the story's despondent destination means our heroes are always presented as being on the backfoot - assailed by a dimension-hopping civilisation, originating from the dead planet S-1, who will stop at nothing to claim Earth as their prize. As the conflict grows to include nuclear detonations and city swallowing tsunamis, leaders on both sides of the conflict tune into this apocalyptic death spiral, completely unwilling to take stock or exercise restraint. This mania is complimented by the film's two main characters: the S-1 refugee Marin Reigan, who fights on behalf of Earth and Aphrodia, the adopted daughter of the invading Fuhrer. Although clearly lovestruck from the second they meet, this strange pair bicker across a canvas of human extermination, constantly inventing reasons to prolong, but never consummate, their demented flirtation.
No comments:
Post a Comment