The Sky Crawlers (Play.com Exclusive Combi Pack) (Blu-ray & DVD) (Blu-ray)

I've watched many anime films, so I can appreciate that Eastern films have a different form of story telling then western films. They tend to be more about the inner soul, the meaning of your existance, the after life and other spiritualist subjects. Now this is no bad thing and done right they can be both beautiful, action packed and hard hitting and emotional.

In the case of Sky Crawlers, it wasn't really what I expected. I thought this was going to be a nice balance between heavy action and dog fights in the sky, and all the stuff I mentioned above about spirituality and meaning of life.

Unfortunately, this film is pretty slow pased and doesn't contain a lot of action and for a film orientated around an air war, thats a bit disapointing.

This animation is a lot more concerning with making a moral and ethical point, and it does very well and very blatently (perhaps a bit too blatent), but in my view... the rest of the film suffers as a result and you are left with… more »

I've watched many anime films, so I can appreciate that Eastern films have a different form of story telling then western films. They tend to be more about the inner soul, the meaning of your existance, the after life and other spiritualist subjects. Now this is no bad thing and done right they can be both beautiful, action packed and hard hitting and emotional.

In the case of Sky Crawlers, it wasn't really what I expected. I thought this was going to be a nice balance between heavy action and dog fights in the sky, and all the stuff I mentioned above about spirituality and meaning of life.

Unfortunately, this film is pretty slow pased and doesn't contain a lot of action and for a film orientated around an air war, thats a bit disapointing.

This animation is a lot more concerning with making a moral and ethical point, and it does very well and very blatently (perhaps a bit too blatent), but in my view... the rest of the film suffers as a result and you are left with a very unsatisfying conclusion and feeling of expectation for more.

You do get one quite epic dog fight sequence, but it fails to impress as its over so fast and we never get a real show down with the main villian.

I've seen the directors other work and Ghost in the shell is far superiour in how it handles both action and its message to the viewer. It has a balance between the two. But sky crawlers, does litterally crawl along and this damages the message he is trying to give, because you loose interest and then become annoyed at a pretty bad ending.

Its worth a view, but dont expect an action flick or anything which will make you really think about life. The ethnical point to the film is pretty obvious here.