SYNOPSICS
Robotech: The Shadow Chronicles (2006) is a English movie. Dong-Wook Lee,Tommy Yune has directed this movie. Richard Epcar,Eddie Frierson,Mark Hamill,Alexandra Kenworthy are the starring of this movie. It was released in 2006. Robotech: The Shadow Chronicles (2006) is considered one of the best Animation,Action,Adventure,Sci-Fi movie in India and around the world.
The Robotech Expeditionary Force stages their final assault on the Invid to liberate Earth at all costs along with REF pilot Scott Bernard and the Invid princess Ariel's parallel planetside efforts at the alien's stronghold, Reflex Point. Just before the attack, the fleet gets a distress call from Admiral Rick Hunter and their flagship, SDF-3. In the ensuing mission, which only manages to rescue the android Janice Em, the REF discover that they have been betrayed by their own ally, the Haydenites, whose powerful technology they have supplied now is revealed to be designed to devastatingly enable their own plans of conquest even as the Invid withdraw. As Scott and Ariel join the fleet, the disparate pair and Janice must overcome their comrade's deep distrust to find a means to stop their newest foe before it is too late.
More
Robotech: The Shadow Chronicles (2006) Reviews
From something old, it tries to be too "new."
The last half of my "growing up" years included Robotech and I enjoyed the series. There was a style that I enjoyed and it helped me discover anime. Watching Shadow Chronicles does not fully capture that style and it is entirely a "Hollywood" production than something adapted and remade for a North American audience. For a newcomer to the anime scene, one would not suspect its Japanese origins unless one does the research or watches a behind the scenes documentary. Production-wise, Shadow Chronicles borrows from what is now hip in the SF television genre scene—like the Battlestar Galactica 2005/6 style battle sequences and the CG replacing traditional cel animation / model elements. That is what distinguishes it from the original series. While there is nothing wrong with that, it does not lend well to a series that is trying to pick up from what was done 20 something years ago. Robotech Sentinels, ironically enough, does a better job of capturing that style.
Great transition to a new chapter
Yes, I'm a Robotech fan from the 80's. But I can honestly say that I've long since forgotten most of the storyline and am not an avid anime watcher. That being said, the movie immediately jogged my memory of where Robotech: New Generations had left off. It does not, however, lend itself to engage new viewers of the series since the main job of the movie, which is accomplished quite successfully, is to rekindle the nostalgia of the old movies while attempting to transition into the new storyline. So yes, young kids who are watching Robotech for the first time probably won't equate this movie to say, Beauty and the Beast, because by design, the movie is not easy to pick up and watch. The movie is not a stand alone. There is no complete plot. It literally transitions from New Generations onto the Shadow Chronicles. Numerous characters that fans will recognize pop up here and there. Shadow Chronicles does a masterful job of connecting the viewer to the characters since the protagonists they choose to follow are literally kin to some of our most beloved characters from the previous series. The plot, although not quite seamless, does summarize the three-way relationship between Invid-Robotech Masters-Humans. It also introduces another element to the equation, dubbed the "Children of the Shadow." Although the movie does not fully explain who the "Children" are, you seem to get the feeling that all subsequent episodes will address this issue and go in-depth to detailing the Children's place and motive. Again, the plot is intentionally inconclusive so that it can eventually transition into perhaps a full blown series. The animation is entertaining. Mixed usage of 2D and 3D CGI graphics are awkward at first, but blend in once the story unfolds. In fact, I found the CGI annoying at first, but after a while, I got used to it and actually found myself pleasantly amused. The one downside of the CGI is that I've seen better in a lot of movies and video games, so I do feel somewhat shortchanged. I don't want to be unfair by saying that it's not good, but at the same time you can tell that it's no Pixar production. Ultimately, I will say that if you're into Robotech, you will probably enjoy this movie a lot. If you have no idea what Robotech is, you'll probably feel mixed, a little confused, but perhaps eager to find out more. Overall, the movie is entertaining if it's understood that it is not, again, a stand alone. And to its credit, I found myself thoroughly enjoying it and wishing that they would continue the saga just so that I can get myself back into the story and get some closure on the unsatisfying end to New Generations.
Disaster....not worth watching
Wow. What an incredible cliché after cliché... You wait for 20 years and all you get is a complete rehash oh every SCI-FI cliché in the book... Yet again the earth is fighting nasty aliens, with one dimensional forgettable characters... Only this time the awesome(robotech) music score is not here. It is replaced with easily forgettable Star Wars alike score... And on Top of that, we have the so advertized CGI. O dear that is THE worst CGI ever seen on film. I simply cannot find a comparable title. What you will see is one cgi flaw after another, badly animated mecha,( almost not moving), Massive perfectly aligned fleets, moving all at the same speed..., horrible out of sync explosions.. The 2d characters were somewhat decent. They could use some more animation, but they look quite good.. Too bad all they have is their looks... Over all a major desapointment. Most certainly not worth the money...
Mediocre. Call back Carl Macek
Shadow Chronicles is another attempt by Harmony Gold to capture the formula of the 1985 series. Sadly, it failed again. With the exception of the music and voice acting which was good in all Robotech productions including this, It can be said that they don't learn from their own past mistakes. In the past,they used to leave almost all responsibility to Carl Macek, the creator of Robotech. When that wasn't good at all, now they moved to another extreme. They left him almost completely out of the movie (he just was called as consultant) just to put to do direction, designs and story to a comic book artist called Tommy Yune with no experience at all in animated movies and what's worst, who wasn't involved at all with the original series. So, which mistakes did they make this time? First of all, the story is again bad. Since the Robotech series they didn't manage to get real good writers for their productions. Second, they repeated a mistake we thought they had learned from, moving away from the original series continuity and making obvious ripoff of other series concepts and ideas. In the first scripts of the Robotech II movie, they replaced the writers for the second version of the script because they were moving away from the original series characters. This movie does the same, you barely see Rick Hunter, you don't know what happens to the 15th squadron and a bunch of other past generation characters and the old characters who reappears looks nothing like they were, to summarize it, you don't see anything that resembles more than the last generation of the old series as if they were trying to make a Mospeada sequel instead of a Robotech one. Moreover, they changed the series story again. Like a Robotech fan said on the internet "it looks like that kid game where children pass what the first said from one to another, and where the last tries to figure out what the first said". In the original series, Robotech was the result of Carl Macek (story concept), Robert Barron (director/writer) and the other original writers. Just a year after that, everything (direction, writing, story concept) was in charge of almost only Macek and just a couple of the original writers. Later it was Mc Kinney, the Waltrip brothers and now finally Yune. Since the original series no one has taken care of keeping the coherence and the flavor of the series story. What other mistakes did they make now? They gave big breast to all women in the movie, and big muscles to all guys. There are no new mecha. About the animation, it looks like they were amateurs experimenting with the 3d & 2d mixing it badly. I truly can make better 3d than the cg in most of the movie, the veritechs, vessels, explosions, and missile and beams fire looks pretty bad most times, artificial, done without passion, with poorly textured mechas. Finally, they left out the science fiction feel the series had. A missile which exploded can create a black hole? yeah, right. If they would have the minimum knowledge and interest for science they'd know only the mass of a giant star can create a black hole. Why not giving magic sticks to the soldiers to turn the Invids into flowers then?
LAME-- a big let down....
When Robotech was first aired--I recorded (vcr was all we had in them days, remember?) all three generations even though I didn't like the 2nd generation, Dana's Story, I recorded it anyway so I could have the complete set. It was fascinating---I was in junior high. Loved the drama, the action(people and aliens being killed), and the characters were likable and interesting---the way the stories were told--the dialog-- the visuals, animation--it was just bad ass. I felt like I was there and I couldn't wait to see the next episode. Now-a-days, I watch the DVD's of the series, and the characters are like old friends. When I heard this Movie was made, I was hoping to catch up with some of the old characters---like Rick Hunter, Max Sterling, Myria, Lisa Hayes, Lynn Minmei, Rand, Rook, etc. Didn't happen. The only character you see is Rick Hunter when he mumbles a couple of sentences on a broken video transmission. Thats it. Maybe ten seconds of footage. Total rip off. Oh, and Scott Bernard w/Ariel(Marlene?). He didn't say a lot in the third generation, but he thought a lot--we could here his thoughts--not in this movie. The new characters were lame. Dull. ALL of the females had large bulbous breasts. Taking away from the characters themselves I believe. Those boobs were too much of a focal point I believe. When I saw all that cleavage with no pay off nudity, I felt robbed. The movie was set almost entirely in outer space which made it even more boring. Part of the allure of Robotech was the battles on earth's countryside and in urban environments. In this movie, when aliens were killed or humans for that matter, they just disintegrated and disappeared----nothing like the series: when aliens were killed they may lose limbs or pieces and turn into bleeding carcasses. Same deal with the human deaths--you may see flesh burning off skin during an explosion---much more realistic. The point: no detail in the animation.