Some of the time, a company actually does a good job in this type of revisiting of a show. The best example of this coming to mind would be RahXephon: The Movie. Weaving just enough of the detail that allowed the show to transcend from being yet another beat them up style robot show, the movie gave a good overview of the series without forcing someone to watch the series before understanding the basics of what was taking place. It addressed the spirit of the conflicts contained in the series without giving away the spoilers a bad review would do and I, for one, thought it was a perfect compliment to the already wonderful series. If all movie versions of series were this good, fans of anime like myself would rejoice at the care and effort put into our shows made to expand the number of fans watching it. The alternative style of revisiting a series for a movie release is the subject of today's review of Mobile Suit Gundam Seed: The Empty Battlefield.

For those of you unfamiliar with the Mobile Suit Gundam Seed series, it was one of my favorite shows of the last several months, even though I didn't start reviewing it until the second half. For a series that builds on the events of previous volumes, that speaks quite loudly in terms of pulling me into a story that was half over with a host of complex political situations and characters I could never hope to fully understand. As such, it seems logical that a movie derived from the first part of the series would allow me to fill in the missing gaps yet still be able to compare the two releases against one another (a reviewer not seeing any of the series would be substantially handicapped in one way while one seeing the first half of the series would have already seen too much of the material here). Here's some background material for you to better understand the concept of the series/movie, trying to stay on the conservative side of not spoiling it for you:

It's Year 70 of the Cosmic Era. Mankind has colonized outer space and science has advanced to the point where genetic manipulation allows a superior form of man to exist. Such people are called Coordinators and are generally superior to the breeders down on Earth. As with any other different class of people in the history of mankind, tensions build between the two groups with the Coordinators thinking the unimproved humans are less able to adapt to the changing times (and they have a point) while the natural humans are of the opinion that the enhancements haven't made their counterparts all that much better (they also have a point). As jealousies flare over perceived mistreatment and a war in the near past between the groups, the Coordinator forces of a group called ZAFT, initiate hostilities on a neutral space colony called Heliopolis.

Okay, not having seen the first half of the series, I had the general idea of what took place by the limited exposition the characters gave from time to time but not the specifics. Mobile Suit Gundam Seed: The Empty Battlefield filled in some of the basics by showing the origin of the series hero, Kira Yamato, thrown into a large robot when his colony is attacked by rogues. Although a coordinator himself, he seeks to protect those around him as best he can, sometimes proving to be unable to keep his pledge of protection. His robot is an advanced form of mobile suit and while he likes his idyllic life, he has little choice as the events surrounding him force him into a warrior's role making him yet another reluctant combatant (an admittedly overdone stereotype in anime).

The problem with the way this is shown in the movie is that it draws so heavily from an episode or two. We barely get to know Kira or his friends and the flashbacks conveniently left in the movie to show us who the antagonists (the bad guys) are, do little to provide any kind of decent motivations. Yeah, they left in a short speech by some unknown leader and they shows clips of Kira's initial opponent, Athrun, but the best part of the Gundam Seed series is how it typically shows that the bad guys aren't all that bad (and that the "good guys" aren't always that good). I'm almost surprised that they didn't just show battle scenes all strung out in a row with a scoreboard attached at the bottom of the screen. I know I'm oversimplifying the manner in which the movie treats the material but I learned to respect the fuller, richer complexities during recent months and I can't stress enough how much was lost here.

To sell the movie as something significantly apart from the series, they could have added a lot more new footage (there's nothing to explain what was added but a friend swears it's under a couple of minutes worth and includes a very short, non-explicit sex scene), made a side story that fit into the continuity of the series, or make a George Lucas sized movie on two discs to contain enough of the richness to make the movie a fair representation of the series. In each scenario, the movie dropped the ball to some extent and while it may garner a few new viewers, I can't help but wonder if it's going to sell them on something the series isn't. In all though, as much as I liked the series, I didn't hate the movie so much as found it disappointing with regard to the limitations inevitably found with it. As much as I thought the Mobile Suit Gundam Seed Series was excellent, I have to weigh the movie on its own merits which forced me to give it a rating of Rent It. If you've seen the entire series (you lucky dog!), there really isn't anything here worth getting but if you're wanting a brief, glossed over glimpse into whether or not to get the series, this might suffice as long as you keep in mind how much better the series is.

Picture: Mobile Suit Gundam Seed: The Empty Battlefield was presented in a 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen presentation. While this sounds great on the surface, the series was originally produced with a 1.33:1 ratio; so I ask if you prefer to have the content of a show cropped to provide a "movie looking" aspect ratio or the one it came in (I prefer the original aspect ratio in all my movies, preferring to see exactly what was offered)? The picture was very solid with lots of details, no compression artifacts, and no video noise with few other visual issues worth mentioning aside from some limitations on background movement.

Sound: The audio seemed to be the same as the series; presented with the usual two choices, a 2.0 Dolby Digital track in the original Japanese with English subtitles or the newly made English dub. I thought the voice acting on each had some merit, with slight nods to the original cast, but even the dub managed to give me a decent feel for the material. If you're a purist, you might want to at least listen to the dub, especially since the sound effects appeared to be remixed a bit in order to use the stereo aspects of the audio track more thoroughly. I also noticed the music score being somewhat richer this time on the dub, a factor noticed on a great many new releases as American companies enhance the original track to take advantage of home theatres most of us have rather than the generic speakers of the common television.

Extras: There were two trailers to televisions shows and one for the Gundam video game with no insert, cardboard add on, or anything else.

Final Thoughts: Mobile Suit Gundam Seed: The Empty Battlefield was a pale version of a great series with some questionable changes made to the aspect ratio of the material. If you enjoy watching it for some of the potential conflicts (not just the battle scenes) between the cast, you'll probably love the series as much as devoted fans do all over the world. If you love narration employed to cut corners on story elements; you'll like the movie version better since it obtrudes on a very regular basis (unlike in the series) but check out the first few volumes of the series after seeing this and I suspect you'll never look back at the movie.

If you enjoy anime, take a look at some of the recommendations by DVDTalk's twisted cast of reviewers in their Best Of Anime 2003 and Best Of Anime 2004 article or regular column Anime Talk