Wendi and I went to see the Escaflowne movie at the Clinton Street Theater a couple of weekends ago. And yes, I’m so lazy that it took me this long to write up the review.

“Escaflowne” is a movie about giant robots that manages to almost entirely not be a movie about giant robots. A young semi-suicidal girl is brought over to another world, Gaia, where everyone thinks she’s the Wing Goddess destined to summon the Dragon Armor known as Escaflowne to either save or destroy the world. Oh, and this loner-hero named Van is on a mission to kill his brother who usurped the throne or something.

You see, while the plot isn’t what you would call terribly complex, you’re not really given any sort of real bead on the background involved. You also get the impression that there’s an awful lot of backstory and character development that you’re missing out on so that the movie’s running time can be kept short.

Or, put another way, you feel like you’d be a lot better off watching the televised anime series instead of this movie adaptation. (For the record, I’ve only seen two episodes of the American dub on Fox Kids so I really don’t know that much about what the story’s supposed to be about.)

What was good about “Escaflowne,” the movie rendition? Great action sequences. Nice character and machine designs.

What wasn’t quite so good? The sense of missing backstory and character depth. A rushed feel to the sequencing. No sense that the heroine has any impetus for the changes she appears to go through.

It’s not a bad movie. I’m glad I was able to see a subtitled version, since adding a bad dub to an already-underwhelming film would probably have made it unwatchable. On the other hand, it’s not something I’m going to pay to own when it comes out on DVD. Maybe I’ll see about borrowing the series instead…

Escaflowne Movie Site