Trigun: Badlands Rumble - Reviews

It recaptures the Trigun sensation.

It evokes that crunchy 90's anime mouth feel.

It's not a masterpiece because it isn't meant to be, it has to have the flaws of that day and age to stay true to the source.

It's every bit what a trigun movie should be with every pro and con the original had.

I loved the original series 20 some years ago.

This took me back there and I'm not ashamed to say I could have cried afterwards, to be whisked away, back in time there for 90 precious minutes.

STORY

I just don't believe it, I don't know how to even begin this review. I feel like my heart is being torn apart. I really enjoyed the original TV series of TRIGUN and when I first heard that a 'movie' is coming out i was like 'lol wut?' but then I was like 'awesome!'.

But now, after I just finished watching it I'm not sure what to think about the story. Don't get me wrong I'm clear with my feelings about the movie as a whole piecce but this one thing bugs me. It's not bad, that's for sure. You can't call it a bad story or a borring one. It's just not as amazing as some might expect it to be. It's like watching another RAMBO or DIE HARD movie you know? It's just John Rambo/McClane saving the world again in a good old fashioned way.

Everyone was waiting for this movie, people were freaking out when on some anime expo (or was it convention?) there was a trailer of it. How do I know? because i'm not the biggest fan of Trigun series but I was excited to see a movie with the good old Vash and the gang. And yet i totally forgot about this movie, and boy was I surprised when I finally saw it (by pure coincidence) on some streaming site. I was 'dude it's already out?.. oh yeah it should be it's fuckin 2011 !!!'

Because of all this waiting I believe some ppl will feel the same. The story is ok but not WOW. But you know what? it's absolutely enough. Sure it would be great if the story was WOW but what I saw was a damn good movie and I can't complain about anything big.

There are some comments saying that the story is cliche and (as I said) not 'epic' etc but it doesn't matter. It's damn good and I'm not even the biggest Trigun fan as i said earlier so my opinion should be fine. Yeah the story is kinda cliche and maybe easy to predict but it's interesting, well written and keeps the pace with the rest.

Some things I noticed: it's a "THANK YOU" for the fans. Anyone who is new with the Trigun won't understand a bit about this movie. We get no character description, no backstory, no world description, nothing:) but for someone who already knows Trigun TV series it's useless to explain that again and the movie might bring some new ppl to watch the rest of the show. Yeah it's not a bad written sentence because it felt like watching a longer episode of the TV series. In fact the backstory is so nonexisting that we can pick any episode from the TV series (after Wolfwood was introduced) and that movie will fit after this episode. On the other hand it's kinda disappointing that it felt just like an OAV and it makes you scream MORE MOAAAAAR!!!

ANIMATION

My GOD that is something beatifulllll! The animation is done very nicely and the world/scenery looks even more detailed and 'fitting' than in the TV series. I don't blame the original series for some lack of detail, it's a movie it should be more detailed because the budget should be bigger. The characters are very interesting to watch and I don't mean the main characters but the background ones. We get to see a hell lot of a bounty hunters and they all look very interesting. Like a cantina scene in Mos Eisley in STAR WARS EPISODE 4.

The Explosions and other 'action' stuff is pretty amazing too. Quick action scenes look like a miracle of animation.

The one thing I didn't like? CGI... I'm a fan of old school animation and cinematography I hate watching movies like Avatar where everything is filmed using chromakey! And to be honest there are some CGI scenes in this movie too. Not many! but still there are some. Thank God it's only the cars and other transports scenes (and not all of them even).

SOUND

SFX are great, shooting and explosions sound incredible but the musicccc. There is barely any music. I myself remember only 3 big songs (well at least clips of them) from the whole movie. One was a remix of original HT intro to the TV series but i'm still not satisfied.

I remember the music in the series was something big and very nicely done. Here, there is just some music and that is all. It's the biggest thing that i'm disappointed with i think..

Voice acting is done amazingly well. It's been over 12 years and all the voices sound the same (i havn't yet checked is everyone having the same seiyu). It was really tearjerking when I heard Vash's voice lamenting about the food again:)

CHARACTERS

There isn't much to say about in this section. All the main characters from the series are on the big screen (except for the main villian). And there are only 2 new charcters here, a girl called Amelia (a bounty hunter) and a baddie called Gusback (which could be mentioned in the TV series but I dont recall that happening) Even though the movie is very short I felt sympathy for those new characters. yeah their story would be better if they had like 5 episodes to descrbe it more in details (5 eps for each of them!) but still it was written so well that I'm satisfied in that aspect. And again they are so interesting that it makes me wanna cry that the movie is finished..:(

OVERALL

Long time no see... that is all I have to say. If you are a TRIGUN fan or at least you really enjoyed the TV series (like I did) go watch this movie, you won't be disappointed. But still after watching it to the end I still feel hungry. Even thou I just reunited with my old friends Wolf and Vash I already miss them. As I said the whole movie feels like a longer episode and after the ending credits you are sitting in front of the black screen waiting for the "in the next episode" preview.

...

But.. sadly to say... there won't be any preview. You know what is even more sad? There won't be any next episode:(

But let us hope they will make another movie or revive the series.

If you are not a Trigun fan, you probably won't understand a lot of things but then again maybe it will encourage you to watch the orgiginal series? Give it a try!

*This Review May Contain Spoilers*

 Clearly, I am not much of a huge Trigun fan as many other users on this site who is reading my review are, but I really did like the series. Vash was a cute and loveable character, although the one thing I find annoying about him is his pacifist attitude. Wolfwood is one of those characters I could instantly become fond of, he loves children and that's the best thing I find in his heart. He is a very charismatic and intelligent priest who wanders about, yeah, wanders about. Milly is cute, but I don't really care much about her. She has this annoying voice which gets irritating every so often despite her naïve and sweet personality. Meryl, a bit of a tomboy is actually a very kind-hearted and passionate woman. As soon as she develops secret feelings for Vash, she tends to get shy around him. Now, as for the movie, I admit I was looking everywhere for it, but the rental stores didn't have it yet, so I intended to buy the DVD instead just if I might like it and maybe decide to watch it again. It took quite a long time, because I was awaiting to watch this movie for about three weeks straight for my birthday party because I wanted to start a movie party; I've been trying to start one for over two years now, but never gotten a chance to plan it all out. At first, the speakers were blowing just as if it was in a theater (especially if you have a large television screen) and I thought the movie would be thrilling and funny. During the second half, I started losing interest for it because it wasn't that brilliant of a movie.

First, even though Vash is his normal goofy, donut-loving pacifist self, his pacifism has gotten even more irritating. First, while cruising on a boat, he restrains a guy from shooting Amelia and he uses his smart but clever pranks to trick everybody into pondering what has happened to the bullets; and then he's just going to make them fly all over the place as if the gunslingers wouldn't be able to catch them.

Second of all, the characters Amelia and Gasback just aren't intriguing newcomers/supporting characters as in other anime movies (Cowboy Bebop, The Cat Returns, Pokemon movies and even Lupin III movies). They were pretty poorly developed and almost unnecessary to the film which makes them boring to watch. As for Milly and Meryl, Milly was her usual naïve self, but Meryl didn't seem to act very shy towards Vash (unless she was hiding it), and where does this film take place, before Diablo? Then yeah, she's supposed to act shy towards Vash at this rate. The animation is the only theme in the movie that I could highly praise. For its beautiful landscape and amazingly exciting backgrounds (which suits the action) makes it enough to make sure it doesn't 'disappoint' the viewer with any 'lazy' animation at all. In fact, even though the character designs are almost pretty similar to the anime, they added in the finishing touches to make them look a little more computer generated and adorable.

All in all, I don't recommend this movie to all you die-hard Trigun fans; I always had the feeling that it was geared towards newcomers, since Meryl isn't really too passionate about Vash yet, and some of the newcomers may think that Vash is a highly strict pacifist, but I guess it didn't get 'as' annoying as it was in the film. Also, why put an adult throwing a temper tantrum like a little kid over a donut? I know that it was a flashback from over a few decades ago, and it's just a cartoon, but still, even if Vash may throw tantrums sometimes, it's highly unusual that he 'probably' throws himself down and flails around on the floor, and even pulls on Gasback's neck along with sobbing, screaming and begging for a replacement. Anyway, I also think the story might have taken place before episode 1, since Meryl and Milly aren't really following Vash as much and just seem to act like 'people you know that bump into you a lot' which are much like what, just friends?

Again, I believe that the die-hard Trigun fans would have to rent this one; it might not hold their interests as much as the anime did.

Story

Not fantastic. Critcially it is nothing new or exciting. It is a really long episode. It is just a way to run all the characters across the screen.

Animation

Excellent, a lot better. The ageing Trigun animation has been updated and now looks wonderful. They have kept it true to form but the increase in budget has definitley improved the production.

Sound

The voices are well done, if not the original dub cast. For a film playing on nostalgic fans it would have been nicer if they could have convinced more of the cast to return. The music feels pretty much like it should. It is a similar feel to the series but with a reworking with the larger budget.

Characters

Familiar characters, nothing new. If you were to judge the characters on this outing alone, then they are nothing special. This film was never meant to stand alone ad was aimed squarely at nostalgic fans. 

Overall

Watch, especially if you are missing Trigun. If you haven't watched the series then the film does not stand on its own that well