Yatterman (2009)

To prevent myself on going on a nick-picking tirade, let's start with the movie's strengths. So, obviously, read the whole review.

I haven't seen the anime, so I watched this movie as new to the story as possible. Hell, I didn't even read the synopsis (well, the synopsis I read only involved robot nipples).

With the thought of robot nipples in your mind (think it, think it ... now mentally slap Dr. Evil's robot-chicks in their jealous faces), this show isn't one for those who flip nearby tables when something as suggestive as a nipple appears on screen. This movie isn't vulgar, but has a few suggestive (and might I say hilarious) scenes. I sure wish there was more crude jokes though...

This movie is a visual spectacular. Like I said earlier, I haven't seen the anime, but the movie was colorful, detailed, and full of neat little quirks and jokes. The robots were awesome, the fight scenes were a cartoony whirlwind of awesome, and the props made me feel like an anime superhero would pop up at any moment and proudly brandish his tights-covered genitals at my face. Bravo Mr. Miike (as well as the special effects team, they were the stars of the movie). Give these guys medals and all the hookers they will ever want!

And, to keep it brief, the music had a macho "FIGHT!" feel without attracting the men of wrestlemania to grace the screen.

Now, my beef with this movie is that it's "Johnny's-ized." Okay, that's a weird way of putting it. I can forgive the somewhat 2D characters (because kid show characters don't have life-changing epiphanies every week), but the plot was lacking. I'm not asking for Inception, but it wasn't as interesting, or funny, as I thought it would be. And for an idea on what childish things I love to watch for hours on end, I can watch the first three seasons of Spongebob like Lindsey Lohan can snort through crack and the remnants of her career.

The plot was more like "shit's happening at place X -> Goes to place X -> Fight scene -> ?????? -> PROFIT!" This kind of simplicity, even for a kid's movie with the aforementioned robot nipples, leaves some to be desired. The reason I mentioned "Johnny's-ized" earlier was because of the main lead, the always-adorable Sakurai Sho. While the others in the cast did a great job (Katsuhisa Namase did an AMAZING job; he's the best one on the screen)

In short, while this movie's plot isn't the most interesting thing since Sho-kun's Anan spread with numerous butt-pictures (Why would I know this!?!), it's is definitely a fun movie to watch as delicious, sensory junk food for the brain. If it is movie night and your two choices are "legendary movie that many people adore for its mind-blowing awesomeness" and "Yatterman," go with the former. However, if you just have ~2 hours to kill and you want to see some cartoon-like splendor, then give Yatterman a shot.

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