Plantiana Yawn. Poorly Filmed Snooze Fest.

Micitype Pretty Good

Ava-Grace Willis Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

Kaydan Christian A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

AMIO-PatricioMunoz It's for an adult audience. A younger audience may appreciate the few 'labor' fighting sequences, but the Patlabor movies generally do not center on the robots, but on the detective work of its crew.Truthfully, I'm a little disappointed because I rented these movies hoping that they would focus more on the robots. I was looking for action and fast paced animation with cool angles and a good back-story. Instead I found a movie that focuses on the crew members instead. The robots ARE the back-story. For the most part, I can live with that. I did enjoy the first Patlabor movie more than the second one. The 'labors' played a bigger role in this movie and thusly there was a good balance between them and the crew members. In Patlabor 2 the robots were showcased very briefly.All I can think of is one thing: If the creators are not going to focus on the robots, then why mention them in the title? Why mention them at all? One could re-write the second movie to completely eliminate the 'labor' robots and the story would still hold with barely a scratch.If you are planning to watch any of the Patlabor movies then remember that it is not an action/anime movie about 'labor' robots and their crew. Rather, it can best be described as a futuristic detective story that happen to be in a time where 'labor' robots are around and in use. It will involve your attention.It's not an ideal movie for those interested in getting into Anime films. I'd only recommend Patlabor to an older, anime-experienced, audience.Interesting Note: On the DVD, read the subtitles and then watch the English version (or visa-versa). In many cases you will find scenes where the characters are talking about a completely different topic. It's quite fascinating.

TheNewNoise I have a small collection of anime which is growing exponentially now, thanks in part to my renewed interest in the genre after viewing this film. What separates this from many anime is its unique use of the Mecha or "Labors" in its plot, instead of just the same robot battle fair that we've all seen. The movie does not center around action but around the actual story and the characters as they work together (and sometimes against each other) to solve the big mystery in time to stop a terrible threat to Tokyo and possibly the entire world. Great film. I am going to buy the second one this week; I hear it is even better.

Sigmund Here is what happens: the movie starts with 10 mins of nice action scenes; the movie ends with 30 mins of very nice fighting scenes; in between, there are 60 mins of deadly boring static uninterrupted dialogues that will make you wonder what the hell the director wanted to demonstrate with this! I usually appreciate static scenes, but this is way too much!My suggestion: see the start, then skip forward, then see the end. Or get something else.

Yonhap S Japanese animation has become very popular in the past few years. Somehow, it also gained the notoriety for "extreme" sex and violence, though it's a misconception that all Japanese animation is about that. Yet, animation in general is viewed as a kids only fare.I recommend anyone to watch Patlabor: the movie. It has a very mature storyline. When I mean mature, I meant well-thought out story that can leave you thinking.In the future, giant industrial utility robots called labors are used throughout Japan. Those in the law enforcement department use labors called Patlabors (patrol labors). Lately, there are reports of labors running amuck on its own. From this point we follow the heroes in a detective like story.There are no nudity, violence is pretty tame compared to your half-hour dose of Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers (a series also a byproduct of Japan, I know but I'm not here to discuss my distaste for the Rangers) TV show. What we have is a straight-forward mystery as the story unravels what is going on. It also explores about man and technology and how it's like the Tower of Babel in biblical literature.The movie is based on the tv show and comic. I only got to see a few episodes of the show. The movie, like the show, do not have the robots dominating the story, thus focusing more on the human characters. Watching the movie, I almost feel like I'm watching a PG/PG-13 live-action movie. Akira and Ghost in the Shell also have a deep story in them, it's not as involving perhaps they were covered so much cinematic effects (and sex and violence?). Patlabor blew me away in that it successfully simply told an honest-to-goodness story without being covered in so much effects.The verdict: 5 of 5 stars.