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| More like crawling in my skin. |
Dear Internet,
You
know what is probably one of the least ineffective ways to make an audience sympathize
with a character? It is to make them as
apathetic as possible, carve away any trace of a personality, and make them appear
as a soulless individual. You can also
throw in a little cynicism for good measure.
Oh, who am I kidding keep pouring on that cynicism all around. Let it rain depression and emptiness all
over. What? You say that you think you can make the
audience sympathize with such a character if you make their circumstances
horrible enough to justify their personality or lack thereof? You think you can make a murderer sympathetic
because he is killing a few to prevent the possible but uncertain deaths of many
others? Well, you are welcome to try to
make such a story, but until you realize that you are writing twisted logic I
am stuck with "The Sky Crawlers."
I want
to lead off this review with a plot description. I really do, but the movie cares little about
the plot. For the first half of the
movie, the audience has got no understanding of what is going on. There are pusher configuration planes
shooting other planes down in the sky, with one of the fighters called the Teacher. Then a guy lands at an air base to one of the
coldest receptions I have ever seen. It
does not help that he himself is frigid to the people around him. Then for the next hour, there is next to no
exposition. No I do not mind a slow
exposition. I think it can be done well
to ensure that the audience is not hit over the head with too much
information. However, to push all of the
exposition into the second half of the film is insulting. It is insulting because it then requires the
few characters and setting in the early part of the movie to carry the burden
of keeping the attention of the viewer when there is next to nothing there to
pay attention to.
The
various characters that appear in this film are as bland as they come. Only two of the pilots shown have anything of
a personality beyond ennui. The rest are
emotionless blobs who constantly ponder suicide as a means of getting out. The main character rarely displays any sign
of desire for self. Instead, he spends
the majority of the film doing what others ask him to do, constantly being
influenced by the wills of others without any will of his own. The commanding officer has such a lack of
will for her own life that it is surprising that the film wants to show that
she cares about those of her subordinates.
The chief mechanic watches the endless cycle of pointless death and
rebirth with no desire to end it.
Everybody accepts the way the things are with no qualms about the
problems and wrongs that come with accepting the status quo. When the two characters that do decide to
change things act, it feels so out of character for them because the previous
100 minutes was all about them being stubborn gits who would rather wallow than
get themselves out of the mud.
The
setting is pretty foolishly constructed.
I will tell you about the absurd plot now because even the plot
description on The All Knowing Wiki has to describe the setting first before
getting anywhere, despite the film itself choosing to stall in describing the
alternate history that it wants to present.
The world of "Sky Crawlers" is set where there are no
international wars anymore. There is
world peace. According to the film's
philosophy however, people still desire some sort of conflict, that it is
inherent in our nature. So to prevent a
war with countries and ease the minds of the people who desire conflict, companies
fight one another by hiring contract pilots to fly against one another in real
dogfights. To quote the heroine of the
film, "If people don't get to see actual deaths on the news, if misery
isn't displayed, peace can't be maintained.
People need wars to feel alive, just like we feel alive when we fight in
the sky." The world of "Sky
Crawlers" is one where paramilitary fights against paramilitary so that
the populace is placated. Do I have to
throw in a Romans and the Coliseum allusion here or would that be too obvious
as to why this system cannot sustain itself as a working means?
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| Tax dollars at work? |
After
that, the film has got some genetic horror going with the "Kildren,"
a humanoid creation that cannot die unless killed and never ages past adolescence. They are the expendable pilots that the
company uses to bolster its forces. If
one is shot down, the skills set of the Kildren is passed on to a carbon copy
which is sent in its place with pre-made memories implanted. Everyone on the base pretends no to know or acknowledge
the clone production occurring, instead waiting for the copy to remember its
past life's memories. Sometimes, the Kildren
are not even aware of being Kildren and forced to question their existence and
memories. It is all very moody and
depressing while trying to come across as deep.
The
biggest problem with "The Sky Crawlers," beyond its melodramatic
setting, flat characters and slow plot progression, is it comes packed with bad
philosophy. The whole bit about the
world creating paramilitaries to fight one another so that people can get their
kicks is completely flawed that it is ridiculous. It would make more sense that countries used
company militaries to fight for them, deciding that the outcome of the battles
would determine the victor of the war.
Companies fighting an endless war could not sustain itself forever, even
with genetically created individual constantly filling in the holes of the
ranks. The motive of such companies
should be called into question. How are
they getting the money to wage such pointless wars? If it is the tourists that appear in the film
funding the companies, then why are they funding the company? If the investors put money into the company and
the company uses those funds to make or purchase war goods, then how does the
company make money to give back to the investors? Are they getting funds from various
governments depending on the outcomes of the battles? If they are, then the battles and war is just
being fought my mercenaries for the various countries by proxy. The question of the where all this money is
coming from is never quite brought up or wondered.
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| Both their jobs and those at the burger joint are about the same. |
Then
there are the Kildren. The various Kildren
that the film shows are mostly depressed and cynical individuals. They are not supposed to age past adolescence,
so I guess it can make sense that they act like edgy teens. The female Kildren protagonist is supposed to
be in her thirties at least, considering that she has a child who is about
ten. However, she acts aloof and is
unwilling to act in a motherly role because it would be difficult to explain to
her daughter, who believes them to be sisters, their real relationship. Of course it would be difficult, but raising
a child is difficult no matter the circumstances. Her choosing to hide away from her
responsibilities as a parent because of the difficulty of explaining how the
world works is no different than parents delegating to school systems numerous
responsibilities that they should be shouldering. You might be able to argue that she is then
placing her maternal instincts towards her command since she is the commanding
officer. I would say that you can feel
all her motherly love pouring out, but sarcasm does not work very well in the
written word. She constantly says that
she wants to die so that she does not have to deal with the ever repeating
cycle and challenges the protagonist multiple times to kill her. He thankfully called her bluff, but the film
does it so late in the picture that I could not care whether or not she was killed. I cared more about the affront of assisted
suicide than I did about the death of that character, which the film was hoping
I would do. If I wanted to see the bluff
called of a character who professes that life means little and should just end,
I would go and reread "Manalive," which does it much better if not at
least more entertainingly.
Then
there is the problem of why are any of the characters a part of such a viscous
cycle. The Kildren are manufactured to
fight in the endless war, so their initial participation can be explained. They do not know any better as to how they
got involved in the war. The reason for
their continued participation is never brought up. No one is forcing any of them to fight or fly
the planes. The Kildren have no motives
as to why they continue to battle one another.
Is it for the pay? That would be
worse since none of them are aiming for anything to use with the pay and worse
yet because they are killing for pay with no personal reason. National militaries pay their soldiers, and
many soldiers fight specifically for that pay and other benefits. However, they are aiming for something different,
whether it is for the G.I Bill, a chance to gain a skill set, gain some money
to start their own endeavor once the fighting is over, or make a mark on the
world. Fighting a war for the sole
reason of money with no thought as to why one is fighting is the kind of messed
up logical hole that this film is about.
Eventually, the main protagonist tells the female one that she should
stay alive to find a way to change things.
It was already shown that nothing within the confines of the war will
end it. The only way to stop it all is
to stop fighting altogether, not devise some master plan to wipe out the
opposition. The failed blitzkrieg earlier
in the film proves this.
Do you
want me to talk about art style, Internet, considering that the film is
animated? The aircraft are CGI and are
very detailed. The use of rear propulsion
aircraft creates a sense of otherworldliness due to the infrequency of them in
real life. For everything that is good
about the planes, there is something bad about the characters. At least "Ichi the Killer: Episode
0" had three values per character.
"The Sky Crawlers" only gives two to each character. Either they get a shadow or a highlight, but
never both. The drawings come across as
flat to the point that I want to point them in the direction of the "Superflat"
art movement. Maybe the art style is
supposed to reflect their personalities.
I would believe that.
"The
Sky Crawler" is a bad movie that I find more and more annoying the more I
think about it. The pacing is terribly
slow and takes too long to get anywhere.
When it does get there, it is a big letdown that does not warrant the travel
time. The action sequences with the
planes are somewhat enjoyable, but they are brief and often anti-climatic. They do not recover the movie by a long
shot. The characters are unlikable and
annoying with bad logic. The film does
nothing to discourage the endless cycle that it tries to dismiss, which is
evident by the looping story. It just
keeps chasing its tail, now with a smile, but how long will it take for that
smile to become a madman's grin if nothing else changes?
Yours in digital,
BeepBoop
P.S. Next will be "Silmido" (2003).
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