Reviews for Cyborg 009 and the Monster Wars

A year after the first movie, Toei animation pushed out the sequel with pretty much the same cast. Monster Wars takes place sometime after the first movie as the Cyborg team are living separated in each of their own country. Until one day a giant monster appears out of nowhere and in causing mayhem and destruction in many sites of the world. Dr.Gilmore fears for the worst and reassemble the cyborg team to fight yet again. For once I want to say that even for a movie made by Toei that only had one year, it’s better than the first movie. Let me explain. This movieagain adapts the two first arcs from the manga, but this time it feels like a movie rather than something put together.

It has better pacing, better direction and the story structure feel more organized than the previous movie. Even if the movie sometimes jumps between scenes way too fast.

The interaction between characters has improved since the last movie, even if Joe is still doing the dirty work. Besides that, the introduction to the characters are done much better here than the previous movie. For once we see what kind life everyone had before they turned into cyborgs. Everyone except for the black guy! What’s up with that?

The action is same as the before, stupid but entertaining. It’ all just for innocent fun. Even the comedy seem to have gotten a bit better, even if it can get racist.

Cons:

But for all the praise I give, there is still problems from the first one. The animation isn’t as impressive as you expect from something that is qualified as a movie.

The scenes, as I said, can go way too fast for us to even care. Like the scene in the opening when 003 didn’t want to fight, but changed her mind in the next scene without any proper explanation. They also seems to explain 001 power twice in the movie, which is odd consider how the group already knows what power they possesses.

The villain is uninteresting, it just a statue that talks and sometimes moves.

And then there this unexpected cameos at the middle of the ocean. Just what are they? A flying robot nurse joy and a guy with a cat?! They don’t bring anything to the movie at all, but the movie suddenly focuses on these characters. And it’s too obscure for me to know where they from!

Neither less, the movie is like an improved version of previous one. In fact you can skip the previous one and still miss anything that important since the character are getting reintroduced in this one.

So if you want, you can check this one if you liked the first one. It might be stupid, but hey, it’s the 60’s.

Airing only 8 months after the first film this sequel delivers more of the same albeit in a more refined overall package. Everything about this movie marginally improves on the original. The animation quality is noticeably better with higher fluidity of movement. The cinematography is improved with some decent transition shots early on and more varied and creative perspective shots and the art design and art direction, especially the backgrounds, are noticeably more detailed and polished. The voice acting has also improved as a whole. Despite what seems to be the same cast the performances are more lively and spirited and the plot lends itselfto some emotional confrontations and outbursts where the actors do much to make the scenes more interesting than they otherwise should be.

The plot here is in some ways even dumber than in the first film but this is compensated for with better pacing and more focus leading to a tighter overall narrative from start to finish. There is no attempt at any kind of political commentary around military–industrial complex this time around. This theme is seemingly replaced with a more generic statement on the nature of doing right by your personal convictions and not being a slave to blind loyalty.

When it comes to the action set pieces, while they are better animated and slightly better choreographed than in the first film, recycled shots still abound and the exceedingly contrived ways in which the protagonists defeat their foes also carries forward. The nonsensical "exposed weak spot" trope is employed here in an even lazier way than in the first film if that can be believed and the catching and throwing back of missiles and artillery shells makes a return as well.

The absurdity is not limited to the action sequences as tension is built up in some of the most spurious ways bordering on falling through plot holes. At one point 009 is holding another character over a ledge of a crevasse by the wrist, preventing them from falling. As the walls of the chasm start to close in 009 is shown struggling in an overdramatized, drawn-out way over the task of pulling this one character over the ledge and to safety... but 009 has already been established as an enhanced cyborg with super human strength so this scene plays out rather farcically with that in mind.

At another point a character is first electrocuted by the main villain and then repeatedly shot by dozens of henchmen in an extremely cheesy way but nevertheless manages to slide across a wall very slowly to reach a lever to free the other cyborgs while sad music plays in the background. This all happens so painfully slowly and melodramatically that you have to question why the henchmen a) stop shooting, and b) make no other attempt to stop the character given how slowly they are limping and stretching for this lever. If you can find the unintended comedy in these kinds of scenes then you might find it amusing but otherwise you'll be left with your face in your palm.

One other thing that jumped out more in this film than it did in the last was how annoying the 007 character is and how constantly they are featured throughout the film. It feels like they alone are given a quarter of all dialogue in the movie and practically all of it is either drivel, whining or poor attempts at humor. You could edit this character out completely and save what feels like 10 minutes off the run time while losing nothing of note or value.

All in all, while this is a sequel that surpasses the original in essentially every way, being better than "horrid" still lands you "fairly bad" in this case. I still can't quite come around to recommending either film however if you have the inclination to watch only one of these two then this sequel is perhaps the one to go with.