5/5 This movie is very different then any run of the mill storyline. When did that start being a bad thing?
  by J. Smart
This movie is very different then any run of the mill storyline. And I have to say that's what got me to watch this movie. Now I know I've heard people talk about this movie not being that good because it doesn't have a "happy ending" or really lead anywhere. I disagree with that though, when you really think about how things are when the movie ends, a lot of important things have happened since the begin and it seems more real the way its been done. And OMG you might have to think after the movie is over; about what's going to happen after the movie in the storyline. I like movies that make me think after there over, so I thought this was a great movie.
PS: after the movie don't forget to watch after the credits are over...

2/5 Watch the intro, then return the rental
  by gllcanon (Houston, TX)
The intro is the best part, unfortunately then the movies starts. Thus begins the boring sky crawl. If you watch the special features before the movie like I did, you will be amazed that the director, crew and artists flew to Poland and the U.S. to make sure they got all the little details right. The set of this world is quite amazingly drawn, you see where the research in Poland pays off. Sometimes you think it's real. The American sound artists at the Skywalker Ranch did top notch sound effects, however, the characters are drawn very poorly, like something you'd see in the 70's Speed Racer cartoon. When everything else is drawn so incredibly realistic, you expect the characters to look as good as those in FINAL FANTASY:The Spirits Within. However, since the characters were so boring, improving their appearance probably wouldn't have helped. Part of the problem is understanding the backstory. I've never the read the book, or cartoon, or whatever this originated from. You really need some kind of scrolling history at the beginning, ala Star Wars, to know what's going on. Very little is explained. The unit's Commanding Officer (which the movie calls the Command Officer) doesn't look or act the part. When she goes bowling and takes off her jacket, she looks like a Japanese schoolgirl, with her little skirt and knee-high socks -- that's a CO? Lots of disconnects: you have Japanese-looking characters, with Japanese names, flying WWII vintage Axis planes, in Europe, using modern cell phones, driving vintage vehicles, but having modern War-Rooms, speaking Japanese on the ground, but English while in the cockpit, but not even bothering to use correct aviation-lingo. "Height" instead of "altitude" for example. Signage on the city streets is in Polish. All these disconnects are one problem, but the main problem is the plodding pace. I fell asleep watching it the first time, forced myself to watch the rest of it the next day. Watching the special features, you notice how the director has his photographers take pix of everything, such as hinges on a hanger door, and stickers on fire extinguishers. If only he paid such attention to the screenplay. The dialogue was terrible at times. "I want you to shoot me with this gun." First off, it's a pistol, as any military person would know. Secondly, that sounds so stilted. Again, someone should have proofed the screenplay - the dialogue was the weakest part of this movie, followed by the poor artistry in drawing the characters. I think "Memphis Belle" told the same story much better. SPOILER ALERT: people need something to work for, the end of war, or the chance to go home, or both. But if life continues endlessly like Murray's "Groundhog Day," with no hope of release, you will go insane or want to shoot yourself. And then, after suffering thru this movie, you almost do want to shoot yourself. What a disappointing end.

4/5 Rare Gem
  by Ana Mardoll (United States)
Sky Crawlers / B001VBM0Z0

*Spoilers*

Funny enough, I didn't much care for Ghost in the Shell, but I felt that "Sky Crawlers" was a rare and unexpected gem. Indeed, the day immediately after watching "Sky Crawlers" for the first time, we sat down and watched it a second time as well.

Part of this repeated viewing, however, is kind of because you *have* to in order to understand the plot. If you don't understand, going in, that the pilots are all ageless clones that die and are reborn to wage pointless, unending battle as an opiate for the human population, then you're going to miss out on a lot of the sub-text, and indeed, a lot of the super-text as well!

Once you get past that, you may find that "Sky Crawlers" is one of the most horrific movies out there. The slow, hazy crawl of the movie (there's even a lovingly rendered shot of the pet dog doing marking territory on the front lawn) mirrors the slow, hazy crawl of the clone's lives, as they live in a perpetual haze - their long-term memories almost completely non-functional, due to the chaotic live-die-live cycle that they perpetuate. The clones go through their daily routines, noting blearily that everything "seems familiar" - that diner reminds me of somewhere, that food tasted familiar, I used to know a person like you, and so on. As some of the clones become more self-aware, they blanch at the bleak and terrifyingly changeless future before them, and contemplate escape - even if it means suicide.

"Sky Crawlers" is slow-paced, and despite the air battles, seems largely more like a dreamy philosophical film than an action packed adventure. The characters are exceedingly well rendered and well characterized, an interesting tightrope to walk when the clones are also supposed to be largely 'personality free', due to the near-brainwashing effects of lacking any substantial long-term memories. And the animation is truly lovely - this is one of the prettiest anime movies I've ever seen. Really, "Sky Crawlers" is one of those 'love-or-hate' movies, and it's just going to depend on taste and personality.

On a lighter note, you can play a good drinking game with the number of cigarettes lit on-screen - there were so many "lighting a cigarette" sequences that I actually half-jokingly theorized that the cigarettes were a metaphor for the clones - easily used-up and replaceable consumer commodities that provide comfort for the population at the expense of their (moral) health. Indeed, considering the resolution, that theory might not be too far off...

1/5 Dull, Lifeless, and Irremediably Bad
  by M. Richardson (TN)
Mamoru Oshii, one of the leading lights of the anime world, has one thing in common with directors as diverse as Hayao Miyazaki, David Lynch, Ingmar Bergman, and Hitchcock: his directorial oeuvre is, like theirs, marked by obsessions with certain themes and is united by specific stylistic techniques that you will see used more often than in films created by others. But, more than anything, he is like them in that his films are distinctively his. While his level of devotion to his films is not as strong as the devotion of others to their films, at times (Miyazaki, for instance, has in the past redrawn numerous cels, or overseen others redraw them, until his characters 'moved right;' Oshii assigns that task to an underling), he is still passionate about his work, and it shows, usually. His style is one that is simultaneously paranoiac and highly focused, and his films often walk a tightrope between being highly-intense and hypnotic, if often ponderous, and being downright dull. Most of the time he lands on the right side of this. On occasion, he slips up. Never this badly, though. This is his worst film.

Character design for this is just plain lazy. The main character, and a few asides, are done up in a generic anime look. The most prominent female character eerily resembles the Kusanagi-sex-doll from GITS 2. The animation is generally fluid, although the 3D sticks out like a sore thumb. I couldn't help but wince whenever one of those jets was on-screen.

You will notice I am not using names. Given my excellent ability to instantly recall the names of even unimportant characters in fictional works I have read/watched days, months, and years ago, this is significant. The characters had no personality. They can only be distinguished by obvious physical characteristics: main character had Grey hair, prominent female looked like Motoko Kusangi in GITS 2, older woman was... well, really the only adult on base, wing buddy to Grey-haired lead is an obnoxious idiot.

The plot is, apparently, based off of a series of science-fiction novels. The setting is futuristic, I suppose, and since world peace has evidently been achieved, war companies now battle one another in order to placate the ignorant masses, who evidently need international conflict to stay sane. These wars appear to be almost entirely aerial in nature, and people called Kildren, who do not age past a certain point, tend to be the ones to pilot the aircraft in battle.

We follow Grey-haired depressive as he arrives at the base of one of these war companies. Everyone here is afraid of the Teacher, a rival pilot working for the opposing war company who is an adult and evidently kills every pilot that is unfortunate enough to cross his path.

This is about as much of a plot as the film presents us. Beyond this, we're subjected to what feels like an endless stream of wasted sequences that communicate nothing and seem content to be wasting the viewer's time. We follow the main character into a few action sequences that seem to be lacking a pulse, an encounter with some sort of prostitute, frustrating sequences of Protagonist moping sullenly, cryptic conversations which neither enlighten nor intrigue the viewer (this viewer, at least; I am aware that the film has its supporters), sleepy shots of people lingering around a restaurant, and other episodes which do nothing but evoke the most oppressive tedium possible in a film of this potential.

It might be objected that A) there is more to the plot than I am mentioning, involving clones, murder, and conspiracy, and B) that the film's tedium is an essential part of its allegorical nature.
To the first, I respond only that I have commented on what has been clearly presented to the viewer. Little hints of some hidden plot surface here-and-there, and perhaps there can be salvaged from the wreckage of this picture a life-changing and epic story that should be told and re-told for generations. There might possibly be, but I have the same reaction to this as I do to Finnegans Wake: if meaning is there, it isn't worth the effort (although it could be objected that Finnegans Wake actually has some definite underlying meaning to it). Oshii does not sufficiently interest me enough as a philosopher for me to pick through this film for meaning. He has failed at the most basic task of the filmmaker - the task of telling a story that is, if not palatable, at least engaging. This film fails as narrative, and, as such, it loses my interest in other regards.
To the second, I will, again, state that the filmmaker's primary job is to provide an experience that is aesthetically involving. Everything else, however central to the director's concern, is secondary to this. Stories about boring people, if not creatively styled, are usually boring. If Oshii is attempting some sort of allegory or commentary about the nature of modern Japanese society, he must at least make sure that it works on an artistic level first. Anime films are, after all, art.

I am aware that Oshii has his supporters who will endlessly praise whatever he directs, no matter how good or bad it is. I am one of those Oshii fans who is willing to admit when he missteps... as he does here. And I am also aware that many people genuinely enjoy and respect this film. All aesthetic judgment is, after all, supremely subjective in nature. To that extent, I can only say: take my judgment with a grain of salt, and don't let any one person's opinion influence your decision to see this, either way. See it and then make your judgment.

2/5 Not as good as I'd hoped
  by Kamagami
I was a huge fan of Ghost in the Shell. That film, along with Cowboy Bebop, was what got me into anime.

So imagine my disappointment with Oshii's Sky Crawlers. I wasn't expecting a movie all about air combat, as implied by the title and the excellent opening shootout, but I was expecting something that would hold my attention like a pair of meathooks. What followed was an interesting, but slow-paced and ultimately boring film with a fairly predictable conclusion. If it could be called that.

Oshii's Ghost in the Shell was an intelligent balance of style and substance, action and thought-provoking dialogue. It was one of those movies that stayed with you, gave you something to think about.

The Sky Crawlers attempts to create this same feeling, but I don't feel like it quite made the cut.