Tekkaman Blade II: Complete Collection
Urban Vision
This Japanese animation film manages to hit all of the sci-fi clichés. After years of war against an alien empire, humanity has copied the aliens’ technology and formed an elite military brigade called the Tekkaman—giant robots controlled by humans. The military assembles a brigade of stereotypes with conflicting personalities to pilot the Tekkaman and save humanity from the invaders. The group has a major screw-up in the form of Yumi, who was chosen for the brigade for no apparent reason. During its three-hour running time, Tekkaman shamelessly recycles plot ideas from better films, leaving a sense of "seen it, done it." There is a lot of infighting, Yumi luckily adverts disaster every time, and the group pulls together just when all the fighting really matters.