Awesome Movie

It is not only a funny movie, but it allows a great amount of joy for anyone who watches it.

Clever and entertaining enough to recommend even to members of the 1%

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

From what I heard, Gundam Seed is essentially a remake of Gundam Uno. Gundam Seed Destiny starts out as a remake of Gundam Seed, disguised as a sequel. The suits may be different, and we have new characters, but too much is familiar. Athrun is back with ZAFT and fighting against Kira, Kira is still trying to force peace, the Earth Federation is as evil as ever, and is still using drugged psychopaths. The action is better, but we still spend more than enough time on the cruiser, with characters not strong enough to warrant the time spent.Finally, Destiny begins to pick up. Kira's interventions are only making the battlefield chaotic. Shin loses a friend and a lover (you don't believe either relationship, but regardless...) and swears revenge. Shin is developing, and Kira is no longer a perfect hero. He's like an anime Superman, powerful and virtuous, but narrow-minded and immature. In retrospect, his fight with Rau is (un)intentional genius. Rau argues humans will never learn to live with each other, and Kira can say nothing to debunk him. He believes in doing the right thing, no matter what. And because of this, Shin kills him.Just kidding. Kira "Jesus" Yamato is just as explosionproof as he was in Seed.After that peak, the show rapidly descends downhill. Oh, its still copying Seed, but now the writers no longer give a crap. Relationships are forced, characters do 180s, and plot-twists come out of nowhere. Worst of all, the only real conflict is ruined. Instead of relative neutrality, they frame Kira and company as our peaceful heroes, Shin and the rest as misguided antagonists. Shin believes in the Destiny Program for no good reason. Kira has learned absolutely nothing from this journey.Clip shows, unresolved character conflicts, Mu's corpse pulled out of his grave. Stupid, stupid, stupid! I like the fights, the mecha designs, the openings and closings...not worth it. It might as well not exist.

This series revives many the characteristically flashy visual and musical elements that gave the first SEED its barrages of pink laser fire and pervasive J-Pop background. Of course these worked much better with a good plot and characters to back them up. Despite its promising start, this series spirals out of control with the reappearance of Kira Yamato from the first SEED. Little by little, the intended protagonist Shinn falls to the way side until the hopelessly perfect Yamato takes his place. The notion of 'real robots' once so central to earlier incarnations of Gundam effectively fades away with the introduction of inexplicably godlike mecha for most of the major characters, reaching the apotheosis of absurdity with the one Kira receives.

There are just so many problems with this show, my mind is boggling as to where to start. Well, I suppose the best place to start is the beginning. The story initially begins during one of the major battles from the previous show, Mobile Suit Gundam SEED. A young boy named Shinn Asuka and his family are caught in a crossfire between two mobile suits, one of them piloted by Kira Yamato, the protagonist from Gundam SEED. Although Shinn survives, his entire family is killed, leaving Shinn aghast. Fast forward two years later, Shinn has relocated to the PLANTs and enlisted in the ZAFT military. This show definitely had a lot of potential during the first twelve episodes, which focused mainly on Shinn and all the other new characters. But then the writers decided to switch gears and bring back Kira and the rest of the old cast from Gundam SEED, and they ultimately save the day. What is frustrating about that is Kira has no struggle to speak of. Yet in the last few episodes of this show, the writers decided to make Kira invincible in his latest mobile suit and the climax was insufferably one-sided. Overall, this show is a disgrace to the Gundam franchise.Yoshiyuki "Kill 'Em All" Tomino, the instigator of Gundam, is definitely the superior director and I would definitely recommend any of his shows or movies over this lame series anytime . They don't call him "Kill 'Em All" Tomino for nothing. No sir.

...there is finally an "alternate universe" worthy of the Gundam name - that was founded in "Mobile Suit Gundam Seed", and now carries on in "Gundam Seed: Destiny".Both Seed and Seed: Destiny take place in the "Cosmic Era", as opposed to the original series' "Universal Century". Still, despite the imposition of *this* universe's legal and creative realities, the CE draws much of its appeal from a similar vein as the UC.To my mind, the Seed series has brought back much of what made Gundam a legendary franchise in the first place: technical realism (within its own framework, of course - I unfortunately still cannot buy my own Quebeley or Freedom); fun, interesting characters and attention to their development; and the underlying obscenity of war. (but mostly I just like the floating pink robot with funny semi-random phrases)Bind this up in a glossy, model selling package, complete with newfangled animation techniques (a little cg, some cool motion effects and camera work), bitchin' JPop goodness and a commanding budget, and Seed and Destiny have brought Gundam BACK.At the time of this writing, just over half of Destiny has aired:Destiny picks up a few years after Seed. It wastes no time in establishing a new protagonist, but also re-acquaints us with old friends.There are those who have complained that Gundam Seed moved too slowly. (please, kids, take your Ritalin. It's called a 'story'.) Destiny has a quicker pace; the action to episode ratio seems to have increased.While the underlying story may seem painfully familiar at first, it does gain intriguing (and addicting) twists along the way, and the new faces keep you watching.While it remains to be seen if this sophomore series will truly live up to Seed or its Universal Century predecessors, it's off to a damned fine start - and I'm glad to know that there are still producers and directors who care enough to *try*.