G-Saviour (1999 TV Movie) User Reviews

Interesting to see, yet bland.

[theredcomet2000 · 4/10 · 18 June 2006]

Created by a western production company, this was Gundam's "great experiment". How did the experiment fare? While not the worst movie I've ever seen, it is by far the weakest Gundam release by a great margin.

The acting is "passable", nothing noteworthy and certainly on par with other direct-to-video and cable movies.

The visuals are impressive when viewed as still screen-shots. The mecha look great, and so does the set design and costumes. However, once things are put in motion it becomes apparent that this is not a quality Gundam release. While the animation is nice, and well rendered, it's just not Gundam-like in feel. Gundam shows (even the most "realistic" of them) have high-speed mobility and very exciting dogfights. Not so here. The mecha move very slow and almost clumsy, which just doesn't feel right.

Also consider that this is set in the future of the UC storyline. The last we saw of UC was in Victory Gundam, which had extremely fast and maneuverable mobile suits. Here, however, it seems as though technology has regressed so that mobile suits are slower and clumsier than even the first Mobile Suit ever invented in this time-line. I've seen astronauts adrift in space with no propulsion that move better than this. And these are essentially robots covered in high-performance thrusters?

UC Gundam for the most part also focused on Newtypes, except that they are missing here. Newtypes are essentially the next evolution of man. They are much like powerful "psychics" with incredible natural piloting talent, and are a core element to most of UC story lines. I can however, forgive the lack of Newtypes, as later UC Gundam shows tended to try and top the psychic powers of the previous shows, resulting in excessive mental powers able to turn people into vegetables by mere thought alone. So I don't mind a refocusing of the franchise on piloting and dogfights over mental attacks.

However, as mentioned earlier, the dogfights are just terrible. Gundam shows are not new to chapters that are light on action. Gundam 0080 had very little mecha fighting, yet it made up for it with character development, story, and compelling drama. This doesn't have any of that either.

This would be fine if it was some late night cable movie, and had all references to Gundam removed and replaced with generic robots.

All in all, it is an interesting thing to watch, as it is Gundam's "great experiment". A live action Gundam film made by western production companies. Beyond experiencing the magnitude of the failure, there's not much going for it.

If you want to see CGI rendered Gundam in all it's glory, find a way to get ahold of "MS Igloo". It is a fully CGI UC Gundam story set during the One Year War of 0079. And it certainly puts this to shame.

As a side-note, Gundam Wing fans may enjoy the appearance of Enuka Okuma as Cynthia Graves. She is the voice actor of Lady Une, and performs a live-action role in G Saviour.

Okay, but really not worth it.

[dan_m1987 · 3/10 · 8 July 2006]

As an avid Gundam fan, I have seen a huge amount of the great mecha saga, but this one was the only entry in the Gundam canon which left me disappointed. My opinion, in a nutshell, was that the story didn't really work as a Gundam title, the characters were bland, stereotypical, and didn't draw me into the story, which was aided by substandard acting, and what might be my biggest problem with the movie, was that the mech action was nowhere near as good as the other series'. The mobile suits don't really enter into the story until, literally, the last 20 minutes of the movie, and though the CGI was beautiful, and the MS were very well designed, they moved in a slow, and awkward manner, and if that were any indicator, they could've been out maneuvered by a Zaku II. (which is over 140 years older) Of course some could argue that Gundam 0080 had about the same story/action ratio, but 0080 had extremely deep characters, and a much better story to back them up. So, if you're an avid fan who has to see EVERYTHING there is to see in the Gundam universe, feel free to check this flick out, but to everyone else, I can see no reason to watch it. Then again, I have of heard of people who have enjoyed the movie, so I guess its probably hit or miss.

Panic villains

[youyuzhen-07323 · 5/10 · 17 April 2020]

Take advantage of panic villains, jump editing, as well as the characteristics of high volume of lines and less white, the content of the speech at the end of the film, and so on. The biggest bright spot is the foundation of the original culture. The integration of American personal heroism is also less abrupt, and few changes have been made, and American films compiled from Japan can do so. As a TV film, the work has been done very well.

Finally, Gundam Lives

[Sargonarhes · 12 March 2002]

Say what you want, but the opinions of others mean nothing to me. And I'm glad I never listened to others. I liked Gundam Saviour. Sure it's not the greatest movie ever made, it's not even the best of the Gundam saga. So why do I like it? Because it is something not done before. Sure there have been plenty of sci-fi movies, giant robots, and CGI animation, but none have been done all like this. The G-Savior the star Mobile Suit of the movie doesn't show up until half way through showing once again the Mobile Suits are just the tools for the heros and villians to clash with at the big battle at the end of the film.

The real story is Mark Curran an Ex-mobile suit pilot gets involved in a plot to cover up the greatest new way to grow underwater agriculture. Mark goes out to help the scientist that made the discovery before the Evil General can get his hands on this discovery and make it disappear for his own gain.

The real acomplishment this movie is that it shows Disney was wrong, and could have put the Starship Troopers in the Powered Armor Suits that were mentioned in the book and it wouldn't have effected the movie in the least.

Obscenity

[kerniraelflord · 2/10 · 15 September 2006]

G-Savior is a film based on Kidou Senshi Gundam created by Yoshitoki Tomino but nothing could be farther from the spirit of the original. Gundam is about the tensions which arise from a separation of peoples between space colonies and Earth. While I give the actors credit for doing a very good job and making the movie palatable the writers and producers had little to no familiarity with the original Kidou Senshi Gundam when they created this monstrosity. While the basic plot has much potential by attaching it to the Universal Century, the time line of Kidou Senshi Gundam, which incidentally translates to Mobile Soldier Gundam, they have destroyed any credibility they might have had. Kidou Senshi Gundam is a "real robot" series which abides by the laws of physics as we understand them. G-Savior skips out on much of this by doing things such as having space suits which are not sealed and the like. This is a good movie to play in the background of a raucous party but the film has no value as anything related to Kidou Senshi Gundam.

Looking to waste two hours of your life? Come on in!

[Geshar · 1/10 · 13 February 2002]

Have two hours of your life to waste? Come on in! G Saviour is the worst of the worst, possibly the most tainted and cliche Gundam series to date.

Starting out like the bad made for tv movie that it is and ending up exactly where any 5 year old would guess it would, G Saviour's only saving grace would be it's few combat scenes, all done in rather expensive CGI. However, all of these make very poor use of the actual mecha, and show more of the colonies and outer space. The G Saviour it self moves in unexplaniable ways, making it self seem less like a Gundam and more like a "guy in a monster suit" from good old Power Rangers.

If your intrested in getting into Gundam, DONT watch this movie. If, however, you want to see the horrid stunt that Bandai pulled for yet another Gundam aniversery, then by all means, watch this. Either way, you'll regret that you did.

Insult to Gundam Series

[danishalishimajiri · 1/10 · 9 September 2015]

Big fan of Gundam series and couldn't believe they actually made such a horrible movie from such an epic Japanese animated title. Story is rubbish and the "Gundam" action and design were amateur at bests. This movie is an insult to all Gundam fans and I feel sorry for those whose first experience watching Gundam was this movie. Do not waste your time watching this movie and an advice to the makers of the movie, please watch the original series (out of many) and try to understand the concept of Gundam. If you want to remake Japanese classic animation series into a movie then please stick to power rangers which is FYI also horrible. Don't waste your time watching this movie even if someone offers it for free.

Good to see a first attempt of gundam live action movie

[al-ampatuan · 6/10 · 15 December 2013]

Okay I'm going to give an honest review. First things first the movie nowhere near that bad, this movie was made in 2000 in what I'd expect' its good to see the first Gundam live action series since there's only had been anime series of it.

Positive feedback - Music track is brilliant to hear - Good special effects in the 2000 - Interesting battle/fighting scene - The physics(Gravity/Space fight) was almost real.

Negative feedback - Bad acting (Not terrible) - Confusing storyline or plot - Need more episode or it should have been

Overall Its a good movie to be seen if those who don't know whats Gundam.

American Ideals in a Japanese world

[AlucardDjin · 8/10 · 5 June 2005]

When I watched G Saviour I was very excited because as a bit of a gundam fan it was new to me. But when watching it i expected some of the gundam ideals to be put in there, Like with Kira from seed, protecting a group of friends but then learning fighting is not the way, even to start saving the enemy from death. However in G Saviour we have more American film ideals, the lone hero is in the gundams but not as obvious as it is in this film, and right away he wants to save the world but does not care for the other side no mater who they are. Even Herro Yui began to realise there was good people on both sides! so in this case i was disappointed a bit, however it did redeem its self by hinting at the fact that there was confusion to which side was right, and the use actually following the style flow of gundam with the off world colonies. Also...even after all that...if you don't give a poop about the missing element of Japaneses-godlyness, it has large Robots with energy blades! 'nuf said! =p people ENJOY its got something for all, even the kiddies

Mecha Lovers Lament

[vampeal7 · 6/10 · 6 January 2007]

G-Saviour, for the most part, is a fair movie. Decent characters, above par storyline that would fit the Gundam universe, but if you came for mecha fights and robots slaughtering each other for 2 hours, you're out of luck.

For what it's worth the mecha scenes, that are few and far between, are good. The G-Saviour will not win any awards for Best Gundam, but the fights between it and other mobile suits are worth a glance at, and yes you get both laser cannons and beam saber action as Mark Curran flies around in the G-Saviour aptly saving the day and holding up the tradition of Gundam.

So if you're a die-hard Gundam/mecha fan who must see every shred of Gundam footage known to man then knock yourself out. But if you are just discovering the world of anime and/or Gundam and have access to the animated shows, consider this movie a last resort. At least wait until they someday (god-willing) attempt to make a live action version of the original series.

3 out of 5, fair.

With less than 9 million in budget, do not expect a big bang summer blockbuster

[xamtaro · 6/10 · 9 September 2009]

A month ago, I found G-Savior DVD in the "2nd hand" product bin at my local video store. It was really cheap so despite having read so many angry fan ravings about how terrible G-savior was, I bought it, watched it, and was pleasantly surprised by it.

After seeing so many angry fan ravings about how terrible this attempt at a live action Gundam movie was, I decided to check it out myself out of curiosity, and I must say I was pleasantly surprised. G-Savior is not the most impressive looking live action adaptation but it is definitely not "crap" or "an obscenity". Among direct-to-DVD movies, G-Savior is possibly the best of the bunch. Though it pales in comparison with big screen blockbuster movies, such a thing is expected seeing as G-Savior's budget was only slightly less than 9 million dollars.

The story starts of with a great premise. The year is Universal Century 223 and the various Space Colonies have proudly let go of their colonial past and now consider themselves independent "Settlements". The ruling government of earth known as CONSENT once again seeks to bring the outlying colonies under its control and does so by creating a food shortage in the colonies. In that way, the colonies now depend on CONSENT for food hence giving the earth total economic control over the space settlements. Enter Ex-CONSENT mobile suit pilot Mark Curran who, while peacefully working as a mobile suit operator for an underwater research facility, is swept up into the war when "terrorists" attack the facility and steal a top secret research project that may be able to solve the food crisis and break the earth's economic stranglehold on the colonies. In a crisis of conscience, Mark makes the decision to help the colonies, much to the displeasure of his former CONSENT commander Jack Halle, who has been tasked with eliminating this rebel faction. Shocking twists reveal a hidden conspiracy as Mark Curran must once again take up arms against a powerful enemy despite his past traumatic experience in space combat.

For a low budget direct-to-DVD movie, G-savior actually looks very good when compared to other 1999/2000 movies, but pales very much in comparison to other giant robot movies such as Transformers or Matrix, especially in the special effects department.The computer generated graphics used for space vessels, the various mechs, the G-savior tend to clash in the most obvious ways with the live action footage thanks to some off key lighting and the unrealistically blocky designs. It felt like watching two different shows; a sci/fi TV drama inter-cut with footage from video game cut-scenes. At least they tried to make the mobile suits move realistically as opposed to lightning fast movements of the mecha in the anime.

One would normally forgive a movie's sub-par graphics and special effects in view of its low budget, but this movie's acting is really hit or miss. I had no problems with a Caucasian cast (after all, most Gundam characters had western names and facial body features), but only a handful of them manage to deliver good performances. Aside from the main characters like Mark Curran, Cynthia Graves and Jack Halle, the rest of the actors sound about as good as characters in a bad Saturday morning cartoon.

The greatest crime of this movie is the action, or rather, lack of action. Almost an hour passes before the viewer gets his first dose of Mobile Suit mecha combat. Before that, the whole show plays out like a pilot episode for some boring TV drama series. Overall, the story is good; the plot was interesting and managed to incorporate a number of political themes, a staple in the Gundam stories. The action scenes are few and far in between, but when they do come they come in hard and fast. The final battle is definitely a well earned payoff for sitting through the horrible pacing in the first hour; Epic in scale and truly a spectacle to behold.

G-savior is not as terrible as so many people claim but it does have its flaws. It has an excellent story with a couple of good plot twists, a well developed main character that really grows on you as the show moves along and some intense action sequences coupled with a grand sweeping film score composed John Debeney(who also composed for The Scorpion King and The Passion of Christ). Too bad the acting was such a mixed bag, the CGI effects were disappointing and the production values were so low.

Gundam fans would no doubt feel let down that this was not the big budget blockbuster that they fantasized a Gundam live action movie would be. I personally enjoyed G-Savior for what it was, not what people expected it to be. It is highly entertaining and one of the best, though low budgeted, direct-to-DVD movies around nowadays.

GREAT

[tbonewill23 · 8/10 · 12 May 2019]

For its time, this movie was actually pretty good considering all the other late 90s sci-fi films. The acting was very intriguing and engaging for the most part as well as the writing that matched it. I was suprised by this film as the reviews and ancient cgi paint it in a negative light.

Live action gundam

[joedon66 · 7/10 · 6 November 2005]

This would have been a great Gundam movie if they had focused less on the romantics and more on what people watch Gundam for, the Mobile Suits. I'm not saying that the different Gundam series don't have plots that are very interesting and bring the audience in, i'm saying that this movie focused too much on the relationship between Mark(Gundam pilot) and the two central women in the story. When the Suits do come out to play it is intense and visually amazing but unfortunately this only occurs 2 times throughout the entire movie!! All-in-all I would consider this to be a good movie that attempted to do much and took away from what could have been an awesome Gundam movie.

65 foot robots and the guy gets the girl

[double.g · 9/10 · 21 January 2000]

G-Saviour has the best visual effects I've ever seen in a TV Movie, and some of the best action too. Who is Brennan Elliot anyway, and why isn't he in any other stuff? Enuka Okuma is also wonderful

Watch it for the special effects...

[legionair · 4 August 2001]

The special effects were impressive and some of the concepts used were inspired...

Unfortunately, the acting was terrible with almost every scene seemingly forced out of the crew. Just about every action movie cliche was included, regardless of it's logic.

The hero is a retired combat pilot who has shellshock as a result of the misdoings of his old commander. Spies break into the base, but they're actually the good guys. And the hero trusts them because they're on the up and up. The hero is framed and the big bad guy of the movie is actually his old commander... It just goes on and on. I would go on and on, but I don't want to spoil the "plot" too much.

The battlescenes make up the last twenty or so minutes of the movie. Skip everything that comes before it. And skip the final five minutes of the movie, the convient plot tie ups will only melt your brain.

CRAP CRAP AND MORE CRAP

[cra5h_0v3r1d3 · 6 February 2004]

So I'm a huge Gundam fan. I collect all means of Gundam media. I have DVDs unreleased DVDs and VCDs and if I see a Gundam model I don't have I buy 2 so I can paint 1 and put the other away. I feel the original "Mobile Suit: Gundam" movie seris was the best and probably always will be. But I saw this thing and had to pick it up and buy it because it's Gundam. I didn't even look at the back to notice that it had actual people in it. I figured it was just some cheasy CGI thing that was whatever... Point is... I got it home and put it in... the image was sooooo grainy and dark (to hide how crapy the CGI looked) and the acting was so awful that I just started to zone out and I seriously fell asleep. The volume on the DVD fluctiates so much that the end battle scene is booming loud and woke me up. I saw the crappy crappy effects and I just pulled it out and said "OH MY GOD!!! WHAT HAVE THEY DONE!!!". Gundam is one of the biggest anime franchises ever and if they wanted to be serious they should have spoken to some one about making a large budget film that would be awesome. Made for TV movies pretty much always suck, but I've seen way better effects... that one person that posted they liked the effects has never seen Merlin from 1998 or from Earth to the Moon from 1998 or... hell... anyhthing... ANYTHING IS BETTER THAN THIS... WATCH ANY FILM AND IT WILL BE BETTER THAN THIS!!! it's terrrible... ok... I've ranted enough... Bandai should just talk to Sony or something and make a huge large 100 million dollar film or make 3... I don't care... I'll watch it... just as long as its better than this.. OHHH! if you want large robots and people... rent ROBO JOCKS from back in the eighties... way cooler. Peace out