Set in a world where humanity managed to explore the universe for more resources and later got into an interplanetary war with Mars, Kai, a boy that lost his father to the war, grows up and joins the Mecha Corps Academy. His desire of defending his planet, and finding his mother that has been lost in space for many years, is what keeps him moving forward despite having a very weak constitution and having to work way more than the rest of his teammates. When he is assigned his own Mecha, the two start to form a bond that makes them strong enough not only to survive the training, but also the many challenges they will need to overcome in order to survive this war.
That is the premise of “Heavens: The Boy And His Robot”, the new film by writer/director Rich Ho, who spent more than a decade working on this project, and was presented in Fantasia 2024 last night.
This movie left me with mixed feelings, and I will try my best to explain why:
The movie looks amazing, the special effects are great and the fights (both in the sky and on the ground) are breathtaking, not to mention that they are all in plain daylight and you can see everything that is going on with a lot of details.
This is in part the cause of my mixed feelings. The creator of this project, Rich Ho (Who writes, directs, composes the music, and also takes part in the special effects) spent years trying to push the technology to create the special effects for this film, and you can see the result is nothing short of amazing. And, just for that, the guy has all my respect.
This is clearly (at least in intention) the first step to a way bigger universe. This could be just the pilot for a franchise, or a series of films. Clearly Ho has tons of material planned, and has more stories to tell, not just about Kai, his team, and whatever happened to Kai’s mother. I am sure there are also some stories about what is happening on the other side of the universe, who is leading the Martian forces and what other battles are being fought beyond Earth. Honestly, I would like to see them.
But that being said, I need to address what I consider the weakest side of this film. The story.
The film starts very strong, it lets us know very fast what is going on, with very good pacing, and not over-explaining. The problem for me starts a little after this strong introduction, when we start getting jokes and comedy out of nowhere, strongly contrasting tremendously the very serious and menacing set up.
It dawned on me a little too late that this is intended as a family film (nothing wrong with that, we need more of those!). The film looks something like the first Pacific Rim film (and I mean this as a compliment). The Mechas move slowly, heavy, the design is clearly practical (and not necessarily to look cool) and the first battles are tense. There are clearly a lot of references to various anime works and you will have a good time identifying them.
But then we see that Kai’s robot “Little Dragon » has an AI with a very human personality (that even acts as a teenager) nothing like the AI interface in more serious films, that are there to just follow orders and enforce protocols, or at the most, to offer suggestions. In this film “Little Dragon’ even’ makes jokes. And this is where I start to have questions. Since this robot (and apparently all the Mechas assigned to the young pilots) has a mind of its own, it can control all the arsenal in its body, fly by itself and do combat… What are the pilots needed for? And why would they need to sync to their robots? What is the purpose of forming a bond between pilots and Mechas? (this is a requirement in the army in this universe, not a surprise that happens unplanned, like most stories in sci-fi)
The other issue I had with the movie (again, this can be my fault since I was not expecting a FAMILY film) was the humor. At the beginning the plot is played very seriously, but then starts to turn into one comedy sketch after another when Kai enters the academy training, and it felt very unbalanced.
I would also argue that the acting was not that great in some spots. The film has dubbed dialogues, and that probably did not help either.
But regarding with the comedy:
Imagine you start watching the first “Starship Troopers” movie, with the carnage, the gore, the drama, but when Rico enters the academy training, the film becomes “Police Academy» (only rated PG, almost G) and you get the idea of what my issue was. To make matters worse, THE MECHAS AND THE BATTLES LOOK AMAZING. I felt at times I was watching a Tv show created by Bandai, with all the silliness of the characters, the humorous training montage but looking amazing when the robots go to battle; Is almost Academy Awards Worthy. Not kidding.
And when I say silly characters, I don’t mean just Kai’s fellow cadets, we also get a Drill Sergeant with an (intentionally silly) squeaky voice, and another high rank officer that thinks it’s a very good idea to arm a bomb and have it ready to explode BEFORE going into battle. And, when asked why, he just goes “….Ehhhhh” (I’m not kidding). This happens in the middle of a crisis where lives are at stake.
And if that was not enough, this happens more than three times. Get the picture?
Once you know that this movie is something more in line with a kids movie that could have been written in the 80s, where you need to ignore logic, protocols and YES, even common sense, there is a LOT of fun to be had. I am not saying this is another film where you need to shut down your brain to enjoy it, because there are a lot of good things to enjoy. I just suggest that you don’t go expecting depth, and you will have a good time.
I still feel I cannot recommend this movie to just anyone, but I think it should be seen by everybody that has dreams of making a movie, publishing a novel, writing a song or just play in a band and start touring.
This film is clearly a labor of love, with a lot of passion and effort behind it, and without a shadow of a doubt. It’s a great example of not giving up when you want to bring your dreams and ideas to life. And we need more of those.
And I will be reviewing more films doing our remote coverage, so stay tuned!
