2024 marks the 45th anniversary of the Gundam franchise, the first episode of the inaugural anime series having premiered on Japanese television on April 7, 1979. To mark the occasion, the world of giant robot suits is getting a VR expansion in the shape of Mobile Suit Gundam: Silver Phantom, a film/game hybrid selected in the competitive strand of Venice Immersive. Though firmly part of the Gundam mythology, it presents a narrative that is sufficiently newcomer-friendly. The running time (45 minutes minimum) might be a deterrent for younger viewers, though.
The movie begins with a brief recap of the general premise of the franchise, with vintage clips from shows and films past, before moving to the current story, whose style, perhaps to longtime fans’ chagrin, is a bit more CGI-adjacent to allow for a smoother transition between the passive and interactive portions of the experience. Set three years after the last war between the Principality of Zeon and the Earth Federation, the plot revolves around the latter recruiting a group of mercenaries to track down a former military commander who has joined the last remnants of Zeon, the so-called Sleeves.
The viewer/user is one of these mercenaries, accompanied by a cute flying green creature (who gives out instructions during the game segments). Depending on the segment playing out on the interface, this is either a passive viewing experience of the storyline, akin to a cut-scene from a videogame, or an interactive gaming session, with the controllers representing the protagonist’s hands as we move through a space station and eventually get inside the Gundam suit and start fighting adversaries and/or dodging meteor showers.
This is the most engaging part for the user, but also – potentially – the most time-consuming and patience-testing, since the player’s skill directly impacts the experience’s running time: officially listed as 45 minutes, it can actually go on for much longer depending on how long one takes to complete a level (at the press preview this writer attended in Venice, staff asked journalists ahead of time if they wanted to stop at the 45-minute mark). Particularly frustrating is one section where the user has multiple options among targets to shoot at, with some of them leading to a do-over of the same sequence (the English-language dub is also quite uneven).
That minor annoyance aside, Silver Phantom is the kind of mixed experience that will provide thrills for fans of the Gundam universe and other giant robot properties like the Pacific Rim films (which were directly influenced by the series), by allowing the viewer to effectively pilot the suit and be the hero for a brief but intense amount of time. In fact, it enhances the message of the original, which revolutionized the genre by depicting the pilots as ordinary people. Although, when one is “sitting” inside the Gundam, the definition of “ordinary” may be up for debate…
Director: Kenichi Suzuki
Screenwriter: Ryoji Sekinishi
Cast: Yuuki Shin, Atsumi Tanezaki, Mariya Ise, Yuki Kaji, Ryo Hirohashi, Kikuko Inoue, Hiroya Egashira, Yukari Oribe, Yuki Onodera, Toru Furuya, Shuichi Ikeda, Yoshiko Sakakibara, Koki Uchiyama, Brandon McInnis, Jeannie Tirado, Lizzie Freeman, Howard Wang, Cristina Vee, Dawn M. Bennett, Armen Taylor, Rebeka Thomas, Chris Tergliafera, Lucien Dodge, Keith Silverstein, Steve Staley
Producers: Kiichiro Inoue, Ken Iyadomi, Makoto Asanuma, Naohiro Ogata, Julien Bercy, Arnaud Colinart, Andrew Frain, Antoine Cayrol, Ryan Genji Thomas, Sarah Malkin
Production design: Yasuhiro Okumura, Tsukasa Kotobuki, Mika Akitaka, Shigemitsu Yukiko
Music: Yoshiya Ikeda, Shoko Nakagawa, Yuho Iwasato, Takuya Goto Ako
Sound: Sadayoshi Fujino, Côme Jalibert
Production companies: Bandai Namco Filmworks, Atlas V, Meta
World sales: Astrea
Venue: Venice Film Festival (Venice Immersive – Competition)
In Japanese/English
45 minutes
