Verdict
Summary
A somewhat “R” rated (for language and strong violence) feature that could’ve been perfect for kids, Bravestorm is incredibly short at just 81 minutes, but it packs in as much action as it can on a limited budget.
Plot: Two families (one with an armored bionic superhero, and the other a red giant robot) fight against evil aliens to save Earth and prevent the extinction of mankind.
Review: In a devastated future – year 2050 – earth has been terraformed by an alien race called the Killgis, who invaded with a massive black robot that spewed a deadly chemical that wiped away 98% of humanity. The Killgis couldn’t do it alone, though: They sent several robot soldiers to 2013 Tokyo to kidnap several key human scientists and engineers to build them their robot to later invade the earth with. Faced with such a hopeless scenario, a surviving family of soldiers, scientists, and a super powered sister who can teleport, decide to change the future by sending several of their clan back to 2013 to stop the Killgis from snatching the key scientist – their grandfather – for their nefarious plans. What they didn’t count on was that their grandfather was already almost finished working on his giant robot called The Red Baron as a hobby. What this means is that they might have won the battle before it even begins, but somehow they created a paradox where the Killgis invade decades earlier with their robot already built. So 2013 Tokyo will be the battleground between the two massive robots with the family using everything they have against the invading Killgis.
A somewhat “R” rated (for language and strong violence) feature that could’ve been perfect for kids, Bravestorm is incredibly short at just 81 minutes, but it packs in as much action as it can on a limited budget. Most of the fights are between humans or man vs aliens, and when the finale between the two big robots gets started in the last 20 minutes, it’s a bit underwhelming, but composer Mike Verta’s grand score does a lot of work to compensate for a gimpy delivery on the destruction scale. I liked it for what it was, and it reminded me a little bit of another Japanese apocalyptic alien invasion film called Returner. Comparisons to The Terminator are bound to be made as well. Junya Okabe wrote, edited, produced, and directed. Apparently, this was based on two different TV series from the 1970s: Silver Mask and Super Robot Red Baron.
The newly released DVD of this title is a bare bones release. No Blu-ray is available in North America.
