Patlabor the Movie 3: WXII

Director
Fumihiko TakayamaFumihiko Takayama, Toshiki Hirano
Production
Bandai, TFC
Country of origin
Japan
Format
Film
Running time
107 mins
Year
2002

Patlabor the Movie 3: WXII

By Mark McPherson
21st May 04

It's been a long time since the last Patlabor movie, but after some long delays, a new Patlabor film finally been released. With Patlabor having been dead for a decade, it's nice to revamp a classic.

The story this time is more of horror situation then a small political war. A secret team of scientists are trying to recreate a dead species, but cannot achieve this goal since the test subjects keep dying too fast. However, a female scientist named Misaki plants cancer cells in the 13th subject to help it regenerate it's skin. Now it has escaped and starts causing murders all over Tokyo.

The first man to get in on this is a new young detective called Hata who works with the old time detective Kusumi. Hata needs Kusumi for his knowledge and Kusumi needs Hata for his internet skills. Makes sense. Later on, Captain Goto jumps in to help and is actually more perky than I expected him to be since he's so layed back. As with the last movie, the regulars from Division 2 who you've seen on the TV series are pushed to the side until the action gets going.

This seems a very new approach to Patlabor when compared to the last two movies. It's not uncommon since there were a few episodes from the TV series that are similar to the film, but it's a rare case. However, the feeling of Patlabor hasn't left at all. All the light-hearted comedy and political intelligence is all still here. There seems to be a trend with the Patlabor movies to always end at the Babylon Project site. This movie follows the same motive except this time Division 2 is already inside and doesn't have to sneak in.

In terms of Labors, we really don't get to see a whole lot. The first murder shows a destroyed a Labor and later on the WXIII merges (you heard right) with a construction Labor. As for actual militaristic Labors, the army Labors show up a few times for some small action, but the ones who really get the best action is ofcourse the Ingrams.

The animation is pretty much a dead-on comparisson to Jin-Roh and suits the movie well. Some of the characters designs have changed, but you should be able to instantly recognize Captain Goto and Noa Izumi. The story felt a tad lower than the second movie, but it was still well written. Probably one of my favorite parts in the movies was the climax when Otta and Noa fight the WXIII with their Ingrams. The action and the music play extremely well in this sequence. I haven't seen a mecha fight of this calibur since End of Evangelion.

If you're a fan of Patlabor or you loved the animation in Jin-Roh, you'll instantly love this movie. Others may need to take their time with this title, but trust me, you'll be glued to the screen to see how the story unfolds. Overall, it's pretty much what you should expect from Patlabor: Pure intelligent politics with some mecha and a dash humor.

10/10

-- Mark McPherson 21st May 04

Patlabor the Movie 3: WXII Images