(Warning: This review contains spoilers for those who have not seen the series that this movie continues).
Mobile Suit Gundam GQuuuuuuX – Beginning follows an ambitious young commander who is active in the fight between his own colony far from earth and the main forces from Earth’s federation. On a scouting mission, he finds a new overpowered suit that has weapons beyond anything he has seen, giving him great power to turn the tide in the war against the other robotic mechs. They end up creating a truce between the two factions after both their top suits disappear and the Earth Federation’s biggest ship blows up. How did they disappear? This is what leads to the title card (which drops after half an hour).
After this, we change perspectives following a young woman with red hair, a red backpack and a red phone. She ends up with a device that allows pacified mobile suits used by the public to be used as weapons and runs into another young woman who is trying to deliver the device. The two end up working together, encountering the group of young hooligans who ordered it. All this takes place on the colony that runs on artificial gravity away from earth. They end up witnessing the battle between the red gundam who seems to be a terrorist who came from nowhere despite the two factions of Zeum and the Earth Federation making peace. The red gundam shows they aren’t just about violence though as they make sure not to run into any of the humans on the ground including the red haired young woman who is almost hit by a mobile suit. Instead, the people looking for the Red Gundam of the planet end up attacking the homes of the Spacenoids, people who are considered refugees from the war between Zeum and the Earth Federation.
The film thrives on the action scenes. They have fun, retro-sounding effects with a very fun sense of animation, even at a generally smaller scale considering it is a movie of an anime series. It always interesting to see the way the action plays out. (Though, I would have desired for there to be more scaled-down fights where we only have to follow a couple of suits fighting so then we have a better idea of their spatial relationship.) The action moves quite fast. It is often hard to follow the different objectives each group or suit has, thus making it harder to engage with how they do or do not achieve their objectives. It will constantly keep the tone light with whimsical music even as a dramatic revelation is made. Even when our main character appears trapped in a ship as it is about to blow up, the tone remains light as the colours become even more bright and varied like rainbows. It creates a tone that is uniquely its own but certainly prevents more interesting themes from being revealed or explored. It does feel like it is holding itself back from becoming mature to appeal to wide audiences, particularly younger people despite hinting at real political and violent conflicts.
The sound mixing is a bit weird, while all the effects are muffled (which makes sense if we are hearing them from the commander’s perspective inside the suit). As such, the film seems like a fun cartoon time, though it has some darkness with shots and hints of the devastation this human civil war have created.
The film is ‘very anime’. As someone who does not watch a lot, this quick film took some time to get used to. The Zeon’s are the underdogs, with one hope of a brilliant tactician to use their limited resources to help cripple the dominating force of the Earth Federation. Fun music that helps keep the tone light, even as the suits are being used to blow up giant space warships. J-Pop shows up in moments one would normally would think more dramatic strings would come in, keeping the tone fun and again very much embracing this as a light anime watch for anyone interested.
For those not familiar with the show, I would say it seems pretty Star Wars-inspired, reveling in plans with sci-fi devices and war plans that go far beyond what we have seen on earth or in more grounded shows like Game of Thrones. The show has also years of lore built up, first airing back in 1979. It seems to have that complexity. If you are not familiar with the show, you will have many different factions and people to learn who they are and how they relate to one another. It took me most of the film to understand who was part of what group and what that group wanted, even then each of these characters have their own goals and do not seem to always follow what their groups are aiming for. The show feels like a more dark, grounded version of Star Wars: the Clone Wars, where it begins to tackle themes of destruction, war and the forces of dominating superpowers but revels more in the fun and enjoyable action of seeing robots, explosions and ships take up the screen space. This adds to the sense this hour and 20 minute film, if not for animation budget restrictions, should have been longer to let the weight of the events and character choices linger for an audience who is being exposed to this world for the very first time. Unfornately, we do not often get that chance and that remains true until the finale, which ends similar to an impactful episode of TV with a cliffhanger making you ache to know what happens next.
Mobile Suit Gundam GQuuuuuuX – Beginning is in theatres on Friday, February 28th, 2025.
