Just a few prefaces before i get into this.
Before getting into this film i watched the 7 episode OVA, as a standalone experience i really enjoyed it, other than being visually amazing it had great sense of humor and fun character dynamics and episode ideas, with a few exceptions. Although enjoying the OVA, I'm really puzzled if i would recommend watching it before watching this film. It establishes the characters, sure. But this movie doesn't really give a fuck about most of the main cast from the OVA, the two characters that enjoyed most of the movies screen time were Gotou and Nagumo, but i have a feeling that their personalities were not done justice in this movie. More on that later.
Anyways, I'd probably say that if you're looking to be slightly less confused by what's going on on this movie, sure you can watch the OVA, it's like 3½ hours overall and a pretty good time. But it's not necessary.
What i liked about this movie is pretty trivial, Mamoru Oshii is a great director, shot compositions and editing was less impressive and exciting than the OVA though. And about the writing... I'll get to it just in a moment. The rest of the staff also made an amazing job with the animation and art.
Lastly, a minor thing i enjoyed is even after Gotou's personality got absolutely colonized by this movie's dreadful monotonous tone and complete lack of interest in delivering the dialogue in a way that would make anybody care, he still made me laugh a few times throughout this 2-hour slog. He's just so goofy and cynical he got to shine even for a bit on this film.
Let's start with what i had in mind for the first 40 minutes of the movie. The insanely dry execution of the relatively interesting plot really made my experience with this thing unbearable. The "Arial Combat" scene was pretty cool to experience, but that's in contrast of the long-ass exposition fest this movie was up to that moment. Actually, the plot kept happening almost solely from the characters mouths until... 20 minutes before the end of the film. So interesting and fun guys, thanks. I started asking myself though, why would somebody write this plot from a single perspective, almost only from dry ass dialogue, when i can watch a more complex, multi-perspective history lesson on the history channel or something, and it would tell a story that actually happened? Before i could answer my own question, this laughably pretentious dialogue displayed itself on my screen.
That's when it got philosophical. Just when the scene started i said out loud: "Oh, finally, some ideas!" But i didn't know how stupid and degenerate the philosophy of this work is going to be.
This movie surprised me with it's twisted ideology about something called... "Lust for peace"... "Unjust peace"...? Basically the other dude that is not Gotou is saying that when there's peace, others pay the price. That the history of the human kind is so stained with blood that the intervals between those wars called peace, are not legitimate. Because other people will still suffer because the effects of war and whatnot. He implies that there should be action to completely stop wars from happening in the future to achieve true peace, or "Non fraudulent peace" as he says later in the film.
That is... fucking stupid. I see this pattern of thinking in modern day leftists. Utopian thinking that manifests in preaching about bad stuff in the world with no actual solution or a comprehensive understanding of the situation...
No. You can't prevent war from happening... There will always be conflict between people and nations because not everyone was created equally. Different people believe in different things and have different interests. Our world is fucked, but you can't save everyone, the world will never be perfect. If you are born into a middle class family in a country with a decent economy, you got good RNG, just live your life to the fullest of it's potential. It's okay for a person or a nation to not care about foreign conflicts or starving children in Africa if they have no relation to it, they have a million other problems to take care of. If you do care and try to make the world a better place, all power to you, but don't give shit to other people for not being like you.
That's my take about this topic, feel free to disagree.
After that, Gotou actually disagrees with him and says this:
Sure, i agree. Solid response... The other dude responds with this:
...
Wait...
Bro...
WHAT THE FUCK IS A JUST WAR?
In most wars i believe, every side thinks its fighting for a just cause.
Oh. Okay bro. I'm at a loss of words. If everyone wouldn't resort to violence as means to solve conflict, of course we wouldn't have wars, but not everyone is smart as you, i guess. Let's just move on.
...Actually, let's not. One last thing.
War is something that i think most people would say is inevitable. After this scene, i then would not be surprised if Gotou or some other character will start whining about the fact that they will die someday. Having mentioned that, if you are reading this and might be dreading daily about how ugly the world is or how nothing matters i suggest you do stuff that makes you feel good. Ya know, like eating good food, falling in love, driving above the speed limit, or maybe pick up a new hobby... or start taking better care of family and friends. And then you will be busy and satisfied with your life, and shit like this won't bother you anymore.
You caught that, right..? I said Gotou, even though he seems to disagree in the first half of this scene. Nope, he actually submits to this philosophy later, in the climax of the film.
Sigh, so basically the films allegory is that the police department are cowards that care about maintaining the status quo and keeping the public calm, rather than... You guessed it, SERVING JUSTICE!!!!1™
The allegory doesn't even fucking work because the film is so stuck up in it's own ass it completely ignores how such massive destruction done by a single helicopter could happen when every fucking solider in tokyo was on high alert...
So this massive terror attack succeeded because... The police and army higher-ups are cowards... Mhm got it... Totally believable.
Basically how they finish this fuckass movie is by gathering all the OG SV2 members (which i love dearly, just not in this movie) and, get this, using violence (I know it's debatable but there was material destruction and weapons used) to solve the conflict!!! (But now, below everyone noses because they know better!!!) They went to where the person behind the terrorist attacks was and ARRESTED HIS ASS, fighting cool robots on the way... Ah! Thank you guys so much, this movie really changed my views and saved my life!!!
I give Mobile Police Patlabor 2: The Movie, a 3/10.
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