Harlock Space Pirate

A new animated take on a classic manga property, Harlock Space Pirate sees an immortal spaceship captain roam a colonised galaxy, against the backdrop of a sinister governing body having declared mankind’s home on Earth now uninhabitable. The plot, as it unravels, bears some considerable similarities to Joss Whedon’s film Serenity at times (and wholesale lifts a couple of visual cues from one of Serenity’s set-pieces), but with a far less endearing band of heroes or compelling villain.

Its CG character designs recall the video game likes of Bioshock and Metroid, but filtered through the increasingly mocked “grimdark” lens applied to every other recent sci-fi or fantasy reboot (see 2014’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Man of Steel), an approach that also seeps into the storytelling; certain lulls of the film can be enlivened by imagining the ‘dark Batman’ song from The LEGO Movie playing over shots of eye-patched Harlock brooding on deck while a pet bird squawks on his shoulder. Aramaki’s po-faced film is occasionally striking visually, but it's rarely any fun.