I'm not sure whether this should go here or in MovieTowne, since I did see it in a cinema. Regardless...
You may or may not have heard about this film. It's a movie by director of Akira (Katsuhiro Ôtomo), the follow up project after having done Akira. It cost a pretty penny to produce and it shows. There are definitely Hollywood Level Production values here. The story takes place in Victorian England, where the focus is on steam-powered technology, so I would recommended getting it on DVD, since the detail of the machine design is uber-cool and by far the biggest draw of the movie. On this alone I would recommended taking a look at it. The story is a little weird of course. Think a cool Wild Wild West set in England... Not really let the synopsis explain...
A retro science-fiction epic set in Victorian England, Steamboy features an inventor prodigy named Ray Steam who receives a mysterious metal ball containing a new form of energy capable of powering an entire nation. This young boy must use it to fight evil, redeem his family, and save London from destruction.
This story features typical far out anime never-gonna-happen science, especially the end which really makes you buss out laughing. The story feels kinda rushed though. That is the main problem. The character's behaviour seems unrealistic too and those two things make it a real yawner sometimes. The action is flat out insanely cool though. The sound, the visuals. frickin awesome.
Finally, I would recommend watching the dubbed version, since I saw the subbed version, and it really takes you out of the experience. Normally the subbed version has a nice slant to the dialogue but this time watching british characters speaking japanese was just odd. Plus the english dubbing features a star-studded cast (Anna Paquin, Alfred Molina, Patrick Stewart)
All in all, great visually, flawed story. Watch it. B Rating.
http://www.sonypictures.com/movies/steamboy/title-navigation-2.htmlhttp://www.imdb.com/title/tt0348121/