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Posted by  TheArtrix on 01/18/2006, 23:40 CET (@986 BMT) |
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/10
When I first heard of the show, I was thinking of your average battlemech stuff. Giant robots fighting eachother, stuff like that.
So I pretty much ignored the show, until I saw this promo on Cartoon Network Europe (when it was still on the preview channel). It was just enough motivation to get me some episodes.
I must say, I really liked the pilot episode. The graphics were very good, and there was a very good balance between CGing and frame animation. The intro sequence shows, in a well controlled manner, what the whole series is all about. What is not explained is the mood setting of the show, which completely changes from a very serious sci-fi action setting to, well, something completely down-to-earth.
Basically, a prototype of an alien batlemech and it's human pilot is accidentally being sent from a distant future to the current age. The humans are in war with an alien race called the Glorft (If I've heart that correctly). Those aliens managed to use the same time warp to get into the present as well, there's your premise.
Since the time machine is broken, Kiva, the pilot, is stuck in the past, and separated from Megas, which is the name of the battlemech. She finds it soon enough: in the hands of an overweight videogame/car fanatic named Coop, and his slacker pal Jamie. They found it on the junk yard and like Coop says: "Finders, keepers".
Since the tech addicted Coop has modified Megas with a car for a head, Kiva cannot control it, and is stuck with Coop as her pilot. It's the beginning of a horrible friendship.
The contradiction between Kiva and the slacker buddies is priceless and often leads to funny situations. As a by-product, they also compliment eachother. Without Kiva, Coop and Jamie wouldn't bother saving the world from a bunch of aliens from the future.
Another funny aspect is how Kiva is dead serious about everything while Coop and Jamie (and pretty much all the other people on the streets of Jersey city) have induldged themself in a world of pop-culture and snack food chains.
One of the humorous aspects of the show is the way nothing stays in one piece as soon as Coop turns on Megas. Megas is stored right under his mom's garage which always gets destroyed as soon as Megas lifts off, and they don't really seem to care about it.
The humor is okay, but when we look at the storytelling, it becomes another story. Although the show is pretty fast paced, it might get a bit dull after a few episodes. That's because the show uses an annoying formula that gets old. Usually they're either training or Coop does something stupid, some villain appears, Coop gets angry (''first you [insert action], then you [insert action], and now you [insert action], that does it!'') and totally kicks butt.
My score: 7.8/10
We've got an enterrtaining show here, folks. It's storytelling isn't perfect but it's definitely worth your viewing on that boring afternoon. Visual-wise this show is up to date and it gives you a nice grin on your face :]
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