Kidou Senshi Gundam Thunderbolt: Bandit Flower

What's here in this film is fantastic, but I have a big problem with what's not here. The action scenes are some of the best in any Gundam series or film I've seen, there's so much grit that makes everything much more intense. Like the first film, Bandit Flower is an unfiltered portrayal of the horrors of war in the Universal Century, it's extremely violent and dark which makes everything feel so believable. I also really liked the music which did a great job complementing the chaos of the battles and the emotion in other scenes. My main issue with this film is how it ... doesn't finish its story arc and hasn't got a sequel to do so either, this sucks because there isn't anything resembling a resolution here. You would have to read the manga to see what happens next which is a shame. Even with its unfinished story arc, watching some of the best battles in Gundam history is more than a fair tradeoff, this is well worth a watch.

The original Thunderbolt had a pretty basic story about a bitter feud between two pilots, but it worked well to lend some weight to all the action. Bandit Flower doesn't have that. In fact, Bandit Flower doesn't really have a plot at all. It feels like a 90-minute compilation of all the action scenes from a 12-episode TV series (or maybe three random episodes from the middle of a series) with almost no connective tissue between them and, critically, little indication of the specific objectives for the various battles. With no context to lend it any sense of drama, it's reduced to the narrative level ... of a kid bashing action figures together.

It does continue some plot threads from the original, but none of them are significantly advanced or resolved here. It ends on something of a cliffhanger, and it's pretty clear that the Thunderbolt sub-series was meant to continue beyond this. Unfortunately, while there was only a year between December Sky and Bandit Flower, it's now been five years since the latter with no sign of another chapter being in development.

With little internal plot development and no sense of closure, all that's left is the action, of which there is a lot. As ungarnished roboporn goes, Bandit Flower delivers. The mech scenes are top-notch, with an obsessive attention to detail and plenty of variety in the battles. That element alone raises it above mediocrity.

I liked the first movie well enough. I can't say I liked this one. It carries over the visuals of the first movie, has some excellent fight scenes and some cool new tech, there are some interesting dynamics to the missions, we get some new characters that warrant some attention, more characterization for those that die so it doesn't feel like just fodder, and... that's about it.

I think the first movie worked well because it felt like a personal fight between two fighters in a distinctly impersonal battlefield. This movie introduces more complications, including a cult that feels half-baked and only gets some explication in ... the end (including a minor cliffhanger) and a revelation about a specific character that functions as motivation for one of our leads but never gets explained, both of which might have barely been enough for me to see this further... if there was any further to go. Yep, we stop here, so everything ends in anti-climax. It's hard to recommend a series that ends this way, even if I feel the ride was worthwhile, so despite my score remaining at mid-level, I can't recommend this one. If you see the visuals and think the ride is worthwhile, there are other Gundam entries of similar quality that won't disappoint narratively.