Extraordinary, exciting, and with levels of meaning behind it

Rating: 10/10 (16 March 2007)

I find it incredibly annoying when I'm watching a supposedly "exciting" film and I can see what's going to happen. A particularly bad example was the supposed SF horror-thriller "Pitch Black" when it was possible to work out who was going to be eaten next just by reading the names from the cast list in reverse order: those who had the biggest parts survived longest. "Laputa: Castle In The Sky" manages to be far more exciting and far less predictable, and does it all without foul language, explicit violence, or the kind of criminal superman Hollywood has loved ever since "The Silence of the Lambs". It would be too complicated for small children, but it's eminently suitable for adults as well as teenagers. As usual with Miyazaki's work the characters were well-rounded and believable, and that helped to keep me guessing as to what was going to happen next. I was on the edge of my seat right until the end. It need hardly be said that the film is visually striking too: perhaps the most astonishing of the Ghibli films I have seen, with the vast perspectives of Slagg's Ravine, houses clinging to the edge, the huge and strangely beautiful city of Laputa, the sullen fort which reaches up into the clouds, and the weird flying machines that are the "Goliath" and the "Tiger Moth". From an SF point of view it might be loosely categorised as steampunk혰it's set in an alternative past with high technology혰but it is a thrilling, well-written, beautiful film well-leavened with humour which I would recommend to anyone who enjoys imagination.