The Sky Crawlers [Regular Edition]

Audio: 5 out of 5 (both the Dolby TrueHD and dts Master Audio sound identical to me) Video: 5 out of 5 (beautiful blend of traditional cell anime and CGI) Story: 4 out of 5 Extras: 1 out of 5 (c'mon, only ONE trailer and no making of or behind the scenes?!) (and no, I don't think that makes the collector's edition of this film worth the $400 asking price) This film (aside from the press releases and trailer last year) is my first exposure to Mori's story about the Kildren, so I was able to watch it without any preconceived notions. Can't be upset about omissions when I don't know about them! ;-) The plot has already been described countless times already, so I won't bother with that here, but I will say I was somewhat put off by the (in my opinion) overly lengthy dialogue and interaction sequences. I know there had to be plenty to properly build up an understanding of what the various Kildren had/were experiencing and where they were coming from emotionally (or unemotionally as the case may be), but frankly I was hoping for a few more air combat sequences. And, speaking of which, the major air battle around the middle of the film was far too brief. I was also hoping for more information on the enemy ace. Oh, well. That said, the final dog fight, while also too brief, was amazing. I knew going in that any film by Mamoru Oshii is going to depress the hell out of me, and I was not disappointed. I actually enjoy these alternate reality stories that don't depend on happy endings ("Jin-Roh" anyone?).