Film — 鉄人28号 (Tetsujin 28)

At least it isn't only Hollywood that has hit on the idea of updating a fairly groundbreaking title from years gone by.

Taking it without that context, as a Japanese live action mecha movie, we follow the usual checklist:

• Actors mugging to the blue screen: check
• “Never send a man to do a boy's job”: check. 12 year old Kaneda Shotaro has eidetic memory and is a dab hand at flying a radio-controlled plane. All the skills needed, in fact, to pilot a mecha.
• Issues: check. There is something unresolved in his past, about the last time he saw his father
• Mecha in the family: check. Kaneda-san was upgrading the WWII era mecha that his own father had worked on at the end of the war when he died
• Tokyo Tower in peril: check. As soon as the villain-mecha appears, its earnest of intent is to start unscrewing it from its foundations

So, by now you know if you'll like this next generation revival of the classic of 50 years ago for its own sake.

[Now playing - Planet Rock]