Macross Frontier Movie I & II - US Theaters

[sharky]

There was only 5 or 6 people in my theater.  I suppose it would have had better attendance on a weekend perhaps.  Also, there were 3 theaters in my general area screening it.  I'm hoping that had something to do with it.  In contrast the 80's Transformers movie had a pretty full theater, but that's to be expected.

[Lexomatic]

Responding briefly to @Seto Kaiba's response to my observation: yes, I know it's a compilation movie, and you know, but I'm pointing out that, given the constraints of the form, the pair aren't ideal as a standalone experience, and that became very obvious now that I've watched them (I've got the Japanese BD of Wings of Farewell, plus fansub). If you're trying to entice a friend into Macross, and they're unwilling to watch a whole TV series, this shorter rendition won't be entirely satisfying either.

Follow-up pondering: what's the goal as a Fathom Event? Presumably not to appeal to the tiny, tiny fraction of the U.S. population who are already fans. It can't serve the purpose of theatrical distribution in Japan, which is to promote the home video and ancillary merchandise. Is Big West testing the waters of U.S. cinematic distribution? Was this a practice run for the Delta movies? Did Big West get a really good price, given the struggling state of the U.S. cinema market? Flip side: Is Fathom Events desperate for name-recognition content?

[Lexomatic]

16 minutes ago, Rock said:

not even a date, trailer or hint for part 2's showing.

Same here. Anyone who didn't know there's a second half would be left wondering "that's an odd place to end the plot." But there's probably no such person: who doesn't know the second half exists, who hasn't already found the listing on the Fathom Events. Fathom Events is all about "you're already familiar with this, now see it again / on the big screen for the first time" (The Fifth Element +25, G.I. Joe: The Movie +35, The Thing +40, ...). It's not a fatal disaster, given presumably low expectations to start with, but it's certainly a weird failure of marketing.

I suppose we could provide feedback to www.fathomevents.com or its SNS channels, rather than just commiserate here. I mean, how many screens total were showing this? (You have search by location; there's no "all screenings" list.) Given the "under a dozen people" reports above for a sample of screens, it's probably under a thousand audience members, nationwide.

Edited June 17, 2022 by Lexomatic

[kajnrig]

Hm... I didn't go into it thinking the theatrical showing would change my opinion of this first movie significantly, and I was right. Condensing the already lightning-paced plot of most of the series into one movie was always a tough ask, and while this movie puts up a valiant effort, it's unfortunately a bit too dense for its own good. It remains the far lesser of the two films, and serves as the necessary homework before the second film's payoff.

I'm in agreement that, taken together, the two are the inferior way to tell the Macross Frontier story. I love the changes to the plot in the second movie, but it builds on too infirm a foundation in the first film.

What irks me most of all, though, is that throughout the entire runtime, I just wanted to watch Macross Plus again instead. It's just such a better standalone experience.

The movie itself aside, we fortunately didn't get any major hiccups. Some streaming hiccups here and there, but they resolved themselves very quickly, and didn't take me out of the movie too much, which is more than can be said of the Macross Plus showing.

Here's seeing y'all again in two weeks' time.

[Seto Kaiba]

53 minutes ago, Lexomatic said:

If you're trying to entice a friend into Macross, and they're unwilling to watch a whole TV series, this shorter rendition won't be entirely satisfying either.

Granted, but compilation movies aren't meant to be a franchise's ambassador to potential new fans even in Japan.  They're for people who are already fans, to wring more money out of the initial investment for the sponsor and merchandising partners.

 

53 minutes ago, Lexomatic said:

Follow-up pondering: what's the goal as a Fathom Event? Presumably not to appeal to the tiny, tiny fraction of the U.S. population who are already fans. It can't serve the purpose of theatrical distribution in Japan, which is to promote the home video and ancillary merchandise. Is Big West testing the waters of U.S. cinematic distribution? Was this a practice run for the Delta movies? Did Big West get a really good price, given the struggling state of the U.S. cinema market? Flip side: Is Fathom Events desperate for name-recognition content?

Fathom Events is a specialist in limited engagement "event" screenings.  For things like a movie returning to theaters briefly for a major anniversary of the property and so on.  This kind of thing is what they do.  A month or so back, they were the ones who coordinated a limited engagement return to theaters for Star Trek: the Motion Picture as part of it having recently been remastered, and their ad reel that was supposed to run before this showing (and did at the venue I went to) advertised similar anniversary revivals of The Thing and the first Men in Black.

My read of it is that Big West is using these limited engagement screenings to sound out which titles have the most resonance with American audiences who know about it already and to "show the flag" by establishing a commercial history for the franchise in the states in preparation for a trademark registration ahead of home video and streaming releases.  In short, it's market research.

Edited June 17, 2022 by Seto Kaiba

[darkranger12]

6 hours ago, Seto Kaiba said:

Granted, but compilation movies aren't meant to be a franchise's ambassador to potential new fans even in Japan.  They're for people who are already fans, to wring more money out of the initial investment for the sponsor and merchandising partners.

 

Fathom Events is a specialist in limited engagement "event" screenings.  For things like a movie returning to theaters briefly for a major anniversary of the property and so on.  This kind of thing is what they do.  A month or so back, they were the ones who coordinated a limited engagement return to theaters for Star Trek: the Motion Picture as part of it having recently been remastered, and their ad reel that was supposed to run before this showing (and did at the venue I went to) advertised similar anniversary revivals of The Thing and the first Men in Black.

My read of it is that Big West is using these limited engagement screenings to sound out which titles have the most resonance with American audiences who know about it already and to "show the flag" by establishing a commercial history for the franchise in the states in preparation for a trademark registration ahead of home video and streaming releases.  In short, it's market research.

So in short go see the movies if you want the home video released in the states?

 

[sharky]

I did find it cool that they were advertising product before the movie.  Hopefully, some people discovered merch they didn't know about before.

I think the biggest let down for me personally was the sound in my theater.  It should have felt like being in a concert.  Instead it felt like I was watching it at home with the TV speakers and the sound turned down so as not to wake up the family.

[M'Kyuun]

3 hours ago, darkranger12 said:

So in short go see the movies if you want the home video released in the states?

 

That's my thinking as well, and it makes sense. Unfortunately, thanks to HG, Macross isn't a well known franchise in the States due to their long-standing embargo. (Kinda shot themselves in the foot now that there's an agreement between BW and themselves which could greatly expand the Macross market) There were about seven of us at the screening last night, which isn't terrible, but not great either. It was a small auditorium fitted with recliners, which reduces the seat count by probably a third of the original capacity when they use to have the old standard swing-down seats, and there were still a lot of empty chairs. They screened it at 7 PM, which is actually a good time as most people are off work, as opposed to an earlier showing.  But the fact that , AFAIK, there is literally no advertising of this playing that I'm aware of- no tv or radio ads that I've seen or heard- does little to generate interest among a wider audience. I found out either here or possibly Twitter- I don't recall which now, but suffice it to say, there's really little in the way of putting this out in any meaningful way, and they only show it once. 

Anyway, having watched the series through twice, I went in expecting a very condensed version of the series, which it is, in part. Like M+, they tinkered with the story, so it diverges a bit and changes things up. Honestly, I don't mind, as it made it less predictable, and new scenery, especially anything mecha-related, curries no argument from me.  I enjoyed it, though- it's been about a year or two since my last viewing of the series, so the music, the valks, the three main characters all brought a warm feeling of nostalgia. The ridiculousness of the role of the singing really struck me, despite being a longtime Macross fan. Likewise the constant need in Macross for a large antagonist, relative to human stature, to justify the need for the valks (b/c cool isn't a good enough reason?) In my mental space, cool is justification enough for any sort of giant robot. Anyway, I'm glad I went; I enjoyed it, enjoyed the little bit of conversation I had with a couple other dudes there (although the conversation turned more to Gundam than Macross), and I look forward to seeing Sayonara no Tsubasa on the 30th.

[Seto Kaiba]

6 hours ago, darkranger12 said:

So in short go see the movies if you want the home video released in the states?

I think they're already well-committed to that point.

More like "go see the movies if you want to help Big West understand the Macross fan demographics in the US and get an approximate idea of what our tastes are".

[Master Dex]

19 hours ago, Seto Kaiba said:

The screening just ended here in my corner of MI. It went extremely well, though the audio mix felt a bit wonky.

All in all, I'm extremely happy I went. To think I'd be able to see these in an actual theater.  It's positively cause to be giddy.

My experience was overall positive but I felt the audio was off too. It sounded alright and I could hear everything but it was kinda low... Which was ok except during the songs and concert scenes which really benefit from the volume being pumped up. So a lot of the music didn't have the normal punch.

I spoke to a few friends in other areas that said it was the same for them.

[Rock]

Grabbed part 2's tickets. Seems like the same fans already pre-ordered their seats. Exact same seats were taken already!

[100mega]

I couldn't go last night for personal reasons, but I am so sad to hear most people once again having audio issues. Fathom Events is just terrible because on one hand you have to deal with their shitty 720p projection, which I can kinda adjust to, but the audio mix not being done properly for movies where music is the main feature....nope. The sound not being correct really stands out to me and it slowly rips my heart out through the runtime of the movie. I'm done. No more Fathom Events for me. Not ever. Wings of Goodbye is one of my very favorites, but I'll have an infinitely better time on my couch with my bluray.

[Master Dex]

I agree that if the final song of Wings of Goodbye doesn't have proper audio it will severely hamper the effect it has.

That said... While I don't have to stomach Fathom's reputation in other things, if they are the ones bringing Macross events to western term, then I will continue going to these releases because I'm doing this to support the product and tell Big West I'm paying attention. I want official blu-ray releases in the west among other things. I have seen these movies before and my copies, such as they are, are better in audio as I can control it. I will watch them again in the future and enjoy them. But last night and 2 weeks from now will not be a waste for me regardless.

[sh9000]

[kazuo]

Sound was fine for me. In fact it was probably too loud. LOL.

Video quality... was not great. You can tell they are streaming this using some really crappy compression, and it was most noticeable over the subtitles. I honestly cannot/do not understand why they can't just send the theaters a USB stick with the video file on it. Probably because streaming it is cheaper. 😛 Macross Plus had the same problem, so I kind of expect this from Fathom at this point. It looks better at my house on BD.

My theater had maybe 15-20 people? So not bad. It's about what I expected, and comparable to the Plus screening. This may have even been slightly more full than Plus.

The movie itself? ...Yeesh. I haven't watched it in years, probably since it was new, and it hasn't aged well. Some of it is interesting, a lot of it isn't, a lot of the fan service of literal underage girls is mad cringe, but it's better than Delta? So there's that. I thought the pacing was a little odd as well, but perhaps that's from me knowing they're just rushing through the story.

I'll be there again on Thursday though, since it is fun watching niche things like Anime that I sort of like in a theatrical setting.

[Bolt]

I thoroughly enjoyed the experience. Seeing Macross on the big screen is a life long dream. And now I've done it twice ! 

[M'Kyuun]

On 6/21/2022 at 8:56 PM, Bolt said:

I thoroughly enjoyed the experience. Seeing Macross on the big screen is a life long dream. And now I've done it twice ! 

Likewise, and I'm going to see Sayonara no Tsubasa tonight. I'd like to see them do the same with Macross Zero.  I didn't care for Delta, but I'd probably go see a movie from it, too, if only to support the franchise here in the States.

[Seto Kaiba]

I'm definitely looking foward to Sayonara no Tsubasa tonight.  

[Seto Kaiba]

30 minutes to showtime.

[Rock]

1 hour ago, Seto Kaiba said:

30 minutes to showtime.

dead thrater over here- also same exact special message as last time.

 

Edited July 1, 2022 by Rock
showtime all 3 of us here

[iguanaman8989]

1 hour ago, Rock said:

dead thrater over here- also same exact special message as last time.

 

We had about six other people at the showing we went to.

 

 

The sound mixing was much better this time around.

Edited July 1, 2022 by iguanaman8989

[Lexomatic]

So, "Macross Frontier the Movie II: Wings of Farewell" (2011), as screened in southeast Pennsylvania ... Again a four-person audience, but the three apart from myself were different than a fortnight ago. Younger than last time, one of them a woman, and she's a dedicated fan, subtype: character goods; showed me a picture of her display cabinets full of Sheryl, Ranka and Mylene. (I myself had brought a backpack of the Perfect Triangle Roman album, Macross R mook, etc.)

The Regal staff had again to be reminded to start the stream, but no problems with the audio. It wasn't a thundering bass mix, but was entirely adequate to purpose.

The movie was bookended by a voice actress greeting (only one of them this time), no ad for merchandise, and then a triplet of short music videos. "American fans, please consume Macross!" she urged, basically. Gee, Big West, it would be helpful if you gave us some hints how we might do so. Do you really have zero idea about marketing? Show us the URLs for the official site and YouTube channel. <rolls eyes>

[Seto Kaiba]

'bout a dozen folks at the showing I attended.  Mostly ones I haven't seen before from previous showings, I think.

The audio mix was vastly improved over the previous film's, though we suffered a bit because there was some movie going next door that had a lot of loud bass effects that were literally shaking the walls at inopportune moments.

All in all, the only lackluster bit was the same basic (and very brief) introduction from Aya Endo and Megumi Nakajima.  I'd have liked to see them do something more like what they did for Macross Plus or the bit that preceded Fathom's screening of Star Trek: the Motion Picture in terms of a more documentary-like feel.  Having the music videos for Gorgeous, Good Job, and The Wings of Farewell was a nice touch, IMO.

Glad I went, and I'm hoping we'll see screenings of more Macross films in the not-too-distant future.

[Rock]

42 minutes ago, Lexomatic said:

So, "Macross Frontier the Movie II: Wings of Farewell" (2011), as screened in southeast Pennsylvania ... Again a four-person audience, but the three apart from myself were different than a fortnight ago. Younger than last time, one of them a woman, and she's a dedicated fan, subtype: character goods; showed me a picture of her display cabinets full of Sheryl, Ranka and Mylene. (I myself had brought a backpack of the Perfect Triangle Roman album, Macross R mook, etc.)

The Regal staff had again to be reminded to start the stream, but no problems with the audio. It wasn't a thundering bass mix, but was entirely adequate to purpose.

The movie was bookended by a voice actress greeting (only one of them this time), no ad for merchandise, and then a triplet of short music videos. "American fans, please consume Macross!" she urged, basically. Gee, Big West, it would be helpful if you gave us some hints how we might do so. Do you really have zero idea about marketing? Show us the URLs for the official site and YouTube channel. <rolls eyes>

They skipped about 15min into the video for us. When they rewinded it there was about a 10min preview reel shown for other fanthom events such as MiB, Ghibli and Transformers followed by a bunch of Expo event dates and then a slightly modified into with the same add following it.

Post movie had 3 music video shorts that were 3d animation.

[kajnrig]

Sorry to hear about everyone's issues. I joked that "How many technical glitches do you think we'll get?", but our showing had pretty much zero issues whatsoever. I think a single subtitle repeated itself, but that was it.

Had the reel of Fathom events, a remarkably long run of sponsoring expos/cons/etc., then the short intro from Nakajima-san and Endo-san. At first I thought it was the same as the previous one as well, but it was just very similar. Then the Proplica advert, then the movie, then the 3 brief music videos.

Movie itself? Honestly, I was a bit worried it wouldn't be as good as I remembered. I don't know why the last one stuck with me the way it did, but it did, and I went into this a bit anxious despite myself. Turned out it was every bit as good and bad as I remembered. It really is the far superior of the two movies, and it makes me wonder if perhaps my reaction to the second Delta movie will be positive as well (or at least more positive than I have been with the rest of that series).

The ANN review of the two movies made the point that the first movie survived on the strength of its individual moments, but those moments never really came together; and that the same criticism can't be made of the second. I think I'm in agreement. The musical moments especially felt much more appropriate and cogent in this movie.

Speaking of the music, I didn't really notice until now just how horny the lyrics to Sheryl's songs were. It was almost comical; at some point I half-expected the subs to just be "I WANT SECKS WITH U. PLEASE SECKS ME."

[M'Kyuun]

Just got back. As with my viewing of false songstress, there were about seven in attendance including me. I only recognized three people from the previous film's screening; sadly, not the best turnout. I wish they'd do more to promote these films.  We were treated to the same opening stuff as related by @kajnrig and like the first film, we experienced no glitches or issues, at least that I detected. Following up on Kajnrig's observation, I never noticed how much blatant innuendo is present in Sheryl's lyrics. Too, I was surprised by how much the story changed. 

Spoiler

Grace's role as the main villain in the series is greatly reduced to essentially a lackey who redeems herself a bit in the end. I find it rather curious that they change the story to such an extent for the film version. They did it a bit with Plus, too, but to a much lesser extent, keeping the main elements from the OVA intact. Sayonara no Tsubasa went full tangent.

Anyway, since I've never seen either film before, I'm glad I had the opportunity to see them for the first time in the theater where they were intended to be seen. I do have to say, though, in spite of all that screen, most of the aerial combat scenes happen so quickly and have so much going on that I found it difficult to track what was going on at times. I get that they want to make it dynamic, but I think those kinds of scenes were handled better in Zero and Plus, where the flight scenes can be followed much more easily. Maybe my age is showing.

Spoiler

The ending of the film was a bit surprising, too- blipping Alto away in a Vajra fold just as he was proclaiming his love to Sheryl.  I figured he'd make a return to Sheryl's bedside in an ending scene, but nope.  Alto's apparently hanging out with the Vajra wherever they decided to fold to.

After the film, the vids for Gorgeous, Good Job, and Wings of Farewell played- a blend of fanservice and cutesy weirdness as only the Japanese can deliver. I didn't mind; May'n and Megumi are both talented singers on their own, but they complement each other well when performing together. I prefer Megumi's voice personally; I'm all for more Ranka songs.

As I said earlier, I wish turnout and support was greater for these; I want Bandai to get a strong message of support, but sadly, that's not the reality, at least not by the low attendance at my theater. I'd love to be able to walk into a store like Barnes & Noble or even Target and pick up the newest valk toy, but I think that day is still way off, if it ever happens at all. I keep hoping, though.

[Lexomatic]

Summary of attendance for the three Fathom Events "Macross" movies
(I'll edit this post and update the table as reports accumulate and/or I re-scan the forums to add/verify details.)

Schema: Locations are obtained from the user-profile or as hinted in a post, and I've translated to major market area (MMA). Username with asterisk means "checked the online seating reservation, but did not attend." Codes: "nr" post but a value was not reported, "na" no post. Rows are sorted by time-sequence of report, not username or location. In lieu of direct HTML control with TABLE or PRE, I've formatted this table using the fixed-width Courier New font (at 12 points, otherwise the rows wrap) and column padding as CHR(160), i.e., the non-breaking space; this facilitates transfer to a text editor or spreadsheet of your choice, unlike an image of my spreadsheet.

Findings: There were many more reports for "Macross Plus" in December than for "Macross Frontier" in June.

Username            Location(MMA)       MacPlus MacF_1 MacF_2

blackconvoy_D01                         8       na     na

Kelsain             Erie PA             nr      na     na

Metal_Massacre_79   ??                  11      na     na

jvmacross                               3       na     na

NightmarePlus                           ~20     na     na

snakerbot           Houston TX          8       na     na

TehPW               Cleveland OH        10      na     na

jealous37                               12      na     na

Knight26            Tucson AZ           8       na     na

DYRL VF-1S          Denver CO           nr      na     na

HGSucks             Oklahoma City OK    12      na     na

Corrinald                               5       na     na

100mega             San Antonio TX      nr      na     na

Britai 7018         San Francisco CA    ~50     na     na

Boobytrap                               ~40     na     na

UN Spacy            San Francisco CA    6       na     na

Gaijin              HI                  8       <11    11

Rhubarbarian        Los Angeles CA      ~full   na     na

Focslain            Pittsburgh PA       8       na     na

EastwindS2k         DC                  nr      na     na

twich               Spokane WA          nr      na     na

Shawn                                   few     na     na

Shawn *                                 15      na     na

Rogueload                               6       na     na

Rock                                    nr      5      na

Seto Kaiba          Detroit MI          half    nr     12

Lexomatic           Phila PA            na      4      4

Stampeed Valkyrie   Allentown PA        9       12     na

sharky              Atlanta GA          na      6      na

darkranger12                            na      nr     na

kajnrig                                 >20     nr     ~25

M’Kyuun             Spokane WA          ~12     7      7

Master Dex                              na      7      na

kazuo                                   na      ~20    ~10

Bolt                Northern CA         ~25     na     na

iguanaman8989                           na      na     7

Gamma00Ray          New York NY         na      few    few

Edited July 3, 2022 by Lexomatic
CSV to fixed-width, location to MMA, +col for MacPlus.

[Master Dex]

15 hours ago, Seto Kaiba said:

'bout a dozen folks at the showing I attended.  Mostly ones I haven't seen before from previous showings, I think.

The audio mix was vastly improved over the previous film's, though we suffered a bit because there was some movie going next door that had a lot of loud bass effects that were literally shaking the walls at inopportune moments.

All in all, the only lackluster bit was the same basic (and very brief) introduction from Aya Endo and Megumi Nakajima.  I'd have liked to see them do something more like what they did for Macross Plus or the bit that preceded Fathom's screening of Star Trek: the Motion Picture in terms of a more documentary-like feel.  Having the music videos for Gorgeous, Good Job, and The Wings of Farewell was a nice touch, IMO.

Glad I went, and I'm hoping we'll see screenings of more Macross films in the not-too-distant future.

This is basically the same experience I had. Better sound but also the annoying bass vibrations from adjacent theater. Weird, that.

But yeah I was happy overall, and I look forward to what's next. I can see them doing both Delta movies in this same way perhaps, which is really only good in that I can finally see the second if that happens.

 

Edited July 1, 2022 by Master Dex

[Master Dex]

1 hour ago, Lexomatic said:

Summary of attendance
(I'll edit this post and update the table as reports accumulate. Formatted as list because I can't insert an HTML table.)

Fields = Poster, location, movie 1, movie 2, overlap 1-2

• Rock, (location unknown), 5, na, na
• Seto Kaiba, Auburn Hills MI, NS, 12, 
• Lexomatic, Southeast PA, 4, 4, 1
• Stampeed Valkyrie, (location unknown), 12, na, na
• sharky, Atlanta GA, 6, na, na
• darkranger12, (location unknown), NS, na, na
• kajnrig, (location unknown), NS, na, na
• M’Kyuun, Spokane WA, 7, 7, 4
• Master Dex, (location unknown), 7, na, na
• kazuo, (location unknown), 20, na, na
• Bolt, (location unknown), na, na, na
• iguanaman8989, (location unknown), na, 7, na
   

I wasn't aware of a tally. I'm having trouble parsing some of the unknowns in my part there (what's the 7?)

If it helps though I saw Plus, Frontier 1, and Frontier 2 all in Lancaster, CA. Same theater even which was a Cinemark if that matters.

[Seto Kaiba]

3 hours ago, Lexomatic said:

Summary of attendance
(I'll edit this post and update the table as reports accumulate. Formatted as list because I can't insert an HTML table.)

Just a minor correction for mine, the showings I attended were in Rochester Hills.  Not many theaters in my neck of the woods, oddly enough, but that's what you get in industrial towns, eh?

 

14 hours ago, kajnrig said:

Speaking of the music, I didn't really notice until now just how horny the lyrics to Sheryl's songs were. It was almost comical; at some point I half-expected the subs to just be "I WANT SECKS WITH U. PLEASE SECKS ME."

Oh, yeah... it's super blatant once you're watching with the songs subtitled, isn't it?  🤣

Pretty on-brand for her, though.  She's the provocative idol playing opposite Ranka's innocent idol, and she knows it.  Remember, she tells Alto early on in all versions that being "all natural" is part of her appeal in Galaxy.  Even her first single was suuuuper horny... "Pink Monsoon", a love song about doing scandalous things that fog up the windows on a rainy day.  (She's supposedly her own lyricist too...)

(Not that most pop culture isn't at least low-key horny... after reading this last night, it occurred to me that one of the folk songs my girlfriend was listening to in the car on the ride back was basically the man in the song spending five minutes bragging about how thirsty he was for this girl he just met in passing.)

 

Spoiler

13 hours ago, M&#x27;Kyuun said:

Grace's role as the main villain in the series is greatly reduced to essentially a lackey who redeems herself a bit in the end. I find it rather curious that they change the story to such an extent for the film version. They did it a bit with Plus, too, but to a much lesser extent, keeping the main elements from the OVA intact. Sayonara no Tsubasa went full tangent.

's a pretty normal level of changes for a Macross movie.  Plus was the exception, since very little of it was original to the movie and it was mainly just the OVA reedited into a single contiguous feature.

IMO, it makes more sense for the career researcher Grace to be a puppet rather than the architect of the conspiracy... being under the thumb of the wealthy elite instead of having them under hers.  

One of my friends likes to pose the theory that the Frontier movies are an in-universe historical drama like DYRL is said to be, with the film shifting the blame a bit to villify Galaxy and partially exonerate the New UN Forces.

 

13 hours ago, M&#x27;Kyuun said:

The ending of the film was a bit surprising, too- blipping Alto away in a Vajra fold just as he was proclaiming his love to Sheryl.  I figured he'd make a return to Sheryl's bedside in an ending scene, but nope.  Alto's apparently hanging out with the Vajra wherever they decided to fold to.

It makes for a good, suspenseful ending... plus it's a bit of a habit with the Nome family and those around them.

One of the artbooks does show his return, though Labyrinth of Time touches on his disappearance as well.

 

 

[blackconvoy_D01]

5 people including myself and adult child in WNC.

In rewatching both macross frontier movies in the movie theater; I realize how foolish I was to judge some of the over the top sequences of Delta TV show.

Edited July 1, 2022 by blackconvoy_D01

[Bolt]

My showing was in Marin county. A healthy audience, IMO. About 15 or 20 for each showing. Everything seemed fine quality wise. Definitely love Macross on the big screen.

Did a double treat feature yesterday, caught Top Gun :Maverick at a matinee before Frontier 😎

[Gaijin]

There were 11 people in my showing which was surprising to me, since the first film had less viewers.

 

[kajnrig]

We had a pretty good turnout of around 20-30 people. I was pleased to see that many fans/prospective fans.

[Gamma00Ray]

I went to both Frontier movies over the past couple weeks. I didn't go to Plus because I'm not really a big fan of it plus because I wasn't going to theaters at the time of its release due to covid concerns though I was vaccinated. I figure by now I must've had it already due to all of the dingbats I'm around all day long and was completely asymptomatic plus being vaccinated, so I'm living my life more.

I went to Cinemark in Hazlet, NJ for both. It was a pretty small crowd for both, but it wasn't abysmal. Everyone was there on time for the first movie, but strangely people were coming in late for the second. I figured they were going to considering I saw that practically the same seats for both showing were sold. Maybe they were getting caught up in early shore traffic. I know I did, but I also made sure to leave home early enough.

Cinemark's showing was fine. All of the previews and bonus stuff were shown. There were two brief sound dropouts during the second movie, but it was nothing major. The video was fine on both showings. Maybe not the highest quality video ever, but plenty fine. It was enough to make me happy, and the movies made me happy. I absolutely love Sheryl, so getting to see her on the big screen was awesome.

I mostly ignored reading the song lyrics subtitles, but I've got to echo the comment about Sheryl's lyrics being thirsty. My dad joked to me that I was going to see a dirty movie, and then Sheryl's first song in the second movie starts with "Mix your DNA inside of me!" I just about died

Nobody else in the theater seemed to be a fan of Macross in particular, though there was at least one fan of anime or at least Japanese culture in general because I saw one guy wearing a Band Maid shirt. That was cool. I think the people in my row weren't fans and found some of the animeness of the movie amusing (they thought Gothic Lolita Alto was hilarious), but they weren't annoying about it. I hope the two movies served to open up the world to anime to some new people.

Reading all this Regal displeasure makes me think they're just not good with Fathom Events showings. I saw the GI Joe 80s animated movie (I'm a huuuuuuuuuuuge Joe fan) last weekend at the Regal in North Brunswick, NJ, and like was mentioned by someone else here, they didn't turn on the projector until the movie itself was just about to start. I missed the bonus content because of it.

I wonder if the "surround sound effect" in one of the Frontier movies was just an illusion. I think it's possible all Fathom Events movies are shown in stereo. Every one I've seen has been like this. Especially the Transformers 80s animated movie that I saw when they randomly showed it in 2018 or 2019. I have the Australian blu ray from before Shout Factory made a US version, and the surround sound track on that blu ray will melt your face. I don't have the Shout Factory version, so I don't know if maybe they didn't have access to the surround sound track and that carried over to the theatrical showing, but it's certainly a trend in the Fathom Events showing. It wasn't the slightest of dealbreakers for me, though. Sheryl in stereo was still heavenly.

The Frontier bonus content was sweet. Yes, the second movie's intro bonus content was similar to the first's, but it was apparently different when the lady started talking specifically about the second movie. The Proplica ads were ads, but they were cute. I don't know, I might get the Proplica microphones. I would never realistically use them for a multitude of reasons, but I'm just feeling a soft spot for them right now. They also showed a Veritech fighter at some point and said check out Sideshow Collectibles for Macross merch. It was the only place I saw Robotech and Harmony Gold logos, too. The Veritech fighter looked really, really cool. I see there's some stuff on the Sideshow Collectibles website now, and some of it is EXPENSIVE I see Rightstuf has the Proplica microphones for much less money. Not cheap, but it is what it is.

Most of the people in the theater didn't stick around for the music videos after the credits of the second movie. They were missing out! A few minutes of extra sexy Sheryl content is always worth waiting for!

Seeing these movies has made me want to watch the TV series again. An official US release has just been announced, but I don't know if I can wait that long! I need more Sheryl in my life! She gives me dreams and desires!