There was a point, round about where James first meets his grandfather in the castle and stops trying to hinder him, that I almost kicked myself. What I DID enjoy was that the film didn't clearly outline who was "good" and who was "evil". But as a piece of cinematic entertainment, it leaves me cold. Maybe in such extraordinary circumstances, people would be so selfish. I'm normally not so cynical, but maybe this is truer to life than most films. The characters are selfish and single-minded. Rarely do we see any character in it act out of anything other than their own interests. Why the film then expects us to want James to save her is beyond me!) This film is actually quite cold and mean-spirited. The film asks us to feel James' angst when Scarlett is in peril, without ever having shown us he has any kind of emotional tie to her (and quite rightly so in my opinion for she is rude, abrasive and irritating throughout the whole movie. It is hard to empathise with this betrayal from two people who we have only seen mistrust each other from the outset. The film asks us to feel betrayal from both the father and the grandfather towards the other, without ever having shown us that they ever did anything but hate each other. We are asked to assume that there is an emotional tie between a boy and a father and grandfather who have been absent for an undivulged amount of time. The film tries to get us to sympathise with James' plight when he makes revelations about both his father and grandfather, without EVER having shown us any kind of previous relationship between himself and them. My main problem with it is bland characters with nothing to make you feel the ties between them. Setting it in a steam age where the power source is a new way of harnessing steam is, for me, the single best thing about this film. It's something that I would expect to see in a futuristic sci-fi with some kind of newly discovered power. The central concept of a power source that never was, and yet is so powerful it corrupts all manner of men and turns family upon itself is fascinating.
Yes, it was beautifully animate and had some lovely ideas in it. However, where that film had heart, this one had cogs and steam. I love the Steampunk genre and knowing how good the animation on Akira was I thought this would be a lush Steampunk adventure akin to Ghibli's Castle in the Sky. I haven't marked this as a spoiler, but I do mention a couple of things that occur in the film.