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Robotech: The Shadow Chronicles (2006)
From something old, it tries to be too "new."
The last half of my "growing up" years included Robotech and I enjoyed the series. There was a style that I enjoyed and it helped me discover anime. Watching Shadow Chronicles does not fully capture that style and it is entirely a "Hollywood" production than something adapted and remade for a North American audience. For a newcomer to the anime scene, one would not suspect its Japanese origins unless one does the research or watches a behind the scenes documentary.
Production-wise, Shadow Chronicles borrows from what is now hip in the SF television genre scene—like the Battlestar Galactica 2005/6 style battle sequences and the CG replacing traditional cel animation / model elements. That is what distinguishes it from the original series. While there is nothing wrong with that, it does not lend well to a series that is trying to pick up from what was done 20 something years ago. Robotech Sentinels, ironically enough, does a better job of capturing that style.
The Librarian: Quest for the Spear (2004)
An tribute film, with a lack of unoriginality (but that's OK)
For fans of B-movies, this film pays tribute to everything under the sun and camps it up. I could see elements of Stargate, Indiana Jones, Lost World and all those pulp 50's action flics set in faraway places. The effects work and predictability is forgivable because it is B grade film-making at its "worst," which is an interesting down-step when considering Devlin is well remembered for his work in ID4, Godzilla and Stargate (a huge step up when compared to this TV movie). But I have to wonder why The Librarian can't be developed with at least some original twist. In that regard, I have to wonder which came first, the cartoons Jacob Two-Two and Read or Die series (TV and OVA) or this movie.
In the former, Jacob gets recruited by librarians who are more than what they seem to be. They too have an underground HQ, complete with high-tech gadgetry (no archaeological themes tho'). There is also a globe-trotting secret agent with a messenger (Agent Intrepid) who is a hamster in a ball that freely runs around the neighbourhood (and anywhere else). For the R.O.D. series, it featured covert organizations who operates under the guise of "libraries." More specifically, the British Library Force and DIET (Japan's metropolitan library in Shinjoku) operates like a super-spy (if not super powered) agency. The plot in the TV series to R.O.D. is similar; retrieve a disassembled series of books in order to bring back a greater power (and world domination).
Essentially, it's to say this made-for-TV movie, The Library : Quest for the Spear is not something new. Even it's music is familiar and Joseph De Luca knows how to take what's best from those tunes and do his own variation. All-in-all, despite the visible flaws, this film can be enjoyable as long as the viewer does not have high expectations.