Genre: Action/Sci-Fi
Director: Lana Wachowski
Writer: Joshua Collins
Based on the anime series
Cast: Finn Wolfhard, Paul Rudd, Colin Hanks, Woody Harrelson, Merit Leighton, Jack Dylan Grazer
Plot: Gigantor tells the story of Jimmy Sparks (Finn Wolfhard), a new freshman in high school who is teased by his peers for being a bastard child that is sent to live with his uncle, Dr. Bob Brillian (Paul Rudd), who has a bit of a reputation around town as being a crackpot scientist. Jimmy’s parents are both presumed to be dead at the beginning of the film, though their whereabouts are unknown. Dr. Brilliant has a son, Jimmy’s cousin, Johnny (Jack Dylan Grazer). While Jimmy is a smart kid that enjoys his uncle’s scientific studies and theories, Johnny is the opposite. He hates that his cousin gets his father’s attention and approval more than he does, so he joins in on the bullying and teasing of Jimmy.
As the film moves on, Jimmy catches the attention of a girl, Tara Blooper (Merit Leighton), she is the daughter of the police chief, Inspector Dennis Blooper (Woody Harrelson) Dennis takes his job as the chief of police seriously, as well as his job as Tara’s father. Her mother passed away during her childbirth, and she blames herself for what happened, even though her father doesn’t blame her. She does relate to Jimmy in that his parents are thought to be dead. She starts taking some interest in a lot of his science nerd rambling, even if she doesn’t always get it.
One night, Jimmy is awakened by his uncle doing some work in his lab. When Bob notices Jimmy, he talks about how he has been trying to get “Gigantor” to work for a long time and can’t seem to get him to wake up. Bob also says that Jimmy’s father built Gigantor many years ago, and that he was originally meant to be a weapon, but he could never get Gigantor to work so he donated the parts to Bob before he passed away. “Your father programmed Gigantor to only be controlled by someone bonded with it. But how the hell do you bond with a robot?!”
Bob asks Jimmy if he thinks he can wake up Gigantor. He instructs Jimmy to concentrate. At first Jimmy doesn’t seem to get the big robot to move, so he and his Uncle give up on the experiment.
Meanwhile, a scientist by the name of Robert (Colin Hanks) has his own agenda. He has put the finishing touches to what he calls his mechanical super soldier and decides to take it out for a test drive, causing a lot of destruction in its wake.
This would eventually lead to Jimmy running to Gigantor and shows that he is able to control Gigantor. Gigantor saves lives in fighting Robert’s weapon off, even saving Inspector Blooper from being killed. Robert, who has been watching his robot get destroyed from his own lab, realizes that the robot he built, Gigantor, is alive. “Somebody was able to bond with MY ROBOT?!” So the twist being Robert is Jimmy’s dad, Dr. Robert Sparks.
Jimmy starts earning respect among his peers for what he and Gigantor did to save the town from annihilation. Jimmy invites a few kids over to see Gigantor up close. They want Jimmy to control Gigantor for them, but he can’t seem to do it, disappointing the kids and only Tara stays to comfort Jimmy. He said he was starting to get the kids to like him, to which she says “You don’t need them to like you.”
While Jimmy had his 15 minutes of fame, Johnny has been keeping in the background. He ends up running into Dr Robert Sparks, who recognizes him as his nephew. Robert says he wants to get custody of his robot again, Johnny volunteers to help out.
Jimmy has a date with Tara, while Dr. Brilliant is also out. This gives Johnny an opportunity to help steal Gigantor out of the lab. Dr. Sparks is successful in bonding with Gigantor, but now his motivations are clear that he wants control of the world and is going to use Gigantor to get there.
The very people that praised and cheered Gigantor have now believed he turned on him, and it’s almost like Godzilla, only with a Giant Robot destroying the city instead. This is Johnny’s moment to realize that his uncle is balls to the wall insane. “I wanted to help you because I was tired of the attention Jimmy was getting, I didn’t want global annihilation!” Johnny would say. “Who cares what you want, I don’t need YOU anymore!” Robert says.
Jimmy comes face to face with evil Gigantor, trying to get control back. Jimmy finds out Robert is his father and they get into a fight over gaining control of Gigantor. Eventually Jimmy manages to overcome his father’s power over Gigantor.
Robert Sparks would be accidentally killed by Gigantor, Dr. Brilliant and Johnny manage to secure a father-son bond, and Inspector Blooper learns to let go of the stranglehold he had over his daughter and approves of Jimmy. The film ends with Jimmy and Tara in the palm of Gigantor’s hand as he takes them on a flight.
The credits roll with the Gigantor theme cover by Helmet playing (https://youtu.be/gEj2Z1yfWnI)
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