My Hero Academia: World Heroes’ Mission Review: A Heroic Effort

My Hero Academia: World Heroes’ Mission is the third movie in the popular My Hero Academia franchise and sees Izuku Midoriya and his friends tasked with their greatest mission yet. In this movie, our band of fledgling heroes faces off against the sinister Humanrize; an organisation which wishes to destroy all those who have superpowers in one great co-ordinated terrorist attack. 

As a fan of the My Hero Academia show I was excited to hear that a new movie was coming out and would be playing in a cinema local to me. And whilst it was a colossal pain in the bum to get to see it, I have to say that it was worth it in the end. However as much as I did enjoy this feature length adventure, I do feel there are a few elements that are a little lacking here and there.

My Hero Academia: World Heroes’ Mission is currently showing in select cinemas worldwide.

STORY – GLOBAL TERROR

My Hero Academia: World Heroes’ Mission is a fun and exciting superhero adventure with a story that offers a fine amount of mystery, action, and enjoyable character moments. There is always the risk in making movies out of TV shows that they will end up just feeling like a feature length episode from that series. And for the most part this movie avoids that.

This is the largest scale story in the series so far; the threat of Humanrize and their schemes is something that threatens the whole of humanity and not just Japan or the region of Japan that our heroes hail from. This grants the story an epic scale that really does fit the cinema screen and is something that couldn’t reasonably be done in the main show. However despite the scale, it feels at times like it is lacking the kind of depth and nuance that the show and by extension the manga has.

MEET YOUR DOOM

I don’t feel that the core concept of the Quirk Doomsday Theory is really explored quite enough in the movie; its the whole reason why the story is happening and yet it isn’t developed in any great regard. In this movie, The Quirk Doomsday Theory is a kick off point for the action. The thing that gives context to the villain’s genocidal goals. But beyond that it is sadly under utilised when I know that had this been an arch in the show it would have been.

Don’t get me wrong. The story is not bad by any means. And I do feel that fans of My Hero Academia will really enjoy this feature. But it often feels like it is missing ‘something’ to really elevate the material. Even just beyond the thematic. There are times that it times feels like the core components of the story don’t feel quite up to par with what the source material is capable of. And at times it feels as though we have some missed opportunities to either further develop some characters. Or at the very least have a few more action sequences within it.

CHARACTERS & PERFORMANCES – RUB A DUB

I must say that, for the sake of transparency, I saw the dubbed version of My Hero Academia: World Heroes’ Mission. As such I can only comment on the performances contained there in. And contained there in are performances which are perfectly fine for what they are. However they are limited by the material that they have available to them, but in the more dramatic and climactic moments they do what they need to.

Naturally being an Anime there is a lot of shouting.

The issue is that they don’t really get much to work with. Mostly due to the fact this is likely a non-canon movie and as such our core characters don’t really grow or change all that much over the course of the movie. Quite simply this is because anyone who might have missed this movie would be confused by sudden changes to our cast in the main show and manga.

HERO HOUR

So we end up in this strange position where despite this being the biggest and gravest threat our heroes have ever faced, it doesn’t really change them or change their outlook. Sure, it acts as a fine flag post to measure how much our cast have changed over the course of their adventure so far. But they themselves don’t have much in the way of an arc.

Rody is the Soul of this movie, HA!

As such almost all the character development falls on our new character Rody Soul. To be fair, he is a fun character throughout with an interesting power. And he makes for a fun counter point to Midoriya and the two characters play off of each other rather well thanks to their very different backgrounds. There is a part of me that wishes a little bit more could have been done to make him a tad more memorable though. What we do get is interesting for the most part. It does help to build the wider mystery as well as makes for some good world building. I only wish there was a little bit more of that at play here.

CINEMATOGRAPHY & PACING – RUN AND PUNCH

As one would expect of a movie like My Hero Academia: World Heroes’ Mission, it features a rich array of some honestly rather fun and spectacular action sequences. This movie really utilises the medium perfectly to create some really innovative set pieces with some brilliant staging and choreography to them.

There is simply no getting away from the fact that the animation in this movie is frequently impressive and terribly spectacular. This is particularly true of the various action sequences which appear throughout. Each one having a distinct flavour and dynamism to them which keeps them fresh and interesting with each passing action sequence.

As is typical for this entire series, there is some really fantastic character designs on show. Even in the brief few seconds that we get with some of them onscreen, we get a clear idea of what their powers are and often get to see them in use. It is all frightfully creative stuff on show. Wildly imaginative with many of our international heroes looking truly fantastic to behold.

PACE RACE

The movie is well-paced for the type of feature that it is. It happily chunters along at a steady pace, never slowing down too much nor are there any sharp and uncomfortable switches in pace between scenes. It all flows well for the most part. However there is a moment midway through were the movie has a musical sequence which, whilst well animated and presented, doesn’t add much to the film.

My Hero Academia: World Heroes’ Mission features some great locations.

And I feel that the time spent on that could have been spent better developing our new characters or even spending a few moments with our extended cast. Still, nothing in the movie outstays its welcome; every scene is almost exactly as long as it needs to be. Even if there are times it feels that the time could have been spent more effectively. But still it is never anything that undermines the movie as a whole.

EDITING & SOUND – SMASH HIT!

One of the most vital and often overlooked elements when it comes to watching anything that is dubbed is how well or not it is able to mix and edit the pre-existing footage with new audio. If the timing is just a little bit off, or the voice acting is too distracting, or it feels even slightly miscast it can ruin the impact of the whole feature.

And thankfully with My Hero Academia: World Heroes’ Mission, that isn’t the case. I’ll grant you that it does help that our cast is largely the same as in the dubbed version of the show. With the only new additions being the new characters in the movie. And all of them sound the part and there is never a moment were someone feels out of place and out of time with what is going on.

SOUND POUND

More widely speaking about the sound and soundtrack it’s all well-presented. The combat sequences are given an extra sense of heft to them thanks to the choice selection of sound effects on offer. I know that it might seem absurd for me to say but everything sounds exactly how it should.

This move can get surprisingly bloody at times.

What really helps to sell action sequences in any movie is good sound design. It is the thing that really helps give fight sequences their impact. And given the sheer spectacle on display here anything less than perfect would lead to some rather limp results.

Beyond the sound and sound mixing at play the soundtrack to the feature is perfectly fine for what it is. I do feel My Hero Academia: World Heroes’ Mission is lacking a really standout music track in it. Which is somewhat ironic given the amount of time given to one in particular gets quite a bit of screen time.

And while you’re there, be sure to like and share the article with your friends. Also, be sure to follow KeenGamer on Twitter for the latest gaming news, reviews, and guides!