SINGAPORE — Gatchaman, if you have never heard of it, is a classic Japanese anime that is sometimes known as Battle Of The Planets, or G-Force, Guardians Of Space (no, not the hamster movie).

After a long wait for fans, this live-action version is finally hitting the screens, complete with some Hollywood influence.

The movie features an earth being invaded by an alien race known as Galactors, and only humans known as Receptors are able to defeat them. Five of the Receptors — Ken, Ryu, Joe, Jun and Jinpei — form a team, Gatchaman, to take down the alien threat. Fans would be familiar with most of this, and might even be able to guess the show’s main villain, but for non-fans, the movie does explain everything throughout the show.

The famous bird-like costumes have been toned down and now look more serious, but the crazy, over-the-top villains look like they’re straight out of the anime. There are also moments that are bound to thrill — the introductory fight is a great mixture of Japanese-style costumed battles, which you might see in an episode of Kamen Rider or the Power Rangers, and some fun CGI action. The CGI never meets the levels you see in Hollywood movies but that, oddly enough, helps to add a little bit of campy fun to the proceedings.

Which, sadly, is what the movie needs more of. While there is some humour, a lot of the movie is weighed down by the seriousness of the story. It revolves around a love triangle that returns to haunt the two male leads. Instead of focusing on the potential apocalyptic nature of the threat, it becomes more of a personal revenge drama, complete with empty platitudes and angsty screaming matches — all this while the world is ending.

There is a difference between a character maturing and learning to save the world, and a selfish character so consumed by the sins of his past that preventing the apocalypse becomes a mere side effect. This ends up making the Gatchaman crew feel a lot less heroic than they could be and makes any victory feel hollow. Here is where the Hollywood influence seems the strongest: It’s like they took a leaf out of Man Of Steel director Zack Snyder’s book.

In the end, for all the costumes and long emotional speeches, Gatchaman never feels cheesy. But where it fails is in how it lets the melodrama and seriousness sap the movie of all the fun and energy it could have had. Good thing then, that they promise more to come — there is potential in terms of the fights and set designs, and if the movie took itself less seriously it would have been better.

(PG, 110 mins)