It's a good sampling about what is great about Macross in 00's clothing, even if it doesn't explain the universe itself super well (You're supposed to laugh when they bring up Sharon Apple as one of the great songstresses, by the way). The soft reset of the characters gives the clearest, most sympathetic view of the leads, and the movie lets them have half the screentime to exist and marinate in their circumstances. It still is a shallow, flashy action melodrama, and the lack of work to solidify the rest of the cast does hurt the second movie, but it's so much fun.