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May 13, 2019
An extravagant show-piece of 3D rendering technology that's unfortunately bogged down by a needlessly convoluted plot, filled with TV-soap drama and characters who didn't know what they were doing.
If you don't care about making head or tails of a story, and only want the first 5 minutes of space carnage in Revenge of the Sith filling an entire feature film, this is your jam - Harlock repeatedly rams a cheat-enabled auto-healing battleship head-first into swarms of pleasingly weighty metal behemoths, crunching, crushing huge complex components amidst a light show of ray weaponry triggering chain explosions. Releasing endorphins in a primal part of our brains that
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finds a pleasing satisfaction in breaking up and disintegrating objects. The film brings TWO mega space weapons to boot, which is a bit of a missed opportunity when Arcadia didn't explode them as well.
If only the film just focused on being an unapologetic orgy of explosions a la Michael Bay, instead, it succumbed to that most common of afflictions in Japanese 3D animation - melodrama. Three of four recruits were killed in the beginning, why? So Harlock can look like an angsty hard-ass. There's an entire subplot of sibling rivalry, why? Because the glasses-wearing douche needed an excuse to be all cold and aloof. Why does he hate him? Because the younger idiot randomly opened a valve that caused an explosion. Why did he open that valve? Because he was angry! WHY?!?!?!? If you want melodrama, at least establish a clear root cause! Or else you're just brooding for the sake of brooding!
And what was the point of the subplot melodrama? What did the brooding bros do except creating unnecessary conflict out of nothing and dragging countless lives with them? What was the point of making the alien the last of her race? Just to make it depressing or is her backstory integral to the central tenet of the story? In which case WHY did she become the last of her race? Either TELL us, or don't include these half-baked headless characters that don't MEAN anything!
Even the namesake of the film, Harlock himself, is apparently a complete idiot with NO idea of what he's doing! He unleashed dark matter to "protect" Earth only to ravage it, then to... "make up" for his own colossal f***-up, he decides, on behalf of 500 billion lives, to end the universe and start anew?! HE'S THE REASON IT'S SCREWED UP IN THE FIRST PLACE!!!
To explain a bit of the film's background, the Harlock of the original series was an archetypical ROMANTIC hero - a lone voice of hope against alien tyranny, like a Rebel leader of the original trilogy. He was NOT a nihilistic, emo kid that succumbed to a hopelessness of HIS OWN FAULT, and decided to end everything with himself! And this selfish **** is the HERO of this film?!?!? Shouldn't he be the villain and root cause of all these problems?!?!
Leiji Matsumoto revolutionised manga into a more mature, "realist" direction, his Space Battleship Yamato is a case study of tackling suffocating nihilism right. As far as I'm concerned this film remake neither inherited the true romantic spirit of the real Harlock, nor did it successfully bring in the nihilism of Matsumoto's other works. All of the problems the characters face are of THEIR OWN MAKING - they're not heroes, they're not anti-heroes, they're just brooding teens in their puberties throwing a tantrum from breaking their own playstation. It speaks volumes when the only tolerable characters are an emotionless, backstory-less alien and a catatonic woman.
I really wish some screenwriters would mature out of their brooding bros, whether it be Cloud, Noctis, or these insufferable "hero" villains.
p.s. minus points for that one weird gratuitous zero-grav shower scene, for god's sake some Japanese animation, GROW UP!
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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May 4, 2019
There are much better ways to tackle a nihilistic existential crisis. EVA, Shoujo Shuumatsu Ryokou, Ergo Proxy all do it effortlessly, this, just doesn't make sense.
To get the objective assessment out of the way, the film scores well in technical aspects, cell-shaded 3D isn't that comical (bar's pretty low anyway), action sequences pack satisfying punches, sound and atmosphere befitting a major production.
But the frigging screenplay...... (spoilers)
The creator of Psycho-Pass focuses on one aspect of humanity in this trilogy - an insatiable desire to own, and control, be it oneself or the planet. The first film sets up like a shonen manga, hailing the main character's
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drive to retake Earth from Godzilla as an heroic battle against adversity. The second film reaches the pinnacle of the series by showing revenge in itself is an uncontrollable beast, and saving humanity by all means necessary would ironically destroy the very thing it proclaims to preserve.
So what's the message of the finale? A suicidal cult which the protagonist destroys, who then... chooses to commit suicide anyway???
WTH???
So the protagonist cannot let go of his hatred against Godzilla, but neither is he willing to use nanometal at the risk of turning humans into destructive machines. What's his solution? Robbing other survivors' chance to choose by kamikazeing into Godzilla. Where went his shonen boiling blood to fight against adversity? His last act is the ultimate cop-out, against everything he stood for in the first two films, against what he just did a few minutes earlier! If he's going to choose death regardless, why not let Ghidorah get on with it? As to destroying the nanometal, its rediscovery is inevitable, this is the equivalent of leaving your homework for tomorrow - what's, the, point???
If the films wanted to leave on an ambiguous note, they could've left on a high note and stopped at film two. The third one is filled with nonsensical contradictions that turned the protagonist from a principled paragon into an indecisive joke.
As far as frustrating protagonists and endings go, this is Earthsea-level bad, yes, THAT BAD.
Reviewer’s Rating: 4
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Apr 7, 2018
First and most importantly, regardless of how generic the film itself was, I will forever cherish it for introducing me to Good Luck by Basement Jaxx.
OH GOD GOOD LUCK IS PURE PERFECTION... THAT 30s INTRO WAS ONE OF THE BEST INTROS OF ALL ANIME, yes, up there with Evangelion and Cowboy Bebop, I said it!
Aaannnnd after Good Luck ends it's all downhill from there.
Set in a world where more stable bioroids take the reins of governance from emotionally unstable humans, the philosophical conflict serving as the basis of the plot is a solid one, with very believable motivations for the villainous human military staging a
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coup to retake power - it's as realistic as humans can get, and the moral conflict over reproductive rights of bioroids as sentient individuals is equally pertinent, forcing us to confront our own fear of others who are different, and reinforces the moral lesson that regardless of difference, the rights of individuals should never be suppressed due to violent discrimination.
Why is the plot and philosophical discussions about expanding definitions of humanity so rich? Remind you of another philosophical work exploring synthetic humanity?
Yes Masamune Shirow wrote Appleseed before the more fleshed out Ghost in the Shell, yes, you can go see the anime now.
I'm saddened to say, unlike Mamoru Oshii's GitS adaptation that enhances the source material, here the brilliant plot is DRAGGED DOWN by mediocre animation and generic characters - the characters aren't humans, they're BARBIE DOLLS with fixed joints that walk like robots. Character development is equally laughably AND tiresomely cliched, a literal pain to endure until action scenes save us from being bored to death.
It's an interesting case study when compared with Oshii's GITS to make us appreciate the subtle ingenuity of true cinematic craftsmanship. Without the rich source material propping it up the film is nothing on its own.
Except Basement Jaxx, I'm going to put that 30s on a loop until I'm brainwashed by it.
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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Apr 7, 2018
This dystopian flick can be summed up in two words - implausibly childish.
The film initially casts the hook with mystery and intrigue surrounding an technologically advanced but sealed Japan - a Pandora's Box! How exciting! We're enticed with glimpses of fancy gadgets Japan exports to America, Logic dictates the country itself must have something even better hidden behind its doors worthy of all the hype, right? Giant robots? Flying cities? They've been done before but hell we can never get enough of 'em!
What's the extraordinary secret it all builds up to? Drumroll.....
A SINGLE BACKWARD SLUM ON A PANCAKED FLAT DESERT.
No, seriously, the film's imagination goes
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only so far as one two-dimensional slum as flat as the rest of geographical Japan. Why is Japan, 73% of which is mountainous, with some of the best sceneries in the world, FLAT? Hell if I know! Animation studio ran out of budget? Or their render engines can't handle some bumps on the ground?
And what's the supposed reason for flat Japan? Wait for it... A MAN-CHILD scientist managed to gain political power, so turned the ENTIRE JAPANESE POPULATION INTO HIS TOYBOX.
A BABY ROBOTICISED AN ENTIRE COUNTRY TO PLAY WITH ANDROID TOYS.
It's not even the fun kind of mad scientist - the chief villain literally showed up for less than 10 minutes and had an equally pathetic death! HOW DID THIS CHILD MANAGE TO DESTROY A COUNTRY? WHO EVER TOOK THIS BUFFOON SERIOUSLY?
Oh wait... this is 2018 where Trump managed to control the world's biggest superpower, well sh......
Final Fantasy Advent Children had more believable environments and character animations - the characters of Vexille move more robotically than robots, with one-too-many-botox-injection stiff faces to match, and isn't it obligatory to at LEAST throw in abandoned skyscrapers in any dystopian film? They didn't even bother with that! Nothing! The background is literally one 2D square filled with sand texture!
It feels like good people have tried to make it work, but with UNLIMITED possibilities who wrote such a painfully LIMITING treatment? I actually dozed off during one action sequence, it is that generic!
All that anticipation built up to NOTHING - it's like seeing a flat desert beyond the clouds shrouding Laputa - and the central reason behind all the death and carnage? A man-child having fun with robot toys? What the hell!
At least throw in some pseudo-philosophical nonsense as the main motivation for the villain, without the 3D software's fancy lighting, the story is a big, fat, 0.
Reviewer’s Rating: 3
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Apr 6, 2018
This genuinely captured the ambience of vast desolation common in Tsutomu Nihei's manga, which is a definite recommend if dystopian flicks are right up your alley.
The main protagonist has a genuine reason to be broody and silent for once - he roamed a Dyson Sphere for 3000 years by himself. The aloof female char. isn't a traitor for once, the girl char. genuinely injects some humanity and warmth without coming cross as immature (unlike his whiny teenage male friend).
And the environment, OH THE ENVIRONMENT, is beautiful in its vastness and desolation, it stands in perfect contrast to emphasise the fragility and helplessness of tiny
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tribal humans struggling against impossible odds and impending doom. It's one of those flicks that have you actually rooting for likeable characters but very likely to be annihilated at any second, keeping you on the edge of your seat.
The 2nd act betrayal that sets up for the third act final struggle is the only predictable cliche ruining an otherwise tense and enjoyable story, also, that crybaby teenage boy.
The empty, "mood" shots actually have a reason to be there, in keeping with the theme of vast desolation, and is an integral element of the story and setting instead of just meaningless concept art, the personalities of characters have genuine reasons integral to the rest of the lore and story, hence the characters are not cliched tropes, but feels like actual parts of the world they're from.
All of these are done subtly and beautifully to contribute to the overarching theme, which isn't as common as it should be.
The setting is beautiful, period, what's surprising is the character designs and animations do emote genuine humanity and gravitas, warm and serious at the same time, in keeping with the dystopic theme, which is INCREDIBLY DIFFICULT in 3D anime, let alone a dystopian realist story.
There are not any singular wow-factors that immediately distinguishes this adaptation, but each component is so well crafted and integral to each other you can genuinely be immersed in a holistic, believable world without the usual cliches and cracks that yank you out of the experience.
A must recommend for any dystopian fan, a well-rounded jack-of-all-trades, and certainly better than most anime adaptations of its kind.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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Apr 6, 2018
This 3D reboot is SO GENERIC... weak female character portraying fragility & hence emphasise horrors by contrast? Check. Helpful old man? Check. Arrogant kid getting slapped in the face due to his ego because irony? Check. Arrogant adults that "will never die" but dies anyway to make the monsters look more terrifying? Check.
"You have XXX (insert younger family member) to live for, right?", "I have to do this! Because (insert previous family member/courage/world/pedestrians)!!!".
Some contrived love relationship that's totally not a red flag for the inevitable death to feel heavier? Check. Protagonist finding fury/strength to counter-attack from said death? Check. This final fury as a
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deus ex-machina that finishes the boss because... revenge is the ultimate power in generic anime? Check?
How can anybody find enjoyment in these utterly PREDICTABLE run-of-the-mill fares? Unless you're playing a game with friends to see who can spot the tiresome tropes the fastest? That wouldn't be a game because everybody already knows what's going to happen 3 seconds into the film!
Even the gore fails to shock because you KNOW it's coming, it'd be shocking if it DIDN'T happen!
Watch if you like bleeding edge 3D environment renders (the facial animation of characters are all like robotic mannequins with too much botox injections so they can't move their stiff faces), don't if you dislike the idea of watching a repeat of all the worst generic cliches in animation history.
Reviewer’s Rating: 4
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Apr 6, 2018
Oh Goro, you'd be a decent director anywhere else, but you had to have Hayao Miyazaki as father and comparison for eternity...
Earthsea feels like Ghibli trying to do a serious Tokien-esque high fantasy, if it went all the way dark & gritty it might've left more impression, but it didn't, it's just... BLAND... and boring, with a vague script that went nowhere, no clear lore & context, no clear goals, no likeable characters to root for, PLENTY of vacuous "mood" shots that showed nothing and contributed nothing to the story, making what's supposed to be a rich fantasy world into a total borefest...
Why did Arren
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stab his father and run? Out of fear? Fear of WHAT? "Darkness"? WHAT darkness? Why was he the only one susceptible to it? What's the reason for the sword locked in its sheath? Did it require "courage" to open? HOW did he find his "courage"? By Therru saying a few words? That's it? What's the stuff about "True Names"? Why did revealing that allow Arren to be both controlled AND freed? What's with Arren's nonsensical fear of death? He's a BOY! Nowhere near a god damn mid-life crisis yet! And for one so fearful of death he's certainly hypocritical about doling it out on others! Like his father for god's sake!
What's up with "magic powers vanishing"? That was never mentioned or mattered again! WHY IS Cob the only wizard that could still use magic? WHY COULD GED?!
And HOW THE HECK DID THERRU TURN INTO A GOD DAMN DRAGON?! THERE WERE NO CLUES THAT WAS GOING TO HAPPEN AT ALL! Christ talk about the mother of all Deus Ex Machina!
Maybe all these and more are explained in the book the film's based on, but that's not how a standalone film should work! I didn't need to read all of Tolkien's tonnes of lore to understand Lord of the Rings!
The film's failure lies in its abandonment of basic character building, plot establishment for pure visual wow - it is pretty! The background shots of the city are some of the BEST in ANY film, not just anime, period! But one can't base a high fantasy story based on empty "mood" shots alone! The mighty high towers of Earthsea's artistic grandeur are based on crumbling and nonsensical foundations of basic storytelling!
The music is passable, any generic celtic medieval fare, LotR or Kingdom of Heaven it ain't, bland, impression-less like the generic light-dark plot.
Thing is we see these sort of bland effort in a lot of Hollywood productions, even anime productions, where Goro can be pleasantly passable, but, he's Hayao's son, and that's why the imperfections are magnified under such stark contrast.
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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Apr 6, 2018
Nature vs. machine, yes it's THAT again, yes, it's THAT predictable. What's the problem? The message doesn't work because 1 - the characters are downright annoying in their attempt to force their own beliefs on others, and 2 - "nature" which we're "supposed" to side with is actually the greatest EVIL of all!
Why does the best friend's little sister have a rivalry with the female lead? It adds nothing to the plot and only makes her appear whiny and immature! Why did the Colonel sabotage the lunar project? For vanity? Personal belief? Hell if I know!
And the main male lead, oh boy, what an obnoxious
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bible-basher! - he will hunt you down until he converts you into a tree-hugger like him, and if you say "NO!" for the umpteenth time, he can only repeat "why not???" as if the concept that people have different beliefs doesn't exist for him!
Which is the biggest problem with this film - the "nature" it so trumpets is totally a DICTATORSHIP! Arbitrarily controlling water to keep humans on their knees begging? USING CHILDREN AS BIOLOGICAL WEAPONS AGAINST OTHER HUMANS FOR THE INTEREST OF TREES? This is an evil tyrant! And we're supposed to ROOT for these evil things?!
And I'm no climate-denier! I want to protect nature! Nausicaa managed to make horrifying giant bugs humanistic, but I honestly want to eradicate these dictating monster trees from existence, along with their collaborating traitors!
This is a horrible propaganda film that managed to turn me, an environmentalist, against the "nature" depicted in this terrible film!
But on a genuine note of reflection, why DO we always portray technology and artificial creation as the bad guys? Are we still cavemen afraid of the light of a fire? Why must "nature" claim to be the only authentic thing worth protecting, but not technology, discoveries, history, CIVILISATION?
I weep for the animalistic tree-huggers of Neutral City! I weep for the progress that mankind has worked so hard for, and so casually abandoned! This isn't a good thing! This is the barbarians burning Rome and destroying civilisation and enlightenment! If the trees are Nazis then the enhanced, and the protagonist, are their willing Nazi-collaborators!
Reviewer’s Rating: 2
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Jul 2, 2017
The relatively short 12 episodes Chinese-made anime garnered plenty of hype pre-release, largely due to its quality of animation, and in the end that may be its only selling point, as everything else are just... okay.
The series revolves around an ex-pro e-sports gamer, with the very opening scene kicking the protagonist from the height of his game down to the gutters. Before you immediately raise the "revenge story" red flag, the series does explore a BIT of that successful revenge adrenaline, but far less effectively than your typical shonen like One Piece that would make you punch the air. The protagonist doesn't seem to get
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a kick out of revenge, so viewers can't exactly empathise.
Okay, so e-sports, is it a psychological character drama exploring the complex problems in this field? Again, touched upon, never to full potential - the protagonist at times laments pro-gamers don't have a livelihood outside e-sports, and that is it... What? No exploration into internet addiction? Unemployment? Aging out of professional gaming? It's there ripe for the taking, but nobody took it!
Then is it like SAO? With a lot of scenes having characters animatedly interact in-game? A virtual reality? Explore the duality of one's existence? Or expand upon game mechanics? NO! The random super-saiyan moves have NO CONTEXT, no weight, nothing to compare against, so we don't feel they're exceptional! They're just random ex-machina ploys used to illustrate the protagonist's skills. All they feel like are cheap, immaterial pretty lights.
And the character tropes, Christ... we have the girlfriend-who-isnt-a-girlfriend, another girl (potential harem conflict?), annoying energetic sidekick, nerd, annoying energetic female friend, way-too-over-the-top villains, and a whole bunch of guys who think "cool" is trying to act all detached and aloof all the time, finally the protagonist, a mellow guy that pretty much doesn't care what happens, perpetually stuck in a casual smile, with all the appearance of an omniscent god amongst lowly mortals - with such an obvious advantage and no chance to loose, where's the SUSPENSE again?!?
These aren't human characters, they're cliched stereotypes of what the creators think girls will fawn over, perfect pretty-boys who are superior in every way.
The music is your run-of-the-mill adrenaline fest with some truly cringeworthy supposedly "funny" moments. The animation is undeniably skilled, and perhaps the chief reason why the series is so short, which leaves no room whatsoever for in-depth character development.
If you have truly ran out of things to watch, this won't be an unbearable experience, but neither can the over-compensating animation make up for its utterly dull story and characters.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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May 25, 2017
In one line, watching Shinsekai yori is like seeing a really obtuse comment - not sure whether it's deliberate, intelligent sarcastic critique, or simply dumb and I'm giving it too much credit.
Post-apocalyptic screenplays seem to be confined to a line segment - either ultra futuristic or ultra primitive, foreshadowing things to come, SY chose the tiresome pit of the latter - in the first few minutes we were succintly told of the destruction of current world order via the emergence of an elite 0.3% posessing telekinetic powers. The pacing was air-tight, no tiresome exposition (in fact no repetitive openings at all, a GREAT plus!), the
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mood was estatic.
And then, like a thrill ride running into a swamp, we were suddenly faced with what appeared to be a typical moe magical-girl high school drama, complete with cringeworthy blushes and "annoyed" puffy cheeks.
So problem no.1 - pacing, like many others have said, some golden moments have no waste to spare whatsoever, only to be clumped in forced slow-paced "emotional" scenes of "character building", with one exception - episode 4 which is entirely an exposition dump that swamps you with the background mythos, undoing the subtle prodedural glimpses into the past at the beginning of every episode, ruining any sense of mystery they had attempted to build up till that point.
And I put "character building" in quotes precisely because they fail at eactly that - the characters are obtuse, robots of
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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