- Last OnlineMay 6, 2022 1:15 PM
- GenderMale
- BirthdayMar 28, 1998
- LocationDenmark
- JoinedApr 16, 2014
Also Available at
RSS Feeds
|
![]()
Aug 28, 2014
First Squad is a really bad movie. The only reason I even watched this movie is that it came as part of a box set, which I bought to get Paprika, Memories, Tekkonkinkreet, Steamboy and Metropolis. It was a good deal, although I also got some things I really didn't want. Like Cowboy Bebop the Movie and Tokyo Godfathers, that I already owned. And some random movie called Millennium Dragon and, you guessed it, First Squad.
I already knew this movie was gonna be bad going in. So I took the approach of 'Let's just relax with an hour of mediocre explosions and fun fights' attitude.
...
And trust me, this was NOT what I got. So let's explain why:
There was no story. Nothing was resolved, there was never any tension and no character was interesting. They had a romantic subplot going on, but that was never resolved or given any depth. They had something going on with some Nazis, but again; no depth and resolve and no character development. But this is an action movie, you say. You are not watching for a deep or complex story, you are watching to see shit blow up.
This doesn't happen either.
The animation is atrocious. For a movie, especially one that's only an hour long you'd think there was at least something going on there, but no. There is surprisingly little movement and what little footage there is is reused several times in the movie. Some clips are shown three to four times throughout this very short motion picture. The animation is also done on threes. For anyone who doesn't know the in's and out's of animation that means that there is only animation on every third frame of twenty four, making this essentially animated at only eight frames per second, same as most TV animations. Movies are usually made at the full twenty four frames per second. The character designs are horribly bad as well.
Sound effects are ... fine, I guess, but only when they're there. They seem to be missing from a lot of places where they obviously should be. The dub is REALLY bad, though. Very few characters have any hint of emotion at all, and the ones who do don't have a major speaking role. I would still recommend the dub, though, since it fits with the tone and setting of the movie.
Oh god, the characters.
I am currently writing my own manga inspired comic, and the dialouge is really, really bad. But that's not my focus, and I'm only sixteen years old, writing in a foreign language. With that said, though, these characters are written so poorly, a delusional seven year old would have trouble thinking up so poor dialouge. It's probably the worst part of the entire movie, and that's saying a lot. None of the relationships feel genuine, none of the kids feel real and everything comes off as completely forced. In fact this is one of the few movies that can compete with The Room and Birdemic in terms of terrible dialouge and characters. YUCK.
With all that negative talk, though, in the end I'm still recommending this movie. But not as a fun action flick, because even the action sucks, not as a war drama(lol), but as a comedy. It falls in to the category of 'It's so bad, it's good' kinda movie. And as much as I cringed while watching this I was also laughing out loud, something I very rarely do while watching any movie.
As an action movie it gets a very bad 1/10
But as a comedy it can definitely work.
Reviewer’s Rating: 3
What did you think of this review?
Nice
 0
Love it
 0
Funny
 0
Confusing
 0
Well-written
 0
Creative
 0Show all
![]()
Aug 15, 2014
Katanagatari is one of the more intelligent anime out there. Along with Tatami Galaxy it spread light over the otherwise dark year for anime 2010 was overall. It constantly builds up your expectations and makes you think you know what's gonna happen next, then proceeds to surprise you by doing something different from what you were expecting, and then laughs at you for thinking you figured it out. When it wants to it can also build up a peaceful atmosphere similar to the one found in Mushishi. It also contains a handfull of kickass action scenes, a refreshing art style, well developed characters, a unique
...
story and some of the best, most well crafted witty dialouge seen in anime.
The characters are one of the many highlights found in this fun, weird package of a story. The male lead, Yasuri Shichika is definitely the most developed of the bunch. He starts off as the typical loveable but naive guy arcetype, who has lived on an isolated island his entire life, only knowing two other humans, being his father and his sister. You get a feel for him and you start to think you've figured him out. But after a couple of episodes you'll notice how he slowly but surely gets accustomed to living amongst more normal people. His development is really well handled. It's not so subtle that you barely know if he's changing, but neither, apart from a couple of times, is it completely spelled out for the audience. Other fun characters include Emonzaemon, Higaki Rinne, Togame and Tsuruga Meisai. Instead of explaining them I'll just say that they're all very witty and a ton of fun to watch and you have to experience them yourself.
The animation for Katanagatari is probably its weakest point. The character designs are indeed unique, the backgrounds pretty, and the art directing beautiful, but the actual animation, the motion of the characters is a bit of a mixed bag. On one hand the fight scenes, while short are very well executed with good choreography, smooth movement and high detail. But then on the other hand for basically any scene that isn't fighting or otherwise vital to the plot the movement is stiff and miniscule, though with good storyboarding, directing and constant dialouge Katanagatari does a great job of masking it's lower budget and it doesn't feel cheap and is ever hard or unpleasant to watch.
Katanagatari is a very talking heavy anime, and I'll just say that if you don't like that style of show, then well... Get over it! You'll like this one.
As for other things and stuff: There's no dub, but that's okay since the setting doesn't really fit a dub either, and the Japanese voices are very good either way.
The music is quite good, reaching a wide variety of musical genres. It even features the choir from the original Ghost in the Shell!
Sound effects range from eargasm quality right down to a point where it almost feels like a parody of 90's shounen, probably because that's exactly what it feels like. They also do something fun with the animation and change it a bit each episode, most noteably in episode 7 which was the episode that really got me to liking this show.
Overall Katanagatari is a fun show, that constantly ridicules other anime, you and even itself. There are so many fun little details in this very rewatchable, enjoyable nice bundle of an anime. It has romance, action, shounen-like hype moments, witty dialouge, enjoyable characters and heck, even a bit of parody. Definitely not something to miss.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
What did you think of this review?
Nice
0
Love it
0
Funny
0
Confusing
0
Well-written
0
Creative
0Show all
![]()
May 8, 2014
The Wind Rises is perhaps Hayao Miyazaki's greatest movie. It stays true to the style in art and storytelling that you would expect from a Ghibli film, but at the same time it's arguably one of, if not the most mature work Miyazaki has ever made. It's beautiful in it's narrative, the music and every second of it just screams quality.
The story isn't something we haven't seen before, but it's handled in such a way that it comes off as refreshing, meaningfull and touching. The characters are realistic almost to a scary degree, creating some of the most subtle emotions I've seen in a long
...
time. They come off as extremely human, they feel alive, you feel their joy, you feel their sorrow.
Something I noticed while watching this movie was the effort put into the animation. When a character was talking, and you'd expect only the mouth to be moving they went back and redrew the entire person, instead of just doing the usual copout and copying 95% of the drawing, only to draw a different mouth position. It felt nice, and it gave a feeling of quality that you could almost feel with your hands.
The directing is Miyazaki standard fare, taking the perspective of a child, a neutral observer, with the 'camera' neatly positioned lower then the characters heads, making the viewer feel immersed and as if they were a part of the scenery.
The worst thing I can say about this movie is how there wasn't a standout piece of music on the soundtrack, although I could also argue that this added to the beauty of the movie.
Also just a side note: Watch the movie in Japanese. I know Joseph Gordon whatever is in the dub, but to me hearing Hideaki Anno (yes, THAT Hideaki Anno) in the main role was just perfect to me.
Overall, this is one of the few movies I would call a true masterpiece. It stands out between all the other Miyazaki works as the least magical, most mature, but somehow encapsulates everything he is.
A feminist planefreak, who works undercover for Greenpeace :)
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
What did you think of this review?
Nice
0
Love it
0
Funny
0
Confusing
0
Well-written
0
Creative
0Show all
|
