Mutafukaz

This is one of those rare, totally unique, stand-alone productions that you see just once a decade. With incredible visuals and animation, I’d describe Mutafukaz as They Live meets GTA San Andreas, directed by David Leitch.

Based on a French comic but taking place in a fictional Southern California city and incorporating visual elements from cholo and black hip-hop culture, this film was made for the English dub, which is just fantastic. There is a lot going on in the story, but it’s not so much about focusing on that. What really shines are the insanely well-made action scenes, the funny dialogues and characters (I personally ... love the Shakespearean gangster), and the amazing atmosphere and visuals. It’s a truly unique experience.

If you didn't get the references I made in the introduction: This is a very violent black comedy with some underlying social commentary.

Honestly I don't know why I'm writing this review for a 2 year old movie at this point that probably gets less foot traffic then a dine in restaurant in this messed up Covid 19 world we live in, but with Netfilx adding Mutafukaz (or MFKZ) I was finally able to watch it after missing its small run in theaters. I doubt anyone will read this but if you do cool, I hope you like this review. Here's my thoughts on the movie.

The good, This has some of the best animation I've seen out of the world of anime in recent times. No it's ... not on par with things like A Silent Voice or other critically acclaimed "beautiful" anime but maybe that's because this movie isn't trying to be anime. It's almost hard to think that something like this could be made by an anime studio because it's so not anime. Yeah I know Japan wasn't the only one who had their hands on this project but maybe that's the reason it's so good. This is the type of movie you show people who aren't into anime. It doesn't do the boiler plate same old AnImE that people make jokes of or your parents think of as just cartoons, but instead actually tries to be something different. Character designs are unique and ones you won't forget about in the mishmash of "anime" characters, the fights feel like they would fit better in a video game and bring this energy that you don't normally see in "anime" movies, and the soundtrack... omg the soundtrack is probably the standout aspect of this movie. Plenty of times I found myself vibing to the music more then paying attention to the movie. Its mix of techno and latino music mesh so well together that you can't help but have fun. A stand out is the Ice Cream truck chase scene. Everything is made to stand out and be different and hits all the marks. This alone makes the experiences great...but

As for the bad, the plot is so scatter shot you'd think the script got hit with half the bullets that went flying in this movie. Bit off more then they could chew is an understatement for this movie. Starting as a fugitive on the run story we grow into aliens and gang wars and romance and a half baked message about the world. This thing is all over the place and none of it is done well enough to say their was a standout but none are done so badly to say that they were the weak point of the movie. It feels like so much of it was just thrown together to have a plot when you can tell watching the movie that a plot was the last thing on the creators mind. If you go into this expecting to get any sort of fulfillment on anything that then movie offers in its first 10 mins then sorry to say but you're wasting your time. It's particularity a shame when the characters are so well written. I guess not everything can be perfect but it was a damn shame to an otherwise great movie.

In the end Mutafukaz is just a small movie that came and went. It didn't make any landmark, groundbreaking, amazing noise in the small amount of time it was in the public consciousness and much like the page on MAL it is forgotten, but now with it being on Netflix I hope people give it a try. It might not be the best thing out there to watch but I don't feel like it wasted my time and I was taken on a ride that although the road wasn't great or even purposeful at times, left me none the less entertained by what I saw. Who knows maybe you'll think so too.

Out of 100 Nobles watching…
20 were impressed!
30 found no interest in the plot
30 couldn’t tell that there was a plot
10 thought the pacing was awful
10 didn’t really care for the quality of the animation

Mutafukaz is a Japanese-French collaboration project between Studio 4°C and Ankama. The former being responsible for projects such as the Berserk movie adaptations, a Batman miniseries, and a film adaptation of one of my favorite manga Kaijuu no Kodomo and the latter having made popular French cartoon series Wakfu. I had high hopes having enjoyed Wakfu a great deal, but those expectations fell woefully short. The production quality and pipeline of Studio ... 4°C seems to be something I just can’t acclimate too, but most importantly Mutafukaz is just not a cohesive film.

There’s some charm to be found in this movie. Interesting character designs and expressive artistic choices, but a decent art direction doesn’t get you anywhere if there’s no substance to back it up. That may be how I best describe this film. Formless. The movie is paced so absolutely terribly every scene change comes out of nowhere with no real explanation. As the viewer you should be guided from point A to point B when watching a film and it is up to the timing director to make that transition a smooth line. As far as I could tell Mutafukaz plot was a number of dots on a board with no lines connecting them.

I’ve done this film a bit of a disservice having watched it almost a month ago before reviewing it. Unfortunately, it’s just not memorable enough to recall much to complain about other than the overwhelming sense of wasted time felt after having watched it. Even in shows I more or less hated like Cannon Busters there were some elements I could cling to and complement. I can’t really do that here. The sound track was pretty good, I guess.