Highlander: The Search for Vengeance

This is about the most american anime I have ever seen in my entire life. It's so disgustingly terrible. There were a couple reasons I watched this title. The first, and biggest reason, was that I saw this as I was browsing amazon. It got some nice reviews so I thought to myself "hey, I should watch and then buy this." Now I've seen two highlander movies and a good portion of the TV series and I can honestly say that this is the worst Highlander creation I've ever seen.

Story: This is what happens when you get a writer who is 1. subpar and 2. Not Japanese. The writer for this has written for Highlander before, alot for highlander. I think that he's written ONLY for Higlander. The formula for this anime is VERY simple and yet incredibly complex. Revenge. I've seen revenge done before, and i've seen it done VERY well. Highlander has a very simple revenge plot, it's so simple that it's insulting. There's also the TERRIBLE sideplots....these were also insulting. I'm not giving any spoilers, but really, even if I did, it wouldn't really spoil anything at all. All the "plot developments" were predictable and boring. And i'm usually too busy paying attention to what's going on to think about what's going to happen. But I was constantly thinking about what "twist" they were going to throw at me next. Oh and the script is absolutely terrible. If you can't finish 50% of the lines before the actors say them...then you're not trying hard enough.

Art: For a terrible anime the art is pretty nice. The art is very smooth, very crisp. There are some really beautiful scenes, and then there are a bunch that aren't that hot. The action scenes lacked flow. They all seemed very static and choppy, very few seemed beautiful. Someone compared this to Afro Samurai and mentioned that the fight scenes lacked intensity, which is exactly what it lacks. This anime is meant to be all about action, and yet the effort put into these scenes seems so lacklustre. The art reminded me alot of Basilisk, and I'm not a huge fan of the style, it really doesn't suit the "feel" of this anime.

Sound: All that was available for me was the english dub....which frightened me. BUT I watched it. They got McLeod with a Scottish accent.......half the time. Which is HILARIOUS when he drops it for a bunch of lines. The english voice actors deliver every line terribly, it doesn't help that the entire script is riddled with terribly cheesy lines and ridiculous one-liners. They had some ridiculous rock music for a bunch of it as well....that didn't help.

Character: Oh man. the characters here are absolutely hilarious. You have the protagonist Colin, who's only dream is vengeance. He wants revenge because some guy "Markus" killed his wife. He's silent, angry, and incredibly powerful. you have Markus, who's such a "bad guy." you even watch his girlfriend kill some gigantic barbarian without breaking a sweat. Then he makes out with her. Oh yeah, he's bad. Then there's the whore with an ulterior motive, who tries to sleep with Mcleod....but he refuses because he's faithful to some wife who died hundreds of years ago. You have the annoying little kid with a dying sister who just HAS to join them because he has to save her from a virus that kills people. *sigh* Just watching them hurts, trying to analyze them hurts even more.

Enjoyment: No one should watch this. For an anime, it didn't even feel like an anime. This is probably the perfect example for anyone who hates how some anime become "americanized." This is an American anime...but it's not fun, it's not creative, it's not original. Only a die-hard Highlander fan could stand watching this.

Please. Don't make the mistake that I made. This anime is horrible, worse than an American B-movie. Even in the first 10 minutes it's really easy to see that it's not going to get any better, and it doesn't...it just gets worse.

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Im no Highlander fan, Im just a geek... I've never been interested in Highlander as a franchise,...let's just get it on.

The story was pretty fair, there were no breath taking action sequences but even tho, it was enjoyful. It moves from the future to the past and back... simply to bring a little bit of complication in to it. Its all about revenge and hate , and anger, and how you cant win if those feelings are leading your way kinda thing. Im sure you know what I mean since weve seen it before...

The Animation is really great, everyone will enjoy the animations and effects that this movie has. There are few really good gory scenes in which are used effects that are just marvellous, so there is something to look at.

The music (rock or metal, sorry that I can't tell) is fitting but after a while you will concentrate on the fights and scenes so much that you wont even know that there was some background music, thats not a bad thing but I just feel like its a waste of efford in that matter. Sound effects are well done, everything sounds as it should, the metal chinging, bullet shots, explosions... all sounds just right.
Higlander is originaly in english, the voice acting was fine, what was really great idea was that the accent of the characters was changing, in the past they were talking with a scottish accent and in the future it was american, nice touch there.

Characters arent anything special, there was just nothing new what would make those characters unique. However it was a fair job nothing to be sad about.
So dont fix whats not broken...

I really enjoyed it from start till the end, I really think that this is gonna be enjoyful for Highlander fans (from what I hear) nothing to be crazy about, but if you want some serious sword action it will take you in but not as well as other titles (Vampire Hunter D: Blood Lust). For those that are searching for a good lone hero adventure, you might have found your Jackpot but for most people its a One Timer at worst.

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As a big fan of the Highlander franchise, the first film and the tv series, and not the sucky movie sequels, I had really high hopes for this film. When you consider it was directed by Yoshiaki Kawajiri (who as you know directed such classics as Ninja Scroll and Vampire D bloodlust) and the script was penned by one of the writers of the tv series, then I feel I was warranted in expecting a great film. Not to mention that Imagi and Madhouse did the animation.
Unfortunately for me the Search For Vengeance was a bit hit and miss for me. While it ticks all the boxes for what you would expect from a film in the highlander franchise it does little else beyond that.

The film is set in a post-apocalyptic New York City where the protagonist Colin Macleod, Of the Clan Macleod (naturally) arrives and discovers that Marcus Octavius, who he has been chasing throughout time in a quest of vengeance over the death of his wife is the leader of this ruined city. Colin joins up with the local rebels of the town, reluctantly, to take down Marcus who is planning to wipe out the city’s population with a virus so he can build his new utopian society from its ashes.

As you would expect from the talent on hand the film looks really, really good. The animation is top notch with some great character designs. I particularly liked the design of Dahlia who with her red hair and clothes is such a stark contrast to the dull and grey environment of this desolate New York. Colin is also well designed as looks like a badass action hero but not in a generic way. Where the animation really excels is in the action scenes and as you would expect from the director of Ninja Scroll the action is fast paced and enjoyable. The audio is quite solid too with a good soundtrack and all the voicework is top notch. Even in the flashbacks to Scotland the accents and the dialogue sound perfect.

Unfortunately it is with the writing that my main criticisms lay. The writers clearly played it safe here and did not tinker with the Highlander formula at all, and beyond the highlander stuff the plot just has that “done to death” feel about it. Films set in a post apocolyptic world are nothing new and neither are stories of vengeance revolving around a murdered lover. As for highlander specific stuff as I said it ticks all the boxes: We get to see how Colin discovers he is immortal and we see plenty of other flashbacks from different points in history and each time the flashback is triggered by something in the present day. Colin has a love interest in the present day who just happens to resemble his one true love from the past. And this was my problem because all of this had either been done in the original movie and tv show and was just not that interesting to me. Now clearly they wanted to make a movie that fans and newcomers could enjoy and I respect that and that was probably the right way to go but as a fan of the franchise there just was nothing here I had not seen before.

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---Dcm18's quick reviews---

Story: 6 (Good but very predictable)
Art: 9 (Exelent quality)
Sound: 7 (Not memorable, but nice)
Character: 5 (Generic characters...)
Enjoyment: 7 (Meh at least not boring)

Overall: 6.8 (Very americanized flavor, kinda ruins the movie)