Reviews

Oct 4, 2019
How unoriginal can a movie be before it’s too much? At what point does it become just lazy writing? Black Fox is here to quench your thirst for an answer. I wouldn’t be surprised if they wrote down some cliche movie tropes and used that for the story. For what it showed me is that the staff had no inspiration for what it was going to be.

It becomes very apparent from the premise alone how little effort was put into this. The family of Rikka Isurugi are assassinated by a super evil corporation that does super evil things. She then plans her revenge by becoming a superhero who fights for justice! One of the most standard motives they could’ve gone with. This is far from the only trope they use. Take a sip each time you see a movie trope and you will go haywire likely within the first half. It’s a by the book story that’s been done plenty of time before and better.

Same can be said about the characters who all fit into your typical archetypes. That’s not in and of itself something that ruins the movie. But it’s short length hindered them from becoming the multilayered characters they needed to be. For that reason it’s hard to be invested in them. Rikka has at least understandable motivations, and the first act does a decent job at giving us a reason to care about it albeit on a very surface level. However the revenge story collides with a different one. Another girl archetype appears and the story shifts more focus on her. With the movie instead ending with her story's conclusion rather than Rikka’s. She doesn’t get her revenge on the people who killed her family, at least not the ones mainly responsible. The main villain was a generic mad scientist working for them.

The story was a severe letdown and the characters were not much better. But there was at least some effort put into the visuals. The character designs didn’t impress me much, and the backgrounds while decent were nothing extraordinary to look at. However, animation-wise it was very fluid and stylized in it’s fight scenes. Making for some solid eye candy. The budget constraints shines through at times and the CGI was taken right out of a PlayStation 2 game which didn’t blend well with it’s 2D counterpart.

The music is solid but like most things in this movie feels very uninspired and didn't leave any impressions. It is fittingly used for the emotions the scenes it's used in is trying to convey while not becoming distracting, but didn't add anything unique or memorable to the movie. With other words it’s as standard as you get.

The fact that the movie was so short didn't make it too unbearable but there is so much more you can use 90 minutes on that's not this. I would only recommend it if you want some good sakuga or have seen very few movies in your lifetime. For everyone else, go watch some paint dry. You will probably find more entertainment that way.
Reviewer’s Rating: 3
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