I love movies that make you think. Especially ones that make you question and look introspectively at your own life. This movie had the potential for it, but it failed miserably.
Characters: The characters in this film are quite bland. Although there is a sense that they are meant to be cold. They showed a lot of characters that seemed extremely out of place. Showing them for the sake of showing them; while leaving out any relation to the story of their role. Many felt extremely two-dimensional; I find it surprising that the dog seemed more interesting and more fulfilling as a character than some of the main characters. It seems almost rushed (which is hard to believe that I am saying that), the characters are thrown in to where you do not even feel any attachments to them.
Art/Sound: The animation is very difficult to grasp for this movie. The fight scenes were amazing, beautifully done and a lot of attention to detail. Even the sound of them taking off thrilled me. There were moments where I thought it looked amazing. For example, when they were strolling through town during the night. The general feel was quite nice. The problem I have was the animation of the characters. I do get that there was an artistic design to them. That is not my gripe with the animation. The problem I have are the moments where no one moves. There are many moments where the character would stand there, nothing movie. It was as if I was looking at a screen shot.
I remember thinking to myself; when someone is not speaking, they are not moving. Even moments when someone is talking, there is only animation for the mouth while nothing else moves. There was a portion where we were looking at one character for approximately 6 seconds of nothing moving, just listening to the music. Now, the music I did like which goes with the sound. Although not many songs, they were quite nicely done with some they were nice and calming.
Story: The story has quite a few problems with it. As I mentioned in my earlier post, there is meant to be a lot of depth with this movie. The problem is that, the movie did a poor job of illustrating that point. The depth of a movie is only strong if the actual movie compliments it, which was not the case here. It felt like I was watching two movies, and one just so happens has a more deeper meaning to it. Overall, I think it could have done quite a lot better. The silent moments needed so much more work to them. It is like differentiating between a nice quiet moment and an awkward moment. The film is riddled with moments where the silence just felt awkward, almost as if they were forcing depth to something that which is not there.
