Month: November 2012

  • MOVIE REVIEW: The Secret of Kells (2009)

    GENRE: Children's Adventure-Fantasy Animated Movie

    SUMMARY: In a medieval village, young Brandon lives in a small Irish abbey lead by his uncle the overprotective abbot. When the shadow of invading Norsemen falls over the land, Brandon must brave the enchanted forests to complete a work of legendary illuminated text.

    REVIEW: This was a random find suggested in a forum by a fan to the artist of one of my favorite web-comics (http://tmkcomic.depleti.com/). Just like the comic, it is influenced by illuminated texts only more so. The art is super graphic and beautiful. It is amazing and the best part of the whole movie. It alone is worth the look. The storytelling is weird. There isn't a lot of explanation and a whole lot of "that's just the way it is". It made it feel a lot like traditional stories. Because of this though the movie seemed short and lacked traditional American plot development. So the plot was rather blah but the way they told it was really cool and folksy. It is very much a mesh of Paganism and Christianity. Very cool and worth a look if you have the time.

    ART: 9/10
    STORYTELLING & PLOT: 7/10
    CHARACTERS:7/10
    OVERALL: 8/10

  • INCOMPLETE SERIES REVIEW: The Avengers Earth's Mightiest Heroes (2010-2012)

    1 Season of 2 Watched (2nd not on Netflix)

    GENRE: American Action Anime

    SUMMARY: Thor, Iron Man, Captain America, Ant Man, Wasp, the Hulk, Hawkeye, and more join forces to combat evil in New York and all over the world. Avengers Assemble!

    REVIEW: It's a really good solid cartoon. It just illustrates the difference between American vs. Japanese animation production differences. The plot is deceptively simply executed in such a careful way it hides the complexity that is written into it. Bad anime is un-focused and attempts to be overly complicated and emotional. It's the same story with the animation. At first, it looks like that same tried and true style as the DC Justice League which has its roots in the amazing Batman animated series, but there is more too it. There were still-frames when I found myself appreciating the perspective and correct anatomical foresight of a character. They do so much with few lines and shading. Anime can just try to dang hard. It is more close to the comic than the movie which means the character is more like the original comics (ex. Hawkeye wears a purple pointy headed hero's uniform while in the movie he's in tactical gear). Go into realizing it's made for kids but adults can appreciate and enjoy it as well (like Finding Nemo). Overall, a very solid showing.

    ART: 7/10
    STORYTELLING & PLOT: 8/10
    CHARACTERS: 8/10
    OVERALL: 8/10

  • INCOMPLETE SERIES REVIEW: Blood+ (2005-2006)

    6 episodes watched of 2 Seasons

    GENRE: Japanese Action-Horror Anime

    SUMMARY: Saya, a half vampire half human with amnesia of her past, must rally her wits and protect her happy life and family from the onslaught of vampire hordes.

    REVIEW: Because the live-action movie didn't complete the anime movie, I decided to check out the anime series the made to see if it might be any better. It was better but another disappointment compared to the original and I won't be finishing the series (I only like to finish shows that strike me as awesome). 

    In the original, the main character Saya is an unapologetically harsh hunter who uses a standard legit katana and finds herself disgusted and annoyed with the humans she protects and appreciative of the vampire race's power and grace. She suffers from an internal struggle and associates more with her prey than those she works for, but the vampires are just too dangerous to allow to live. It's a fascinating story of an antihero who doesn't like her role and a 16-year old girl who is actually a 400-year old badass. The psychology isn't too complex, but is really interesting too me. Its a rare find in anime to have a powerful female lead who is worthy of respect.

    In this series, they ruin all that by making Saya have amnesia turning her into the typically weak anime female character to appeal to the paternal instincts of males watching the show. Her sword is now a weird katana that channels her blood and she has a male servant and government agent to lead her around and protect her while she freezes in combat and cries because her "female emotions" are just too much to handle. Don't get me wrong, I don't think every female character in media has to be strong, but why take an awesome example of one and just ruin it when it's the most interesting thing about the franchise? It was a stupid choice but the directors/producers/writers. However, had I not seen the original I think that the show would have been moderately good, though Saya would have eventually annoyed me too much to continue probably. What is it about anime that people have to make it so emo? The art isn't as good as the movie (which is probably one of the most impressive displays of animation I've ever seen) but is pretty dang solid. Save for Saya's character, the look and feel of the show are much more loyal to the original than the action movie, but that's a pretty major shift that hurts the show too much for me to enjoy. I would say skip it (along with the live-action movie), watch the original anime movie, and know that you will never be completely fulfilled since its story is so short and everything that comes after only takes away from the original's glory.

    ***SPOILER ALERT***
    I skipped ahead to the last episode of season 1 to make sure she doesn't become the awesome character she was in the movie. She is annoyingly weak the entire time. Sad news.
    ***END SPOILER***

    ART: 8/10
    STORYTELLING & PLOT: 5/10
    CHARACTERS: 5/10
    OVERALL: 6/10

  • MOVIE REVIEW: Blood the Last Vampire (2009)

    GENRE: Japanese Supernatural Martial Art/Horror

    SUMMARY: In world where demon vampires are at war with the human race, Saya, daughter of a famous samurai demon hunter, searches a Vietnam-era Tokyo Air Force base for an underground army of vampires. Though she is half-demon herself, Saya seeks out revenge against the demon master Onigen, the one who took all her loved ones from her.

    REVIEW: As a remake of the 2000 anime (which was AMAZING) by the producer of "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" I thought this might be pretty cool. It was a let down. It lacks all of what made the original awesome. The computer animation they used nonstop wasn't good and stood out. The fight scenes where WAY crazy, but with no feeling or grace. They added an American main character (the base general's daughter) to work with Saya and she was boring, annoying, and way too randomly strong to stand next to a 400-year old vampire character. I was hoping it would finish the plot where the anime left off (it was a really short anime), but anything that was good in this movie was taken from the anime and all that was added was crap. The camera shots were too random. It wasn't a horrible movie, just a bad one. Not worth watching unless you're really bored.

    PLOT & WRITING: 3/10
    ACTING: 4/10
    DIRECTING & CINEMATOGRAPHY: 4/10
    FIGHT SCENES: 5/10 
    OVERALL: 4/10

  • INCOMPLETE SERIES REVIEW: Nabari No Ou (2008)

    12 Episodes watched out of 26

    GENRE: Japanese Action Anime

    SUMMARY: When young Miharu finds out about the secret shinobi world of Nabari, he's surprised, but when he discovers he's destined to rule it because of a secret power all shinobi covet, he has to decide what to do with it.

    REVIEW: Not good. This is one example of why I hate a lot of anime. It is so overly emo it's unbelievably annoying. It feels like it's written by a teenager. The whole thing is confused and full of angst. They make such a big deal about how apathetic the main character is when in reality he's just full of so much emotion and wants to be loved (gag). No one has an once of toughness. Another uncomfortable part is the weird sexual undertones. It's basically a clean made-for-tv cartoon, but they still manage to make it awkward. It seems like every character is completely unsure of their sexuality including whether or not they are attracted to people of their age group (i.e.-pedophilia undertones). Its nothing explicit but they keep having moments of sexual/love tension. The humor isn't funny either. They keep trying but, much like their characters, the writers lack the social awareness to make it funny. The art isn't that great either. Every character is WAY too skinny (like almost Jack Skelington skinny) and the backgrounds are kind of lighter and sketchy in a way that reminds me of Winnie the Pooh. Those are really my only two complaints about the look. It'd actually look pretty good if it didn't have those two issues. Overall, skip it and watch something that's good like Bebop, Champloo, Gurran Laggon, or Baccano. If you're in the mood for something creepier in the anime genre, check out Ghost Hound. Those are all pretty much my favorites in the field. 

    ART: 5/10
    STORYTELLING & PLOT: 5/10
    CHARACTERS: 3/10
    OVERALL: 4/10

  • MOVIE REVIEW: A Tale of Two Sisters (2003)

     

    *NOTE: Know that I love scary movies but I also get scared easily watching them (which is why I like them) so if you don't scare easily it this may not mean a thing to you

    GENRE: Korean J-Horror - Subtitled

    SUMMARY: Sisters Su-Yi and Su-Yeon return home to the the Korean countryside to live with their father and step mother only to find the house is inhabited by something more evil than even their step mother...

    REVIEW: As the highest grossing South Korean film of all time and the first to be screened in American theaters, I was expecting a lot and, for the most part, it did a good job delivering. It was a well done movie and scared the crap out of me, but it started out stronger than it finished. It was pretty well written but I think its strongest feature was the cinematography. I haven't watched a horror film where the camera shots were so frustrating and scary. For instance, they might use a zoom into a character's face where you start to feel your own personal space is being invaded or a shot that really confined your view down a hall when you just want to check it out (just let me see damn it!). I think that this kind of trick is really commonly used in horror films but I hadn't seen it used so well that I noticed before. 

    The setting was good too. They used the old Korean house well. That was one creepy location. I also think they picked up on what makes J-Horror great (creepy hair blocking shots of pale girls etc.) and utilized it really well without making it super over the top. Creepy gets me every time over slasher shocking (like most American films). I felt it had just the right touch of supernatural without running away with it. Acting was just good, but nothing to write home about. Still scared me even though it was light out when I watched it. I highly recommend watching it if you like horror like I do, but it isn't a life changer like I found The Ring to be (I was scarred for months!).

    PLOT & WRITING: 7/10
    ACTING: 6/10
    DIRECTING & CINEMATOGRAPHY: 8.5/10
    SCARE FACTOR: 8/10 (to give a gauge, "The Ring" and the unrated version of "The Exorcism of Emily Rose" were 10/10 for me personally)
    OVERALL: 8/10