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Gantz: O (2016)
Great introduction to Gantz
-SHORT REVIEW-
As an adaptation: incredible, 10/10. Couldn't have had something better for this particular arc of the manga.
As an overall movie: kinda "meh", 6/10. Not much of a substance; monster action and animation film enthusiasts will enjoy it more than the average public.
As for my personal enjoyment: a biased 8/10. I'm a fan of the source material and I like gory action and good animation. There were a couple cringey/cliché moments, but not enough to throw me off.
Therefore, 8/10 final score.
- LONG REVIEW - (no spoilers from the manga, I swear)
As a fan, I would have preferred one of the arcs involving Kurono, who was selfish enough to be a beliavable human but whose bravery and personal development make him a much more relatable and likable character, as opposed to goody-two shoes Kato. In fact, the friendship and contrast when these two are together is one of the high points of the main story. Other characters' motivations and feelings were also affected by the lack of Kurono in the movie. Even though I think they did a good job in portraying how they felt discouraged after losing their leader at the start, the audience had no real reason to care for the Tokyo gang. Nishi, old man Suzuki and Reika's character in the arc are useless, and only likeable and interesting thanks to the influence Kurono had in them, which has no place in the film. The lack of contrast also affected the monsters and Osaka guys. The movie audience can't know just how freaking badass a freaking 100pts alien is, considering our boys started from a measly Green alien onion. They also have no way of knowing how reckless, badass and advanced the Osaka team is, compared to our clumsy Tokyo guys, who we saw struggling during their way up, slowly adapting to the weapons and game strategy, and overcoming so many challenges and so much loss and grief. In my opinion, this is what makes the manga reader's movie experience 100% better.
Do not get fooled, though, the manga is not perfect. There are a couple cringey characters/lines and quite a lot of nonsense happening (specially in the late stages), but you somehow come to accept it as part of the comedy of the story; it grows on you. The women, though... they are equally useless in the manga, with only Tomb Raider girl in the start and (suprisingly enough) Reika, being the only women I remember having a little bit of brain to offer in addition to b00bs physics. So this is more of a source material problem than a movie problem, lol.
However, I must admit I spent most of the movie being impressed by the graphics. Watching the monsters, weapons and characters I've only seen in 2D (and well, in the not-that-bad but forgettable live action) come to life so faithfully after watching so many other failed manga adaptations, filled me with excitement and very possibly affected my judgement of this movie, so maybe take my opinion with a grain of salt.
Objectively speaking, though, I think it's not a flawless movie, but it's fair to say it deserves high praise for being an outstanding example of how to do a manga to movie adaptation right and raising the bar for the genre. It makes me glad that Oku Hiroya is able to make movied like this with his work, with him being such a big fan of Hollywood movies and all... If only many other great mangas received a treatment that complimented the source material so well like this one (yes, I'm looking at you, Berserk :<).
Itaewon Keullasseu (2020)
It's worth a watch, for a k-drama
I enjoyed this series quite a lot. I don't usually like k-dramas because the romance is extremely slow-burn and the drama is too over the top, like in telenovelas. What's different with this one is that the focus is not on the romance. It has a captivating story that will keep you wanting to see it through to the end.
Sadly, some characters are very annoying and the events get a little too ridiculous in some of the last episodes, which almost made me lose interest... but, trust me, it's worth watching till the end just because the main conflict's resolution is very satisfying. It will not disappoint.
As for the main cast, Park Sae Ro Yi comes off as strong and inspiring whenever he's in an important scene; the rest of the time, he could be replaced for a wooden plank and we wouldn't notice. Oh Soo Ah's motivations and feelings are confusing and Yi Seo can be really annoying at times. It looked like they tried to make us feel some empathy for Geun Won and I thought he would receive some character depth, but they completely ruin it in the end. All of my praise goes to Yoo Jae-Myung who made a great job as Jang Dae Hee, the main villain; ruthless and dignified but with clear motivations and foreseeable weaknesses. Without him, the series would have probably been a flop.
I dropped a couple points because of the problems mentioned above, but the series has just enough jaw-dropping moments to make up for it and make it watchable. Plus, the OST was the best part of it. Ha Hyun Woo's voice is amazing, and his theme "Diamond/Stone Block" along with Gaho's "Start Over" are definitely going into my playlist. Worth a watch even if you don't like K-drama.
Homunculus (2021)
Ok, you don't need to read the manga, but listen
I hate to be that person that says "the manga was better", but I swear I'm not a snob, just hear me out:
Do you wanna know why Ito had that aesthetic and those mannerisms? Want a better explanation why Nakoshi was called empty and lived between two worlds? Want a more reasonable story for the flat faced homunculus? And, more importantly, do you want a logical ending? The movie took these three characters from the manga and chose to give them different traumas, possibly to fit the media. Unfortunately, the creators decided to stick faithfully to the original story on the first half and then change everything in the last half. What we got were signs used early on with no explanation in the end, confusing converging plotlines and a main trauma that dragged on for too long. It wouldn't have been that much of a drag if they had changed details from the start to match the revelations in the second half, but I guess that was too much work.
As for the sound, nothing memorable, they could have benefited from adding music to many scenes left silent. The cinematography was alright, and I really enjoyed the CGI. The homunculi were beautifully made and I liked how they treated the yakuza's and the girl's backstories. Pretty good acting, that surprised me.
Not an awful movie, but a waste of a hauntingly interesting source material.
Call Me by Your Name (2017)
Kinda pretentious and boring
Elio (of 17), a young musician, starts exploring his sexuality and learning about love with his father's student, Oliver (visibly older), who's staying at Elio's family home in Italy for the season.
First of all, the good things. The score and soundtracks are beautiful, all of them either charming by themselves or fitting to the film's time and place. The overall acting feels natural and real, if you're part of an Italian family or have lived amongst them, you'll recognize the warm and homely vibes from their interactions. This feeling is also reinforced through the beautiful setting of the italian summer; the color palette and filters are all fitting too.
So, what is it lacking? The actual plot is dull. Some scenes shine through and might add some meaning, but half the film is just filling: characters going to places, staying at places, having daily life interactions with each other, with very little dialogue through it all. A lot of it could have been cut off and it wouldn't matter. But, most importantly, the relationship between the leads had no real chemistry between them; we do see Elio sneaking glances and touching Oliver's stuff, but when did Oliver even start being attracted to Elio? And what about the girls? Why do they keep making passes at them if they're not into it? The conversations are scarce and don't help clarify anything either- not until the very end, at least. I do realize a more poetic, intellectually romantic sort of public might find their relationship more appealing, though.
I'm pretty sure most of the really bad reviews (1 to 4 ratings) are because of the disappointment resulting from the high expectations its hype generated. Taking that aside, it's just a (seudo?)intellectual movie trying to display love and relationships in a natural setting, nothing much else happening. Nothing great, but nothing horrendous either.
Kimssi pyoryugi (2009)
Hope is found in the smallest of things
From wanting to end it all to wanting help out of there ... to never wanting to leave at all.
A story about two people isolated from the "real world" for different reasons, who find in each other an unexpected connection that might help them out of the solitude they willingly had chosen to live in. The focus is on Kim, the man on the island, so close yet so far of society, escaping his previous societal worries; in a metaphorical reference to female Kim's situation, living a fake life through the internet from the comfort of her room. He slowly comes to appreciate life in a different way thanks to those little rewards he's able to receive from his own effort and hard work.
The way it's narrated through the castway's interactions with the inhabited island (and later from Kim's pov), along with very funny scenes at times and a couple splashes of surrealism, make up one of those special films that will fill you with hope.
Death Note (2017)
Terrible adaptation AND terrible movie.
Let's say we don't know the source material and we watch this movie completely unaware of what it was inspired by. We'd notice the completely inappropriately matched music tracks, the main character's awkward reactions and actions that made it really hard to believe he is a "genius" as he is supposed to be and, along with many other details, the giant, obvious plot holes (like, L's nonsense first "deduction" and how much of the future not directly involving the death of the person can be controlled with the Note- final writing was ridiculous).
I'm even writing this as someone who has never read nor seen the source material so as to be as objective as possible, but there's just no saving it.
I feel bad that original Death Note's creators gave this a positive review; I didn't know they thought so poorly of their work.
The 3 is for personal enjoyment, it gave me some laughs.
Kimi no na wa. (2016)
Overrated
(NO SPOILERS IN THESE THREE PARAGRAPHS) The sweet love story(?) about a boy and a girl who wished to be someone else, and the wish did come true... but he has to save her first. Or something like that. The only problem is, they don't actually know each other, except by actually BEING each other in what they consider to be only episodic dreams-- I found this concept quite interesting.
The art and animation were amazing, a lot was said about this already, and the guy (Makoto Shinkai) is a master in this, so I'll skip most of it; but I specially digged the final landscape scenes with pastel- colored skies and the trippy transportation scene. Amazing.
Now for the plot.
Maybe I'm reading too much into this, and maybe this movie was purposely made without much care for the actual plot in order to emphasize the amazing animation and crazy sci-fi elements, but I'm gonna give my honest impression:
(-----SPOILERS AHEAD-----) I was very disappointed once I watched it and realized that all the hype for "best animated movie of all times" was actually very untrue plotwise. It's just a collection of clichés and typical anime-like shoujo (un)romance. Wait, there were also several big plot drivers, all of them unnecessarily mashed together and none of them fully explained: -Body-swap. -Memory loss. -Time travel. -Meteor destroying a whole city. I felt like it was too much to handle for a young love story, and all of that load created a bunch of plot holes and nonsense I couldn't just ignore, e.g.: -How did the characters not notice it was a different year? I don't know about other people, but I hardly ever spend a day without something reminding me what year I'm in. -"Oh, that huuuuuge incident of a freaking meteorite destroying a whole town and killing everyone in it? Yeah, we all in adjacent cities (or the rest of the country, for that matter) just completely forgot everything about it". -It's not like they could have just exchanged e-mail addresses sooner or anything, just to check if it really happened, right? Seriously, the whole thing would have been solved way sooner. -The father incident? How nice was it solved! He discovered the true value of her daughter and started to care more for her... I think... did he? - And for that respect... Not gonna lie, even if I were a super caring father, I wouldn't believe what this brat is blabbering, mainly because NOBODY ELSE ever noticed. Not even astronomists or w/e are the people in charge of noticing that kind of thing.
Then, the characters were pretty normal, anime protagonists. Nothing too annoying or too special about them; that was good, I guess. Typical support characters. I would have liked a bit more love development before he went on to save her, it would have made me care more for his heroic adventure.
All in all it wasn't an annoying film. It was a pretty film, it just wasn't a great one. Maybe for younger, more easily awed audiences, this could be the ultimate work of art, but I have seen this plot elements done individually tons of times and dozens of times better executed.
Pieta (2012)
It could have been a lot better
Kim Ki-duk is a very interesting director. He has produced thought- provoking films like "Bom yeoreum..." and "Time", more romantic ones like "Dream" and "Bin-Jip", and then there's these weird ones like "Bad Guy" and "Pieta". The intention of this film is pretty clear from the start, and its progression doesn't differ from what you'd expect from its director. What really put me off was the decision of tainting the purity of a mother-son relationship with the sexual desire shown between the two characters, starting from that disturbing rape scene. I've had my share of disturbing scenes, so the shock wasn't a problem. It's just that the whole "sexual frustration" theme seemed to me completely unnecessary for the purpose of the film, to the point I think it would have been a way better film without it. Additionally, it wasn't technically great either, with amateur-like transitions from time to time and a couple of awkward and rough zooms-in into close-ups that felt a little off. It might not be a "bad" film for many, but I can say it's clearly not one of the best from this director.
Kingsman: The Secret Service (2014)
Am I supposed to take it seriously or not?
I really don't know what the creators of this movie wanted the audience to think about it. It had an overall supposedly serious plot, but then you could find these random ridiculous moments during important parts of the story. They were really off-putting, not the kind of "funny" you usually find in a good action movie.
I'm not gonna complain about how violent and gory it was. I went to the movies to watch a cool action film and they sure did not fail to deliver. The fighting scenes were great, specially the infamous church scene, where you they got to try several different moves and their technical skills were on full display.
It wasn't going bad at all (there even was a cute pug pup, points for that). Unfortunately, I had to take at least 3 points out just for the final sequences. I had let the McDonald's incident and other few slip, but the princess's response and the heads exploding like fireworks. The latter was simply awkward and disappointing.
I'd call it entertaining but disappointing.
The Fall (2006)
Not only visually stunning
In a hospital, a little girl recovering from a broken arm finds a man who tells her a story that develops in more than just fantasy to kill some time.
I'm not gonna lie, I watched this for I was told it had amazing sceneries and sequences. And it does. I don't know how much of the budget was spent on filming at all those spectacular locations, but it sure was worth it. Anyways, that's what is usually praised about the film, so let's talk about other major positive aspects.
Very rarely can you get to see such touching and real main roles played by children under ten years old. Maybe Dakota Fanning in "I am Sam", or Jacob Tremblay on 2015's "Room", but I most certainly could count them with one hand. Her interaction with Lee Pace (Roy), whose performance shouldn't either to be overlooked, is adorable and convincing.
There are many sad moments, but it also didn't fail to make me laugh at times. You actually feel for the people in both the fantasy and the real worlds. I specially liked that you could notice how the characters and story changed when the little girl had her input on the storytelling, or when Roy had a different mental state.
The only reason I gave it a 9/10 was because some of the revelations (and aspects that it might be just me who failed to understand from the start)were a kind of disappointing. But it shouldn't keep you from enjoying the whole thing.
I would specially recommend this film if you have a thing for relationships between broken adults and the kids that fix them.
Django Unchained (2012)
Good Tarantinoesque Entertainment
I watched this movie knowing it was a movie by Quentin Tarantino, and what did I get? A Tarantino movie. I'm not his fan, nor do I despise any of his films in particular, but I've watched and heard enough to know what to expect from him. Thus, I didn't hope this one to be historically accurate, too logical or unexaggerated. That being said, what I got was: exciting, gory and even fun scenes, which managed to keep me awake past midnight during the almost 3 hours this film lasts. That alone is an achievement. Some of the actors were cast better than others(i.e.: Waltz>Foxx), but none of the performances were less than decent. The soundtrack was going really neat. However, I was truly disappointed by the rap/hip hop tracks. I'm all up for anachronisms and culture mixes when they fit the purpose, but these just didn't flow along with neither the scenes or the theme of the film itself. There were some weak points in the plot which turned me down a little bit (especially after the 2 hours mark), but the outcome, though predictable, makes up for it. All in all it is a very entertaining experience, all the more enjoyable when you are prepared on what you might get from this director... Also, I enjoyed his little cameo. I like how he adds fun where it seems unnecessary.