rastrelly Reviews

Crest of the Stars (1999)

A rare sci-fi gem

[10/10 · 20 August 2019]

I'll be brief on this one. While CotS might be lacking on animation and art quality, the series and its sequels provide a heartfelt and genuine protagonist duo, wonderfully crafted sci-fi setting, deep lore within the setting, nice and diverse set of themes to think about, and, to top all of that, the best space battles in science fiction period: thought out, complex, multi-layered engagements built around well-developed fantastic rule set, that is never broken, making space combat believable, immersive, meaningful and impactful.

An absolute must see for any sci-fi fan.

The Last Airbender (2010)

The first time I walked out of the cinema before finishing the movie

[2/10 · 6 May 2019]

I don't know what to say about this one. It is a brilliant mixture of terrible acting, brutal miscasts, script too busy telling the viewer what's happening several times in a row while being overly compressed, and some weak, WEAK characterisation.

The movie just feels unnatural on every level. Better go watch the original series.

Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)

The only MCU movie I liked

[7/10 · 30 April 2019]

Won't dig in too deep. I hate MCU and superhero movies. I never saw a genuinely good ones. Even the most popular ones I find to be a chore to sit through. This one made me happier, mostly because it is a space fantasy first, and superhero flick second.

Don't get me wrong, it's still an incredibly stupid story. But with the amounts of comedy put in, I can just watch it the same way I watch Spaceballs - to laugh and be entertained, plus add here good environmental designs and some imaginative locales.

So, yes, I liked it. Alas, that's all. It's still dumb.

Ready Player One (2018)

D for Disappointment

[6/10 · 30 April 2019]

Alas or luckily, I missed the opportunity to read the source material before watching the movie, but thanks to this movie I will never touch the book or anything related to this franchise if it becomes one. And all boils down to the ending. The ending which boldly, with broad stroak, crosses out everything, literally everything it was "teaching" the protagonist and the audience.

Yes, it is a long nostalgia trip with critical overdose of Easter eggs. It looks good, it is mostly well acted, it has a nice concept of virtual space, and it has some genuinely good emotional moments. But the ending kills this all. The ending is so brutally backwards, so patronising, so technophobic and fairy-tale-logic-filled, I can only sigh, and slap a mark of disappointment on the flick.

Alas, poor Yorick, but your princess is in another castle.

Ghost in the Shell 2.0 (2008)

Unnecessary and invasive

[5/10 · 30 April 2019]

There is not much to say. 2.0 is an unnecessary, invasive and generally destructive "remaster" which violates the tone, breaks the immersion and adds strange 3D scenes, attempting to unite the original with the sequel in style, all the while their stylistic differences were so important to highlight the advancement of the story.

Avoid this and watch the original 1995 Ghost in the Shell.

Alita: Battle Angel (2019)

Too good to be true

[9/10 · 30 April 2019]

I'll make it short. You have a cyberpunk story, which, for a change, actually *is* a cyberpunk story, that has a logical, coherent and complete story arc of an actual character progression within an actual working society. This already is a major breakthrough for hollywood blockbuster storytelling. Of course, the movie owes a lot to its source material, which it recreates quite faithfully (changing *significant* background bits, though).

If you ask me, what movie is the closest to "Alita Battle Angel", I won't say "Ghost in the Shell" or "Blade Runner" - it would be an incorrect comparison. I would say it's "Amelie". Yes, *that* Amelie. This movie is a character study first and foremost, and action or sci-fi story second. Each and every part of this movie works if you look at it at this angle. Love story is clunky - yes, and it *has* to be clunky. But it's true to how this stuff actually works. Alita has multi-layered personality - and what some critics call "incoherence", I cannot see - yes, she is a sweet and childlike person. But she is a fighter, she is extremely emotional, she does believe in people and hopes to move them by touching what she thinks is good in them. And yet - she also *is* a killing machine (not literally a machine, she's human, a surprisingly common misconception about Alita is that she's a robot or AI) who *loves* battle, who *enjoys* violence, and the only thing that stops her from joining the likes of Grewishka and his goons is her empathy and natural morality.

This is great story, set in great setting, and told with great passion and attention, yet it is demanding same from the viewer. This is not a movie you can chew popcorn and laugh at "witty" quips; the storyline is complex *for a modern movie* (it's actually rather simple to anyone who read at least one proper novel in their life) and requires attentiveness and will to actually analyse what is happening.

Yet, there are certain issues, some significant. Keean Johnson's (Hugo) acting is terrible at times. Some scenery looks far too clean and nice for its own good. And certain social layers - like bums, drug addicts, petty criminals, mutants, all the gross underbelly of deeply "third world" environment - are missing from the frame, removing some weight out of the frame, making it look better than it should, and muffling motivations of certain characters, which can be really damaging for experience for certain viewers. Probably PG-13 rating is to blame for this.

My personal rating is 910. I loved the movie and was easily able to overlook its issues. For some they might be more of a distraction, but this is my personal rating, not a purely objective assessment, which, probably, cannot be expressed numerically for art discussion anyway.