Roarkiller
1st August 2006, 09:26 AM
Managed to watch it finally. For those who don't know, it's based on the anime Saishuu Heiki Kanajo, or Saikano for short, also known as She, The Ultimate Weapon. And IMO is amongst the greatest anime in the past few years.
The movie, though, was a disaster.
It follows the general storyline of the anime, like Chise confessing for Shuuji, her being a weapon, the big war, and all that. Of course, some elements were changed, like Fuyumi and Tetsu being seniors from their school, no mention of Shuuji's previous crush on Fuyumi, the two actually keeping in contact, and especially the ending. >>Unlike the anime where Chise was fighting in vain in a world fated for armageddon, the ending in the movie ended up in a global truce, with one of the conditions being the destruction of Chise, i.e. no armageddon.<<
The plot and general story is fine. But the overall storyline itself is poor. The pacing is horrible. And the main actors were so stiff even a kid could do better. Put simply, it wasn't a story of Chise and Shuuji in a war-torn era. It was a story of Chise and Shuuji whining for two hours. Seriously. Battles hardly lasted longer than 20secs, while talks stretched out for like 5 mins plus.
But the acting was what really ticked me off. Right from the start, it was like watching people reading off scripts held up by a board backstage. It got better after halfway through the movie, but it was still bad nonetheless. The actors' own pacing in their speech was, most of the time, so slow I felt like I was listening to the listening test for JLPT4 (which, FYI, is the lowest level for JLPT). I don't think you even need to have a shred of Japanese knowledge to realize it. Seriously, I can't express in words how bad it was.
Anyway, it quite disappointing to see how badly made the movie is, so much so that it doesn't even deserve being associated with the original masterpiece. The only movie derived from a masterpiece anime I know of that could rival its horridness is Escaflowne (I have the movie, so I can comment), and even that wasn't so bad.
The movie, though, was a disaster.
It follows the general storyline of the anime, like Chise confessing for Shuuji, her being a weapon, the big war, and all that. Of course, some elements were changed, like Fuyumi and Tetsu being seniors from their school, no mention of Shuuji's previous crush on Fuyumi, the two actually keeping in contact, and especially the ending. >>Unlike the anime where Chise was fighting in vain in a world fated for armageddon, the ending in the movie ended up in a global truce, with one of the conditions being the destruction of Chise, i.e. no armageddon.<<
The plot and general story is fine. But the overall storyline itself is poor. The pacing is horrible. And the main actors were so stiff even a kid could do better. Put simply, it wasn't a story of Chise and Shuuji in a war-torn era. It was a story of Chise and Shuuji whining for two hours. Seriously. Battles hardly lasted longer than 20secs, while talks stretched out for like 5 mins plus.
But the acting was what really ticked me off. Right from the start, it was like watching people reading off scripts held up by a board backstage. It got better after halfway through the movie, but it was still bad nonetheless. The actors' own pacing in their speech was, most of the time, so slow I felt like I was listening to the listening test for JLPT4 (which, FYI, is the lowest level for JLPT). I don't think you even need to have a shred of Japanese knowledge to realize it. Seriously, I can't express in words how bad it was.
Anyway, it quite disappointing to see how badly made the movie is, so much so that it doesn't even deserve being associated with the original masterpiece. The only movie derived from a masterpiece anime I know of that could rival its horridness is Escaflowne (I have the movie, so I can comment), and even that wasn't so bad.