Tag Archives: Anime Movie

My Hero Academia: You’re Next Review

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It’s time for the next movie in the My Hero series. As the main series edges closer to the end of its run, the movies have to deal with the stronger incarnations of each hero. Will they be able to bring in more quirk fighters to handle the strongest fighters in the verse? Well they do bring in some strong fighters but you do have to suspend a little more disbelief than the last times that these guy can actually hold their own. It’s a great movie with lots of action as you’d expect though.

The movie starts with the heroes taking down some more villains as usual but then they bump into a girl who is being held hostage by a guy who is acting like he’s the new All Might. He calls himself Dark Might and wants to be a new symbol of peace…using fear. His villain organization intends to dominate this world so Deku has to stop them and save the girl. The rest of the heroes are ready to help along with the addition of the mysterious Giulio but is this guy really an ally they can depend on or is he just another criminal to mop up?

Since the power levels are a fairly big thing here lets get into them first. The villains all have rather intense quirks that seem to have no real drawback. You could argue that they basically break the balance of the verse. All Might’s successor, Stars and Stripes, All for One, and One for All are basically the 3 strongest quirks in the verse. Nothing is really on their level as the latter two were built over whole generations while Stars and Stripes is just super busted for no reason. Shigaraki’s decay quirk is also super good but he does have to grab you. The powers these guys have just don’t seem to have any limitations.

For example one girl can look at you and send you into a dream world where you are completely helpless. She could then stab or shoot you and it would be all over. Even Deku with all the other spirits residing within him was unable to break out so it was up to Giulio to do his thing. The idea that his robotic parts can activate on their own and do something was pretty handy but you can see how this power is fairly broken. She would be able to dominate most fighters with ease in any setting.

Then you have the guy who can effectively stop time. He makes a wide area around him slow down to the point of being negligible. Deku had to really go at full power to even stand a chance and the guy being shocked was the only reason it started to work. Seems like it doesn’t drain much stamina with how long the guy can keep this up and of course he can move at normal speeds so he can easily murder you while the time slow is active.

We also have a teleporter who can teleport instantaneously everywhere that he can see. It’s also fairly busted but normal in the sense that every verse has some kind of a teleporter running around. His partner with the telekinesis was probably the most normal one. There is a guy who sets up an RPG land but I was a little unclear on if his power was summoning/reality warping or if that was incidental because the monsters kept getting generated even once he was gone. The sheer infinite numbers of them was intense though.

There is also a guy who can erase quirks like Eraser but it’s a bit different. He shuts off powers over a wide range and then keeps them on if you are next to him. Great in team competitions especially with how wide the range is. It’s impressively deep so it would be really hard for this guy to lose so long as his partners are at least halfway decent. If they let up at all then he is a sitting duck though so it’s good that he’s part of a team.

So these guys are all very powerful with their hax abilities but what about Dark Might? Well, he uses energy coins of sorts which he can use to form energy objects. He can make punches, barriers, etc. It’s a very versatile weapon but he does have to be throwing them around. He has no super strength or speed of his own. The film never quite convinces you why Deku can’t just speedblitz the life out of this guy and end things in a moment. I would say he feels like a downgrade compared to the villains from the previous films.

I was also surprised we didn’t get more of a battle of ideologies with him and Deku. It quickly becomes apparent that this won’t be a thing that happens when Dark Might quickly turned into a generic villain who just wants to conquer the world though. I was surprised they didn’t go for some kind of a justice parallel. At least make Dark Might think that he is the hero of justice before Deku exposes his flaws or something. Instead he’s basically just pure evil the whole time. So I like the concept of the character but thought the execution was off.

Regardless the fight scenes were excellent though. It’s always great to see the big 3 teaming up and in general Deku always provides the best fight scenes with his speed. The fire and ice effects were also solid from his helpers and you can tell that the movie got a really solid budget. They were not holding anything back here which is as it should be. The soundtrack is solid as always too so you definitely had no worries on the technical aspects.

The side characters all get some moments here including the pro heroes. It’s always nice to see them show up and use their signature attacks even just for the acknowledgement that they are around. Always better to have a cameo than to just not appear. Now should they have done a little better in stopping the ship? Probably, but at the same time I do think Deku has long since surpassed all of the pros here so if he was having a hard time then we can buy it a bit more for these guys.

Giulio is the main OC for this film and he’s not bad. I think he gives up a little too quickly though in terms of jumping right to trying to murder the girl. He definitely needed to think of other options. Why not call in the pro heroes? In some cases that’s not always easy but this seemed like one without any real downsides. Surely they would be able to help out a little bit. The guy has a solid character arc and I like his gruff personality but it was still hard to look past the murder attempts. It’s kind of a big deal when you think about it. The heroine here is okay but doesn’t really get much to do. She’s being mind controlled for 99% of the movie and every time she snaps out of it she is kidnapped and mind controlled again. Quite the cycle when you think about it. So not really her fault, but she didn’t have a chance to shine.

When you pop in a movie like this you’re mainly looking forward to the big fight scenes and the film definitely delivers. While there is some down time between fights, it never goes on for too long or anything like that. So you can really sit back and enjoy the fireworks. Power levels are things you contemplate during the movie but they don’t end up hurting a film. I’m just glad that we got the action and that the villains had fairly inventive quirks. You could make a case that they would wash the League of Villains if they fought but it would be interesting to see how all of the hax go up against each other.

Overall, My Hero Academia churns out a lot of consistently great movies and this one is definitely no exception. The action really doesn’t let up and you get to enjoy seeing Deku and friend fight off against the most powerful villains out there. I’ll definitely be eager to see what film comes out next. Hopefully some kind of a crossover with the Vigilantes cast because that would have a ton of potential. If it takes place completely after the main series it would be a good way to expand the world development. In the meantime, definitely check this one out.

Overall 8/10

NiNoKuni Review

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It’s time to check out one of the movies based on a Level 5 title. It’s always fun to see one of their titles get the big screen treatment. Naturally you can’t ever squeeze a whole RPG into a single movie without losing critical details but it’s still fun to see the attempt. Although in this case they went with an original story so in a way you get to see a pocket size version. It works pretty well even if the film does have some logic issues as it goes on. There is still plenty of action and fun to be had here.

The film start off by introducing us to Haru, Yu, and Kotona. The three of them are good friends and the jaded part of you thinks a love triangle is being primed right away but look, sometimes the characters are all just friends and it works. I clung to that but my hopes were dashed when it turns out that Yu is in love with Kotona despite her being together with Haru already. Yu tries to cope with this as best he can and he already has it tough since his legs don’t work. One day, Kotona is attacked by a mysterious being from another dimension and she gets stabbed. Making matters worse is that Haru panics and the three of them get run over by a truck. Fortunately this was the Isekai truck and Haru/Yu wake up in a whole new world. In this world there is a lady named Princess Astrid who looks just like Kotona and she is plagued by a mysterious curse. Perhaps saving her will help Kotona out?

Okay so this is a pretty nice set up. They actually save the princess from the curse rather easily. A bit too easily to be honest, I know Yu is basically the chosen one here but I wasn’t sure about why he was able to just grab the sword like that. We get some twists near the end but I wouldn’t say they fully answer this. Yu is a solid character throughout though and easily the best one in the film. He knows to hold himself back in the real world and would never let Kotona know what he’s thinking. He fights against his best friend Haru in order to save lives and always makes the right calls.

He does sometimes know a bit too much though like when he decided to jump into the flames because attempting to destroy yourself is one way to travel across worlds. There’s no real way he could have known that and it’s way too risky to try and attempt on purpose. Realistically with most Isekai rules that would not have worked and he would have died. There’s a TV trope for this, I forget the name but basically it’s when an objectively wrong decision has a positive outcome and everyone in context just takes it in stride. There are constant moments like this where characters make massive leaps in logic and jut so happen to be correct.

Another big one is Haru at the end when he somehow figures out the final twist. There’s no way he should have figured that out. In fact, your first guess would be many other theories. We know it’s right just from how the narrative is presented but otherwise I would usually assume that he was completely off base. After all, there were no time/reality issues the way there should have been with how long this twist was in play. So I still have some doubts on the logic and that’s after seeing everything from a cosmic viewer point of view.

Then on the flip side, you have characters making the worst possible assumptions that make no sense. So midway through the film, Kotona gets sick again and so Haru jumps to the conclusion that obviously it’s because the heroes saved Astrid. One massive problem with this though, Astrid and Kotona had both been about to die before. Kotona only lived because they saved Astrid. So the natural conclusion here is that their lives are connected. If Astrid is alive then Kotona is alive and if one dies then the other will die. Somehow Haru twisted this to be the opposite, that only one could be alive. That makes no sense if you stop to think about how any of this works. They already know there are multiple duplicates.

I think the problem here is that this is the main reason why Haru and Yu end up having to fight and it seems forced. Even Haru saying that the world doesn’t matter or that it’s a dream doesn’t really make any sense. That’s just massive amounts of cope from Haru the whole time. I also felt like he just wasn’t a true friend with how quick he was to turn against Yu in the opening scene. There are different moments in the film where he seems jealous of Yu as well. I think this would have been expanded way more in a video game but for the movie there just wasn’t a whole lot of time. Ultimately I would say I just didn’t like Haru here. He gets better by the end but just wasn’t as heroic as you would expect.

While Yu is more likable, I do think he should have lost the fight though. Haru’s armor is said to multiply his strength multiple times over while Yu didn’t seem to be all that strong. Yu was having trouble against grunts while Haru was tossing them through walls. You’d think that difference in power would appear during the battles as well. Ultimately I suppose it was just a skill issue and Yu was the better fighter.

The main villain doesn’t have a whole lot going for him but he’s not bad. I appreciate that we got a good fight with him at the end. The fact that he was taking on all of the heroes at once was impressive. They even had a good formation at one point with Astrid firing projectiles from the back while Haru distracted him up front. The guy was just too strong. The movie has several climaxes and the final fight lasts for a good while so it definitely knew how to end on a solid note.

I also thought the heroines were solid. While Kotona doesn’t get quite as much to do, she seems like a nice person by all accounts and is considerate to Yu. Astrid can actually fight which is great. She’s probably a little too quick to try and throw her life away though like when she tried to convince Yu to murder her. Astrid needed to think this through for a moment and how her kingdom would quickly be branding Yu as a traitor for life. Additionally it’s not like that would help Kotona and the fact that anybody thought that for an instant is still crazy.

There is a little plot armor with how the heroes had to escape from the monster in the human world though. It’s way stronger and faster but sometimes gets hurt by normal objects. I don’t think its power level was very well defined here. Also, couldn’t Haru just jump into that guy’s sword to trigger the teleportation? It seems like he and Yu are functionally immortal due to that system. Although I still wonder exactly how that works. The first time it directly rewrote reality with Kotona never being hit by the car or stabbed, she even lost her memory but a day passed. Then the next time, more time passed but this time the events actually happened. The way time rewrites didn’t seem very consistent.

The animation was reasonably good here. It’s nothing that could compete with the average weekly anime of course but for a movie it’s not bad. I was glad we at least got some quick moving fight scenes and the glowing sword was good. The soundtrack is also decent. It was nostalgic hearing some of the classic tunes from the video games that I’ve played. That always makes for a good time all around.

Overall, This was a pretty good film. I did have a large number of issues with the writing as a whole as some plotlines just didn’t feel very well thought out, nor do the characters. At the end of the day though, it does still hold your interest the whole time which is the important thing. Additionally, the ending is solid in some ways (Mainly Yu’s part) but a bit less satisfying in others. (Never a big fan of amnesia) This is a film I could recommend to anyone as a fun adventure film though and due to how the rules work/don’t work it gives you a lot to think about. It’s the kind of film that leaves a whole lot to be discussed.

Overall 7/10

Boruto: Naruto the Movie Update

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I now own the movie on Blu Ray! It definitely holds up really well with all of the hype action. We get to see the start to Boruto’s journey as the #1 ninja as well. Definitely a must watch for any Naruto fan or even anyone who just likes a good action story. You can’t miss out on this!

Pokemon the Movie: Secrets of the Jungle Review

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It’s time to look at the final Pokemon movie. There have sure been a lot of them over the years and ultimately it’s been a fun series but I can see why this one didn’t hit it big. It’s not the worst Pokemon movie in the series to be sure but I feel like it’s definitely bottom 5 and I think there’s a chance it could even be bottom 3. It’s really got quite a few issues and I think it’s the final nail in the coffin for this movie AU trilogy. We need to tie these movies back into the anime again like the old days and then I think we’d really be in business.

The film starts by introducing us to the Zarude clan who rule the jungle with an iron fist. They bully all of the smaller Pokemon and show everyone just how mighty they are. They’re very proud of their physical strength. One day one of them finds a kid and decides to raise him even though it means being kicked out of the clan. This kid is named Koko and he grows up believing that he is actually a Pokemon. One day he bumps into Ash Ketchum, a Pokemon trainer from Pallet Town and the young hero shows Koko what humans are all about. Now Koko can finally get along with everyone but unfortunately there is a scientist who wants to get to the legendary Zarude tree of healing. Are his intentions noble or corrupt?

I mean it’s a scientist in a Pokemon movie so you can probably guess how that’s going to go. I guess you could say this movie is taking a lot of cues from the Tarzan movie but that’s not a super good idea in this case. The forest never tends to make for a great backdrop to the adventure because you just end up missing civilization and all of the witty banter. You’re not going to get that over in the jungle and unfortunately the movie sidelines Ash for a great part of the adventure as well. These are all very bad ideas and I just have to say that upfront.

I have several issues with the film and one of the biggest is that there’s not a lot of action here. There aren’t any traditional Pokemon battles and while we get a quick 5 second skirmish from time to time, this film is really not about the action. Instead it opts to bring in a giant robot at the end so everyone can keep on throwing their attacks at it. Really not a great way to handle the climax because that takes a lot of fun out of the whole thing. The robot is slow so it’s just tanking all of the hits and eventually landing its own counter strike. That’s not really a fight, that’s just everyone throwing attacks out. It’s extremely underwhelming as the ending.

The scientist was also a very weak villain. The fact that everyone was openly obeying him and destroying the forest was crazy. That only works if all of the characters were evil but the assistants play it off like they didn’t know any better later on. That’s an extremely weak excuse if you ask me. When you’re destroying trees and such, there is no real way to frame that as doing the right thing. Cmon now you just can’t try and pull that. It doesn’t work and the only kudos he gets is for actually bumping off the obstacles in his way. It’s rare for a Pokemon villain to be quite so driven so that was impressive but also a bad look for the two who got taken down. Why don’t they have any Pokemon to defend them or something?

In a world like this you absolutely need that kind of protection. Meanwhile Koko is an okay character. He means well and all but doesn’t have a ton of personality. He’s just a nice kid and he doesn’t really understand human language so he does the bet that he can. There’s not a whole lot to say about him and he definitely doesn’t appear to have the makings of being the next lead quite yet. If you just went by this film you could probably say the same about Ash too though which is why its good that he has so many films already. He just doesn’t look great here and should be fighting at a much higher level at this point.

The soundtrack is a mixed bag. The song for the Zarude is probably one of the worst songs in the whole Pokemon franchise. That one’s super weak and really doesn’t work but I did like the emotional theme that plays after the opening track. That one was nice to hear at least so I guess the soundtrack is a 50/50. The animation is good too. It doesn’t feel like it’s really at that theatrical level like the older films but is still smooth enough. The colors are on point and the fights probably would have looked great if we had gotten more of them. It’s still annoying how these Pokemon had a tough time breaking some armor.

The film has enough of a runtime to have done some fun things with the story which is why it’s a shame that nothing really happened. It feels like the film ends up dragging a bit because there isn’t much of a central focus. No villains to stop or collectibles to find for 90% of the movie. That means you just have Ash and Koko hanging out but with no stakes or any real plot. Of course you can tell where the plot is going since the scientist isn’t subtle but you spend too much time waiting. At least Team Rocket shows up and gets to contribute here.

Okay so this is sounding like a 4 star movie so why is it positive? Well all of these things are particularly negative because you instinctively compare them to the other Pokemon titles. While the film may not be all that exciting, at least it does have a little action. It gets enough of the fundamentals right where you can still say you had a fun enough time here. Additionally it doesn’t make any significant mistakes that would drop it down a few stars. So it survives on playing it safe and works well enough on the first watch but is why it won’t have much replay value.

Overall, Pokemon is still a good movie when you look at it in a vacuum. It just doesn’t live up to the solid reputation of the other Pokemon movies. It loses the head to head to almost every other film in the franchise which is really bad because there are so many of them. There’s very little replay value to be had here and so the Pokemon movies really need to take a step back and really look at what worked back in the day. Lets give Ash some more fight scenes, get a cool final boss in there, and even add a little danger. I want to see something like the Destiny Deoxys film where the heroes had to fight in the battle tower. Those fights are the reason why we watch Pokemon!

Overall 6/10

Suzume Review

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It’s time for the next big anime film. This one was definitely getting quite a lot of buzz when it was coming out. Ultimately it is a pretty solid title through and through. It feels like it’s missing something compared to some of the other really big anime films but ultimately there’s a lot of heart and emotional moments here so it works well enough. We even get a quick action scene which is always appreciated.

The story starts by introducing us to Suzume who is your average teen wandering through the mysteries of life. One day she passes by a random dude asking if she’s seen any old ruins. She tells him about an abandoned town and continues on her day but gets curious and heads back. She ends up opening a mysterious door that seems to lead to space but when she goes through it, nothing happens. So Suzume heads back to school but now she can see things that nobody else can. Smoke, giant worm monsters, etc. She needs answers and heads back but it turns out the door she opened has caused a weakening in the rift between dimensions and the worms are going to end the world. She has to find a way to close all of the doors and recover the keystone quickly but this will be difficult as the expert on this (The stranger known as Souta) gets cursed into being a children’s chair by a mysterious cat who may have sinister intentions. Can Suzume handle all of this?

Now that plot may sound like we’re about to embark on a Shonen Jump adventure of the utmost hype but this is still more of an adventure story. See, Suzume has to get around the control to plug up all the door as they show up but she’s a teenager without a ton of money so she has to rely on the kindness of strangers. She meets many different people who are all very helpful. You have a lady who sells apples, a lady who dances, and even Souta’s old friend who wants some money that is owed to him.

Suzume gets to see how everyone has their own issues and happy moments and it’s a way for her to come to terms with her troubled past. Yes, she has a backstory involving lots of destruction and losing her mother at a young age which definitely plays a role in this movie. See, her aunt (Tamaki) has had to take care of Suzume for all of these years and Suzume worries that this has held Tamaki back quite a bit. Now Suzume has a true purpose and so she can turn her whole life around.

The writing is solid here and the movie may be long but it makes the most of every minute. There’s just a lot happening here and so you’re able to learn a lot about all of the characters and enjoy the experiences. It’s always nice to see a bunch of people just helping out without any of them turning out to be evil or some jaded stuff like that. This is a happy story first and foremost. I would even argue that despite Suzume’s backstory the film is happy for around 90% of its runtime. I’d categorize it as a feelgood film personally.

One of the main themes is really about asking for help when you need it and that people have your back. It’s a good message and Suzume always pays the kindness forward to the next person. So with everyone helping each other out all of the time that is really a recipe for success. It also means that the film isn’t really likely to make many mistakes as upbeat films are supposed to be fun so you’re not going to run into any terrible characters or anything like that.

Now that’s not to say the film is perfect as none are but also I did mention this was missing something. To me what it is really missing here is that the main character’s arc feels a bit incomplete/didn’t resolve the way I’d expect it to. A lot of the film, in fact just about all of it is her fault. She opens the door and removes the seal which causes all of this to go wrong. Then she basically runs away from home to help Souta on his quest but does this without telling Tamaki at first and then doubling down during every interaction.

When Tamaki gets upset she is 100% justified because it’s a huge deal. Having your daughter (Because that’s basically her role in this dynamic) vanish suddenly like this and then be travelling across the place with a man that they don’t even know is completely suspect. Yet I feel Suzume takes absolutely 0 responsibility for this. She acts very defensively throughout the movie and rejects all of Tamaki’s attempts to help her. Ultimately Tamaki decides to be the bigger person and really just makes this work but I really think the film could have benefited from Suzume making a real apology near the end.

Not a “We both made mistakes” kind of moment or anything like that but just a really nice thank you at the end considering everything Tamaki did. Tamaki really put her job on the line in leaving for so long to help Suzume and has given up a whole lot to help her. Even though Tamaki was being mind controlled at one point when she finally blows up at Suzume and she wouldn’t have ever said those things otherwise, it was mostly correct. Of course her romantic endeavors would be weakened quite a bit due to her role of watching over Suzume and she lost a ton of freedom as a result as well. It’s not something that Tamaki regrets but I’d say it underscores just how hard she’s worked to give Suzume a really good life and it felt like the main heroine was not very grateful at all.

Suzume’s still a good character, I just felt like she did not really see the whole picture and could come across as selfish at times. Likewise I wasn’t a big fan of Souta for the same reason. He’s one of the most ungrateful characters you can think of. He constantly tells Suzume to stand back so he could handle the situation only for him to fumble it. Then after a whole journey risking life and limb he barely has time to say thanks before heading off as if this was just another day at the office.

Now the good part about this is that means there isn’t really much time for romance here. That’s good because I would not say this would have been a quality romance either way. It wasn’t developed enough and just didn’t make sense. Same with Tamaki and that random co-worker who feels completely stuck in the friend zone to me. He just needs to tell her how he feels straight up because otherwise all this beating around the bush is not going to work.

Tamaki and Serizawa have a great fight for being the best character in the film. Tamaki is super responsible and always doing the right thing as I mentioned before. So it’s always great to see her doing what she can here. Meanwhile Serizawa is just a really good friend doing his best to help out. He’s completely out of his depth in terms of what’s going on but still sticks around to make sure that Souta is okay and that nothing happens to the two ladies. He really does his best to break the tension all the time too even if he is largely unsuccessful. He’s just trying to have a good time which isn’t always easy.

The soundtrack is okay but not too remarkable. I’d say Your Name and Belle are much more memorable although Belle should perhaps not count since having a lot of songs is actually part of the plot. The animation is pretty good. As always I feel like these big movies don’t look quite as sharp as the average anime since it’s trying to be more mainstream and not have the colors be as sharp but they do go all out for the scenes of the heroes closing the doors. Then the animators are really able to cut loose. So in general this looks pretty smooth.

I didn’t talk about the supernatural stuff here much but that’s mainly because I’d argue it’s not super important to the plot. The actual story of closing the doors and all that is really just the excuse to have Suzume travel the country and meet a lot of people. I’d argue the story itself is sort of the McGuffin in this case as it doesn’t really matter. We do get some nice visuals and a quick fight from it but that’s why even the film doesn’t seem to care as much about it. The cats are intentionally vague and unhelpful for basically the entirety of the movie because if they actually were straight forward then the movie would have been over really quickly. I did like the quick time travel conversation paradox we got near the end though. That was a really good use of the doorways. And of course the climax was pretty good so while the film’s more about the human interactions, the actual story did lead to some good stuff.

Overall, Suzume is a pretty solid film. I’d say it has a good amount of replay value and it’s the kind of movie that does leave you feeling good afterwards. It’s just a complete title with a lot going on and while it may not be the kind of movie that leaves you with a lot to discuss afterwards, your experience will be a good one. Now we just have to wait a bit until the next big anime film comes out so we can see how that one stacks up.

Overall 7/10

Godzilla: Planet of the Monsters Review

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After all these years it is time for the hype to be realized. Godzilla is an anime film that seemed to be announced 100 years before it came out. It took so long that you would be forgiven for forgetting it completely. Still, it is here at last so it’s time to compare it to the rest. Was Godzilla’s first anime adventure a success? Well, yes in the sense that it is a good film but not really a success for Godzilla as it doesn’t rank too highly in the franchise. There are some issues here which hold it back.

The film starts off with a rebel trying to stop the army from sending a rocket filled with a bunch of old people that are being purged. The airship everyone lives in simply can’t support this many people so some of them need to die. Unfortunately the rebel hesitated because he realized better than anyone that living on a spaceship can be even worse than death. He lets the old people destroy themselves and is arrested. We get a flashback where we see Godzilla and a lot of the classic Kaiju opponents as they decimate the Earth and humanity was forced to retreat off world along with some aliens who were going to conquer Earth but also couldn’t stop Godzilla. Humanity has been looking for an inhabitable planet for around 20 years but nothing would show up so now they are forced to give Earth one more try. Thanks to the ship being slower than molasses they will have to use a teleportation route which will cause 20000 years to pass on Earth.

By the way, 20000 isn’t the number they use at first. It’s actually a plot twist as first it’s 1000 years, then 10000, then 20000. I’m honestly not sure why this even qualifies as a twist and why the film didn’t just say 20000 right off the bat but we’ll roll with it. Unfortunately for the humans, it appears that Godzilla still lives and while he destroyed all of the other Kaiju, there are Winged Godzilla spinoffs flying around. Can humanity retake their planet or are they doomed to be destroyed for their arrogance in thinking they could beat Godzilla?

There are some aspects of a film that you always want to be on point to complement the writing of the movie. Those two aspects are the animation and the soundtrack. Both are absolutely crucial. For the music, this film is actually pretty good. It’s probably in my top 3 Godzilla soundtracks as I can only think of it losing out to Final Wars and maybe Godzilla vs Mecha Godzilla. It has some nice, fast anime music thrown in there during one of the flying scenes which was pretty cool. That’s basically the stand out music but a lot of it just works pretty well. The true Godzilla theme is also reasonably solid although probably his weakest theme.

No, what really hurts the film is the terrible animation. I’m not going to mince words here, the animation is embarrassing. Anime that came out 30 years ago look better. TV shows and online productions with no budget look better than this. This is something that you would expect from an indie film that tries to look really bad on purpose just to defy the mainstream. It’s like watching a Fire Emblem cutscene and stretching it to a whole movie. In a video game you don’t expect the cutscenes to look amazing because you want the bulk of the development time to be spent on the gameplay. If you can do both that’s fine, but the game is the priority. For a movie I am certainly expecting you to put the animation as the priority. Writing doesn’t cost anything so I’m not counting that and while good voice actors are important, they need to be able to work with something. You can almost feel the pain of the animators whenever Godzilla tries to move. You hear his skin cracking as if he is a very fragile Godzilla statue who would break with a single punch. The character model is barely even animated at times and just sits there. The animation can’t even convey Godzilla moving so he just sits there and randomly speeds up off screen so he can get where he is supposed to be. I don’t know where the budget went but it clearly wasn’t with the animation. Godzilla’s energy attacks looked good and in general the energy effects were on point, that’s the only good thing I can say about the animation.

The film is very heavy on dialogue but that does seem to be the norm for many Godzilla films. It’s like the writers think that the people who came to see the film about a giant monster don’t actually want to be watching a film about a giant monster. So the main focus is once again on the humans. It’s definitely not the most interesting cast of characters so prepare to roll your eyes at these guys.
The main character is good at least. He wants to bring back human pride since he feels like Godzilla took it away when he blew up Earth and we ran away. He’s not really wrong on that, but of course pride isn’t everything. Sakaki is productive with his time and comes up with a plan so it’s not as if he’s recklessly going into action without one. I think the plan is terrible but I’ll get into that later. Sakaki acts like a captain and overall he does an admirable job of leading the assault. The voice actor does a good job and Sakaki basically spits out every line. He ends every sentence with a violent intensity.

The Religious Alien, Metphies definitely seems like an intriguing character. He talks a good game and always tries to be one step ahead of the heroes but he isn’t quite as cool as he tries to be. If the whole film was just part of the plan for him then that’s pretty cool. I guess even if it isn’t nefarious and Metphies is just being misleadingly cryptic he still does a good job with the council. He has more personality than the other guy who wanted to build a Mecha Godzilla but the plans fell through midway. I’m sure he will do more in the next film but his character was basically just his personality of being a tough guy. He didn’t do anything beyond that.

Now let’s talk Godzilla. This is easily his worst design but that’s probably the animation’s fault. Maybe it looks better in the concept art. This Godzilla also isn’t very smart since the whole plan that the heroes have is getting Godzilla to walk through the path they’ve set up so they can bury him with rocks long enough to blast him. This Godzilla doesn’t have Omni directional lasers to nullify this tactic and he is also too weak to escape the rocks. Am I really supposed to believe that Godzilla was pinned by mere rocks? I can’t buy into that and Godzilla should have been up right away. Then the humans grabbing onto him should have been knocked away when he rose up. Godzilla having a weak point is pretty random and also takes away quite a lot from Godzilla since apparently without the force field his durability is actually pretty bad. I’m glad they kept in then Atomic Breath and having a force field is cool, but even without all of that this is the King of the Monsters right? (hmmm) There are some twists so I can’t be too specific but we can forgive some of the issues here. Not entirely since the monster should have destroyed the humans and shut down the plan, but it isn’t as bad as it could have been. That’s really my main point here. At the end of the film we get a brief glimpse at what should have been happening the whole time. This is why I think the next film has a good chance at being a lot better. If I just saw this film, I can’t say I would be too impressed with Godzilla to be honest.

Even less so with the Rodan ripoffs. They aren’t bullet proof? Really? I just don’t know about that to be honest, seems like a mistake if you ask me. It takes away from them being a threat and it also means that if they give Godzilla any kind of a fight then it weakens the King of the Kaiju as well. It’s a lose-lose situation here. Hopefully the other Kaiju we meet up with are a lot stronger. In theory there should be a bunch of beasts wandering the planet since Earth is pretty huge. I’m guessing their scanners haven’t quite picked up on everything just yet.

The film goes by pretty quick but the length isn’t very long to start with. One thing I have to note is that this movie probably wouldn’t be great for rewatching. Sure, the planning is fun and all the first time, but the second time you’ll just want the film to get on with it. It’s something that’s fairly unavoidable depending how you set up a film. Slow burners will rarely be as good as the initial time you watch it while action blockbusters can be timeless if there is always something happening. So, this film would probably lose a star the next time you watch it and probably settle at that score, if not one lower. I personally can’t picture myself rewatching this one anytime soon. For that I could take a look at one of the older Godzilla films and give it a retro review.

While not a flattering way to secure a high score, Godzilla manages not to make any real mistakes. We don’t have to deal with animal violence, excessive language, random violence, or any slew of negatives that can pop up in a film. My complaints that I listed above are ones that are worth noting but don’t really affect the score much. Combined those issues may just take it down 1 star. It does depend on how you look at it, but basically a film that doesn’t make any real mistakes can get a 7. A 7 means that you’re a fun/good movie. To get higher than that, you have to actually do something really great. To get lower than a 7, you have to make a mistake. A 7 is essentially the starting point for all films. As the credits are rolling it starts out at a 7 and then moves up or down based on what it does. This film doesn’t really do anything and so it manages to stay there. That’s not really a bad thing, it’s just how it is. I can at least watch the full Godzilla film without rolling my eyes or cringing at a poorly made scene. Well, some scenes are poorly made, but at least not in bad taste. I was reasonably interested the whole time. Perhaps not excited, but I was following the story.

Overall, If you’re watching this Godzilla film for Godzilla then you will probably be disappointed. If you are watching it as more of a survival film then you’ll like it a lot more. I hesitate to call it a thriller since a good chunk of the film is just everyone talking but once they land on the planet I would say it qualifies. The film would probably be more impressive if it wasn’t called Godzilla which is a little unfortunate since having a brand should usually just make everything better. I do think that Part 2 should pick up quite a bit since most of the characters are already on Earth. Ideally it will focus on them and not too much on the people who are still in space. At least the wait until the next film shouldn’t be too long. This was my long roundabout way of saying that I’d recommend checking this film out.

Overall 7/10

Mega Man X The Day of Σ Review

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It’s time to quickly review a short Mega Man OVA that came out a while back. This one was pretty fun and it was definitely cool how it came with the Mega Man X remake. I’ve seen it a few times over the years and it certainly holds up well. This OVA reminds me why we need more specials like this one in the future. The possibilities with Mega Man are simply endless!

The special is a little under 30 minutes and it shows how Sigma became the leader of the Mavericks. It works as an origin story and explores a time period that we never got to see much of. Mega Man X and Zero are tasked with finding out who is manipulating the reploids and turning them against their allies. The mystery takes them through a few massacres until they arrive at the deadly truth. Zero handles the shock of Sigma being a traitor pretty well while Mega Man X is a little more shocked. The special is fast paced as you would expect and the ending is open ended since you need to play the games to see how the saga really ended.

The animation is quite good. Zero’s character model at times felt a little too tall, but I’m just used to him looking a little more hunched over. The design is quite good if you look at it without thinking about the others and likewise with Megaman X. The energy blasts and effects look great. This could have easily been turned into a TV show and I’m certain that fans would have been very pleased with the results. The soundtrack is all right. It doesn’t use as many video game themes as I would have liked, but it still does sound nice and futuristic. The theme when Mega Man X was getting the charge shot ready was solid and overall it worked pretty well here.

The power levels are a little wonky as I feel like Mega Man X and Zero should be portrayed as much stronger. One Mechaniloid (I doubt that is how it is spelled, but close enough) should not last so long against a combined assault. Zero should have taken out his sword unless he acquired it later on. That would have been very handy. Mega Man X’s fully powered charge shot looked very accurate though and it is good to see. His power level should really be off the charts since he was essentially built to be the ultimate reploid. Also, Zero knew about Sigma which is how he countered the Maverick’s stab, but he looked pretty bad in that fight anyway. He should have been thinking about how to land a hit of his own instead of bragging for so long. I like his overconfidence, but landing at least one hit would have certainly helped a lot as well. Sigma is strong so it should be a good fight, but Zero’s no slouch either.

We got a cameo from Doctor Light and Doctor Cain as well. This helped to tie into the classic universe and I’m still waiting for the game where we see the events between them. I know that a popular theory is that Zero destroyed Bass and supposedly he may have destroyed Mega Man as well, but most of that is speculation. Others believe that Mega Man X was built from Mega Man’s parts. Personally, I’m hoping that this theory isn’t true since I want them to be completely separate. The special ends in a very sad way for Doctor Cain since he really underestimated the Mavericks. It seems like this was all just a game to Cain though so he may not be too distraught about his fate.

There were also cameos from other Mavericks and the legendary Vile. It would have been great to have seen Vile more since he is such an awesome character, but I suppose that I’ll have to wait a while. Maybe if the Mega Man show does well they’ll eventually introduce the X characters. It may be more of a comedy than anything, but hopefully they’re portrayed right. At least we have the Mega Man X episode from the 90’s cartoon. Mega Man X was nice and heroic here unlike his extreme cartoon version (to an extent) so that was nice to see. He definitely was not going to put the hostage at risk although he should have at least tried going for a leg or something. It was also interesting to note that Zero did hit the hostage in the training simulation, which basically proved that Mega Man X made the right call here. The hostage was grateful as well, which was a nice touch since they can be silent or condeming at times. The reploids here seemed very reasonable. The universe built around the characters definitely has a lot of room for growth and there is still a lot to explore.

Overall, Day of Sigma is a must watch for all Mega Man fans. It finally shows the story of how the Maverick war started in the first place. This war would basically not end for quite a few games so this trigger is very important. Unfortunately, it does go against canon events so it is considered to be more of an AU/non canon adventure than anything, but it still gives you a lot of context. The original version would likely be very similar as well. With solid animation and a good soundtrack, this OVA has all of the tools necessary to succeed. Mega Man X is a great main character as well and Zero is as cool as always. One day, maybe I’ll be saying the same thing about Mighty No 9, but it is unlikely.

Overall 8/10