As the Gods Will

I frequently like Miike's films, and had missed this one--I only found out about it because of the accusations that it had somehow been ripped off by "squid Game," not that I've seen that series either--so I decided to give it a look. It's certainly well-crafted, but this is a case where his liveliness and skill as a director can't do much with material that is inherently silly and repetitious. It starts to wear out patience even in the first setpiece, and every successive one is the same thing: Another "god" in cutesy CGI critter form killing off teens in a "game" with arbitrary rules just cuz...well, because apparently gods don't have anything better to do.

The characters are too one-dimensional (and mostly too shortlived) to care about, the manga-based action too absurd to work up any real suspense, the action too absurd to be exciting. I admit I didn't make it to the end; there was absolutely nothing of value beyond the slick production values to hold attention. I'm giving it a 5 because it's the sort of "extreme" Japanese cinema some people like (which usually involves comely schoolgirls being slaughtered in "gory" yet patently unrealistic, CGI-heavy ways), but if you want anything more than that pretty dumb level of empty, colorful stimulus, it's one of Miike's least interesting projects. Of course, he makes so many, it hardly affects his batting average.