tuomas_gimli
Joined Sep 2007
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tuomas_gimli's rating
What starts out as a surprisingly imaginative and seemingly subversive action anime gradually devolves into brainless, drawn out action and tired clichés. Oh well.
The show starts out promisingly: the setup is a bit different from your typical fantasy in having wanted fugitives as its main characters, and the colourful cast featuring members like a 30-foot woman and a talking pig give the impression that the show has more creative ideas to come. Some of the character backstories are surprisingly deep and well realized, and partly manage to stay away from the most tired clichés. The moral ambiguity about who's the actual villain of the story also gives a good impression, which is further reinforced by the main character being, in honest, a prick.
Sadly the show starts a steady downward slide in quality less than 10 episodes in, and never recovers from that: The action scenes become more ridiculous and drawn out. If you're not a fan of fight scenes where characters shout out the names of their techniques like they're playing Final Fantasy, you're not going to like this anime. The story becomes just another good guys vs. bad guys plot. Things that initially raise intrigue are either rushed, never explained, or drop out of the story seemingly entirely. The pacing suffers a severe dip in quality as the old "having a long conversation in the middle of a fight" storytelling rears its ugly head. A few plot elements and characters appear seemingly out of nowhere towards the end, and vanish just as quickly. One things that does get better is the constant, pandering fan service which is relentless in the first episodes, and gladly almost entirely absent from the last episodes. But that's not a positive, that's a negative that slowly becomes a zero.
The Seven Deadly sins is ultimately a disappointing series, and a classic case of wasted potential. If fantasy shounen action is your thing, there's things to like here. The animation's certainly not bad, and there are some creative powers introduced that keep the action interesting for some time. But if you're not a fan of this particular genre, watching more than the first 8 or so episodes is hard to recommend.
The show starts out promisingly: the setup is a bit different from your typical fantasy in having wanted fugitives as its main characters, and the colourful cast featuring members like a 30-foot woman and a talking pig give the impression that the show has more creative ideas to come. Some of the character backstories are surprisingly deep and well realized, and partly manage to stay away from the most tired clichés. The moral ambiguity about who's the actual villain of the story also gives a good impression, which is further reinforced by the main character being, in honest, a prick.
Sadly the show starts a steady downward slide in quality less than 10 episodes in, and never recovers from that: The action scenes become more ridiculous and drawn out. If you're not a fan of fight scenes where characters shout out the names of their techniques like they're playing Final Fantasy, you're not going to like this anime. The story becomes just another good guys vs. bad guys plot. Things that initially raise intrigue are either rushed, never explained, or drop out of the story seemingly entirely. The pacing suffers a severe dip in quality as the old "having a long conversation in the middle of a fight" storytelling rears its ugly head. A few plot elements and characters appear seemingly out of nowhere towards the end, and vanish just as quickly. One things that does get better is the constant, pandering fan service which is relentless in the first episodes, and gladly almost entirely absent from the last episodes. But that's not a positive, that's a negative that slowly becomes a zero.
The Seven Deadly sins is ultimately a disappointing series, and a classic case of wasted potential. If fantasy shounen action is your thing, there's things to like here. The animation's certainly not bad, and there are some creative powers introduced that keep the action interesting for some time. But if you're not a fan of this particular genre, watching more than the first 8 or so episodes is hard to recommend.
I'd be surprised if anyone saw this coming. The Lego Movie is quite simply unlike anything seen in a long while: rip-roaringly hilarious, gorgeous to look at, imaginative beyond belief, a great parody of worn out "chose one" clichés and also rather poignant and touching.
The first thing one has to mention is the animation. Not only does it look like an amateur stop-motion film with a $500 million budget, but the amount of detail and creativity put into the visuals is just staggering. At times there's so much going on the screen it's almost overwhelming, yet if you look closely you can see that every single thing is comprised of recognizable Lego parts. The various ways the world shifts, breaks, is constructed again, falls apart and moves around is simply a joy to watch. The implementation of real-world objects into the otherwise plastic world is certain to get huge laughs out of anyone, especially the revelation about the ominous superweapon "Kragle". The result is a film that looks unlike anything we've seen before.
The script is a roller-coaster ride of hilarious gag after another. The jokes come at you so fast you can't catch them all in one viewing, and blink-and-you'll-miss-it side gags clutter the screen. No running gag wears out its welcome, no joke is overplayed or overemphasised. The characters are all funny and likable with enough personality to them to fill up multiple movies on their own. Batman especially is a riotous parody of the grim, dark versions of the Caped Crusader we've been stuck with for nearly a decade. And due to Lego having rights for nearly every IP imaginable, you won't be able to guess which mega-franchise is going to turn up next.
Despite all this high praise, there are a couple of minor issues. During its third act the tone of the film starts moving to a more serious and emotional direction, which to me didn't work as well as the rapid fire comedy of the rest of the film. The voicework is great for the most part, but amidst all the others it becomes rather apparent that Morgan Freeman and Liam Neeson are live, not voice actors. It's not that their performances are bad, they just seem rather flat and lifeless in comparison to the rest of the cast.
The Lego movie is a downright masterpiece, there's no two ways about it. Incredible visuals and animation combined with a hilarious script, dazzling creativity and good characters make it one of the best and most original animated films in a long time. Some minor hindrances can do very little to drag it down, and the end result is fantastic.
The first thing one has to mention is the animation. Not only does it look like an amateur stop-motion film with a $500 million budget, but the amount of detail and creativity put into the visuals is just staggering. At times there's so much going on the screen it's almost overwhelming, yet if you look closely you can see that every single thing is comprised of recognizable Lego parts. The various ways the world shifts, breaks, is constructed again, falls apart and moves around is simply a joy to watch. The implementation of real-world objects into the otherwise plastic world is certain to get huge laughs out of anyone, especially the revelation about the ominous superweapon "Kragle". The result is a film that looks unlike anything we've seen before.
The script is a roller-coaster ride of hilarious gag after another. The jokes come at you so fast you can't catch them all in one viewing, and blink-and-you'll-miss-it side gags clutter the screen. No running gag wears out its welcome, no joke is overplayed or overemphasised. The characters are all funny and likable with enough personality to them to fill up multiple movies on their own. Batman especially is a riotous parody of the grim, dark versions of the Caped Crusader we've been stuck with for nearly a decade. And due to Lego having rights for nearly every IP imaginable, you won't be able to guess which mega-franchise is going to turn up next.
Despite all this high praise, there are a couple of minor issues. During its third act the tone of the film starts moving to a more serious and emotional direction, which to me didn't work as well as the rapid fire comedy of the rest of the film. The voicework is great for the most part, but amidst all the others it becomes rather apparent that Morgan Freeman and Liam Neeson are live, not voice actors. It's not that their performances are bad, they just seem rather flat and lifeless in comparison to the rest of the cast.
The Lego movie is a downright masterpiece, there's no two ways about it. Incredible visuals and animation combined with a hilarious script, dazzling creativity and good characters make it one of the best and most original animated films in a long time. Some minor hindrances can do very little to drag it down, and the end result is fantastic.
With a plot full of holes like Swiss cheese, setting and setup that will confuse even the staunchest long-time fans, script on the level of a bad fan fiction, countless disrepancies and abandoned plot lines from the first two movies and characterization taking 180-degree turns every two seconds, Evangelion 3.0 is an utter mess at best, and an open insult to movie watchers at worst. It's a colossal failure as its own story, as a follow-up, as a remake and a movie in general that renders the previous two movies and all their accomplishments completely pointless.
Almost nothing from the previous films is resolved in any meaningful way: Shinji's relationships with his friends and slowly growing confidence, Kaji's shady dealings with NERV, the Key of Nebuchadnezzar, Rei coming out of her shell, Asuka warming up to people, the growing threat of Angel attacks and much more are completely abandoned and forgotten about. In their place we get an endless barrage of new terms and plot elements which the characters talk about, but none of which are ever adequately explained or established. The first 30 minutes consist of nothing but action scenes with only the tiniest amount of context or setup, just a bunch of flashy stuff for the viewer to look at.
The characters have taken a total nosedive. Mari, who had a strange foreboding about her in 2.0 is reduced to a mere sidekick with no meaning. Despite the 14-year gap, Asuka is still her old bratty self despite now being 28 years old. The justification for her and Mari not having aged is so ridiculous you have to wonder if the writers are actually pulling a prank. Misato is so far removed from her previous persona she might as well be an entirely new character. Rei's character actually regresses, as all her development from the previous movies is rendered nonexistent, and is never properly explained how. Gendo has become a caricature of himself. In the original series he had an enigmatic presence and there were hints of his deeper motives, but here there's nothing under the surface: he's just a cartoon villain, practically twirling his moustache and cackling "JUST AS PLANNED".
But the change of setting is undoubtedly the thing that shoots this film in the leg and then some. So many questions rise and are never answered that the viewer is completely lost. The last 20 minutes will be spent in utter confusion as the viewer tries to grasp even the flimsiest straw of what is supposed to be going on, and why it should mean anything. Bombastic music playing over certain scenes is the only signal of something meaningful happening, but since the setting is so unestablished the viewer is just left thinking "I guess that's important because the characters act like it is, but why should I care?"
Perhaps the only saving qualities of this film are the music and the animation, both of which are great and work to put together some rather impressive action scenes. But that makes it only so much worse when you think what other projects this clearly great amount of talent could have been used for, rather than this 90-minute fart in the audience's face. At one point Fuyutsuki, the one character who gives the only direct exposition in the film, says "'Tis a wretched role I'm playing" to himself. It's almost if he's meta talking about his character having been reduced to a useless exposition device.
Add to all this meaningless shoutouts to the original like recycled shots from the series and Gendo's new choice of eyewear, occasional pseudo-philosophical lines which don't mean anything and some completely out of place piano playing scenes that add nothing to the story and you have an indulgent, incomprehensible, poorly told, plot less, pretentious, forced mess that doesn't even have a proper ending. Stuff explodes, characters talk about things you don't understand, Shinji sulks, some piano playing, stuff explodes again and then the movie just stops. Nothing has been achieved, learned or accomplished and you just don't care.
Almost nothing from the previous films is resolved in any meaningful way: Shinji's relationships with his friends and slowly growing confidence, Kaji's shady dealings with NERV, the Key of Nebuchadnezzar, Rei coming out of her shell, Asuka warming up to people, the growing threat of Angel attacks and much more are completely abandoned and forgotten about. In their place we get an endless barrage of new terms and plot elements which the characters talk about, but none of which are ever adequately explained or established. The first 30 minutes consist of nothing but action scenes with only the tiniest amount of context or setup, just a bunch of flashy stuff for the viewer to look at.
The characters have taken a total nosedive. Mari, who had a strange foreboding about her in 2.0 is reduced to a mere sidekick with no meaning. Despite the 14-year gap, Asuka is still her old bratty self despite now being 28 years old. The justification for her and Mari not having aged is so ridiculous you have to wonder if the writers are actually pulling a prank. Misato is so far removed from her previous persona she might as well be an entirely new character. Rei's character actually regresses, as all her development from the previous movies is rendered nonexistent, and is never properly explained how. Gendo has become a caricature of himself. In the original series he had an enigmatic presence and there were hints of his deeper motives, but here there's nothing under the surface: he's just a cartoon villain, practically twirling his moustache and cackling "JUST AS PLANNED".
But the change of setting is undoubtedly the thing that shoots this film in the leg and then some. So many questions rise and are never answered that the viewer is completely lost. The last 20 minutes will be spent in utter confusion as the viewer tries to grasp even the flimsiest straw of what is supposed to be going on, and why it should mean anything. Bombastic music playing over certain scenes is the only signal of something meaningful happening, but since the setting is so unestablished the viewer is just left thinking "I guess that's important because the characters act like it is, but why should I care?"
Perhaps the only saving qualities of this film are the music and the animation, both of which are great and work to put together some rather impressive action scenes. But that makes it only so much worse when you think what other projects this clearly great amount of talent could have been used for, rather than this 90-minute fart in the audience's face. At one point Fuyutsuki, the one character who gives the only direct exposition in the film, says "'Tis a wretched role I'm playing" to himself. It's almost if he's meta talking about his character having been reduced to a useless exposition device.
Add to all this meaningless shoutouts to the original like recycled shots from the series and Gendo's new choice of eyewear, occasional pseudo-philosophical lines which don't mean anything and some completely out of place piano playing scenes that add nothing to the story and you have an indulgent, incomprehensible, poorly told, plot less, pretentious, forced mess that doesn't even have a proper ending. Stuff explodes, characters talk about things you don't understand, Shinji sulks, some piano playing, stuff explodes again and then the movie just stops. Nothing has been achieved, learned or accomplished and you just don't care.