Returner
Year 2084, humans are fighting a bloody war against an alien species known as "Daggra", the war is coming to an end and it seems as if the human race will lose it. The human race however has managed to build a time machine, and in the dying seconds of the war they manage to send a girl, "Milly", back in time. Her mission is to locate and kill the first alien to land on earth, hoping that this will prevent the future war.
There is never any doubt where this movie has picked up its inspiration, movies like "The Terminator 1/2", "Independence Day" and "The Matrix" are quite obvious in the movie, but that isn't necesarrily a bad thing, all movies pick up inspiration from somewhere. The storyline isn't very original, but still in a way original. Problem with it really is that it lacks some depth, and also the 82 years war feels a little unrealistic, however the storyline is driven enough, just nothing special, nothing that will make this movie stand out, even though I think it had a lot of potential. There are also moments of the movie where the story feels a little too weak, especially the very end I disliked, just the way it went, reminded me too much of E.T, and the sentimental point of view should have been kept out of this movie.
Now to draw out the positive sides of this movie. The action scenes are great, even though they are very inspired by The Matrix they are still very good and enjoyable. I never found myself getting boring, and I think the action scenes are definitely one of the things that makes this movie worth watching. Some people say that the effects here are worse than in Hollywood, to be quite honest, I don't believe they are. I didn't find them unconvincing at all, especially the scenes with the Cyborgs were well done, the bullet-time scenes were also good, but we've seen that a lot of times before after "The Matrix" was released.
The movie ends with a small twist, a twist I personally felt didn't belong to the movie at that point, the clues given were a bit weak, and I think it was just generally a weak attempt to create a shocking end, opening your eyes, which it didn't for me, at least not when he woke up again. Had he died, then I would have been shocked and amazed.
Another problem with the movie is the lead characters. Anne Suzuki is cute, yeah, but she lacks depth and her performance never feels real. Her character felt kind of empty and that also damaged the chemistry with co-lead actor Takeshi Kaneshiro, who in the personal scenes neither was very good and convincing, but I must admit that he was fantastic in the action scenes, a 50/50 performance from him, although his character never were very believable. The star on the acting side is the guy playing the notorious bad guy, Goro Kishitani had a magnificent performance playing mr. Evil himself, Mizoguchi. This is a character I most definitely hated, and definitely one of the characters that brought life to the story.
Takashi Yamazaki obviously had a good hand on things while directing the action scenes, and also the movie contains some good cinematography. Sadly Yamakazi didn't manage to control the personal scenes of the movies as well as the action scenes, truly sad, because the movie could really have been at a higher level if the personal scenes had felt more convincing. The script also lacked some depth for each of the lead characters, the idea of the movie could actually have been a lot better.
To sum it all up a tad, a quite enjoyable and driven movie that lives on some good action scenes and one of the coolest bad guys I've seen in a very long time. The script lacks some depth and personal relations with the lead characters, the story also at times felt kind of pointless, but overall the movie managed to hold up a driven pace throughout, and even though it is flawed, it is a very entertaining movie that you can sit back and enjoy.
6/10
Year 2084, humans are fighting a bloody war against an alien species known as "Daggra", the war is coming to an end and it seems as if the human race will lose it. The human race however has managed to build a time machine, and in the dying seconds of the war they manage to send a girl, "Milly", back in time. Her mission is to locate and kill the first alien to land on earth, hoping that this will prevent the future war.
There is never any doubt where this movie has picked up its inspiration, movies like "The Terminator 1/2", "Independence Day" and "The Matrix" are quite obvious in the movie, but that isn't necesarrily a bad thing, all movies pick up inspiration from somewhere. The storyline isn't very original, but still in a way original. Problem with it really is that it lacks some depth, and also the 82 years war feels a little unrealistic, however the storyline is driven enough, just nothing special, nothing that will make this movie stand out, even though I think it had a lot of potential. There are also moments of the movie where the story feels a little too weak, especially the very end I disliked, just the way it went, reminded me too much of E.T, and the sentimental point of view should have been kept out of this movie.
Now to draw out the positive sides of this movie. The action scenes are great, even though they are very inspired by The Matrix they are still very good and enjoyable. I never found myself getting boring, and I think the action scenes are definitely one of the things that makes this movie worth watching. Some people say that the effects here are worse than in Hollywood, to be quite honest, I don't believe they are. I didn't find them unconvincing at all, especially the scenes with the Cyborgs were well done, the bullet-time scenes were also good, but we've seen that a lot of times before after "The Matrix" was released.
The movie ends with a small twist, a twist I personally felt didn't belong to the movie at that point, the clues given were a bit weak, and I think it was just generally a weak attempt to create a shocking end, opening your eyes, which it didn't for me, at least not when he woke up again. Had he died, then I would have been shocked and amazed.
Another problem with the movie is the lead characters. Anne Suzuki is cute, yeah, but she lacks depth and her performance never feels real. Her character felt kind of empty and that also damaged the chemistry with co-lead actor Takeshi Kaneshiro, who in the personal scenes neither was very good and convincing, but I must admit that he was fantastic in the action scenes, a 50/50 performance from him, although his character never were very believable. The star on the acting side is the guy playing the notorious bad guy, Goro Kishitani had a magnificent performance playing mr. Evil himself, Mizoguchi. This is a character I most definitely hated, and definitely one of the characters that brought life to the story.
Takashi Yamazaki obviously had a good hand on things while directing the action scenes, and also the movie contains some good cinematography. Sadly Yamakazi didn't manage to control the personal scenes of the movies as well as the action scenes, truly sad, because the movie could really have been at a higher level if the personal scenes had felt more convincing. The script also lacked some depth for each of the lead characters, the idea of the movie could actually have been a lot better.
To sum it all up a tad, a quite enjoyable and driven movie that lives on some good action scenes and one of the coolest bad guys I've seen in a very long time. The script lacks some depth and personal relations with the lead characters, the story also at times felt kind of pointless, but overall the movie managed to hold up a driven pace throughout, and even though it is flawed, it is a very entertaining movie that you can sit back and enjoy.
6/10