I've been a fan of the original manga for this story (at least the 2 American editions I know of) for a long time. It caught my attention at once, and was imaginative, surprising, and interesting. Once I'd read that the rights had been bought by an American company I wondered how they'd be able to condense this long story into a single movie. The rights expired, and Parasyte was made into 2 movies in Japan, and also an anime series. After seeing this film, I was disappointed. A problem is that all the elements that made the original so interesting could not possibly fit into a single film (or even 2 of them). A lot of changes had to be made, and characters and plot events had to be merged or deleted. I was able to watch what remained partly because I'd liked the original so much, and also because some of the visuals and segments in the film *were* worth watching. I thought the effects showing Migi and the various Parasyte battles were handled well-and that could have easily come out badly. I watched this off a region 3 DVD, with English subtitles and Japanese soundtrack, on a widescreen TV-so presentation of the film wasn't the issue. In my opinion, the only way to effectively present Parasyte as film would be as a serial. This has been done in anime form, and the product is much more enjoyable. I do intend to watch the second part of the live-action film as soon as it's available on DVD, mostly because I've seen Part 1, and I want to see how it ends. But most of the elements that made the manga so unique just aren't in the film. Maybe my opinion will change some after seeing part 2.
Review of Parasyte: Part 1
