Reviews

I'm an adult. I went to see this movie with my son and his cousins. This movie belongs on television, and even then I'd have trouble suggesting it. Colossal waste of time - horrible animation by todays standards, horrible plot (they spoon feed every part of the mess because otherwise it would make zero sense).

Save your time and go to the park with your kid - you'll save money, and actually have something to be happy about afterwords.

I'm convinced that this movie is fairly well AstroTurf in these reviews - 10 stars? There is just no possible way on earth.

Apparently this review needs filler to be accepted. You'll thank me.

I like the original. We went to the live action rendition, so I definitely like the original.

This sequel is far more complicated, and has several very well-tended story lines going on. Humor, sadness, anger, love. All of these emotions are woven together quite well. I'm personally not a huge Dreamworks fan - Pixar is my animation studio of choice, but honestly they knocked this one our of the park. I thought that maybe the trailer would have been the better part of the film - it only scratches the surface. Saw this with my 7 year old, best father's day outing with the son so far!

I'm a casual anime fan, someone who doesn't know the intricate plots and history of the genre as much as I supposedly should. I think that's a good thing.

So often I watch anime that's been hailed as the best thing since sliced bread, and compared to other more mainstream (read: non-anime) features, IMO it doesn't even come close. I think fans of sub-genres tend to be blind to real critique of their favorite subjects, because they need to justify their excessive interest in it.

That being said, you still need to compare like-genre films to one another - at least to some degree, and I think in this case Escaflowne does a great job standing up to its competitors.

Someone had previously mentioned that the faces in this feature were rather badly drawn, and I tend to agree - it's odd, because the quality of the rest of the scenes/ scenery, is relatively good. The plot in this film, as in most anime is VERY disconnected, with whole chunks missing at parts. Rewinding certainly helps when watching this. However, as with most good anime, even if there is some plot missing, the end message is fairly clear. The score is amazing. It's rare you hear this kind of music in "regular" movies, much less an animated feature.

In general, I would recommend watching this on DVD, as you will want to rewind at some points, and try to understand certain elements, and/or watch the fast scenes a few more times.

Don't get me wrong, the idea for how the story was told was a great one. All the characters did a great job, and all the actual filmmaking was great.

There was one problem: THE WHOLE MOVIE WAS A LIE!

Most murder mysteries involve a twisty plot, wherein there is an uncovering of the truth that the viewer didn't yet put together - but COULD have! Memento didn't have that. At the end, where you usually get the answer to how this all works, you find out that the main character has been lied to himself all along. Given his condition, there was no way to determine that, or sleuth it out from the details given previously.

In effect, the makers of this film seemed to put 100% of their energy into a really great concept, and put zero effort into actually making this into a murder mystery. They effectively pulled the alibi, and the final plot out of thin air!

Watch the film, it's really not that bad, and it's entertaining until the end, but at the end, don't say I didn't warn you!