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Lik wong (1991)
Manga has never been so realized
I gotta say, the best way to put this movie is that it's Evil Dead 2 as a comic book movie with martial arts, Kill Bill villains and the blood effects from Braindead. Does that sound awesome? Of course it does!
I think the best way to put this is that it's the best homage of manga currently made in live action. It's a little cheesy and silly, but it adds to the movie for the same reason it adds to The Evil Dead. And I did watch this with the terrible English dub and I don't know how I would have felt watching it with subs, but the terrible dub adds to the atmosphere this movie is trying to make, The Evil Dead in manga form.
This movie just leaves you with a weird feeling, there's a final fight but there's not really and ending, it just kinda stops but again, it adds to the atmosphere. After watching this movie, I felt like I had read 50 mangas in one sitting, it was incredible.
There was so many memorable characters, I'm only going to mention the main 3 in my opinion. Siu-Wong Fan plays Riki-Oh Saiga or Ricky, a young adult with superhuman strength who fights to protect himself and his girlfriend from street crime. You could almost call it a superhero movie, although you never see him fight street crime, you just see him on the prison bus going to jail for manslaughter. The next character is Mei Sheng Fan plays the Assistant Warden who has a hook for a hand. But it had to hooks that he can move around and he doesn't just use it as a weapon but as a fork too! I'm not going to lie, I love this guy, he kind of holds the movie together as Ricky doesn't really talk and the Warden talks in small sentences and then stays silent until he's replying to something, the Assistant Warden is really the only one that talks and he's kind of in the background when the warden finally shows up, but he holds the movie together for a bit and he definitely works. The final character is Ka-Kui Ho as Warden Sugiyama and he is a perfect villain for this movie. He's a sick bastard with an annoying as hell son. (SPOILERS) * And he is basically the hulk. Really, he is. He turns into a near unstoppable monster whenever he gets really angry or paranoid or something. He takes pills to stop it from happening when he doesn't want it to, so I'm pretty sure he doesn't have control over it, I just don't know what causes him to become it. Is it anger? Being upset? Worried? Upset? Showing high levels of emotion? Is it timed to when he needs to take his pills? I honestly don't know, but just like the Crow's powers in The Crow, we really don't need to know. * (SPOILERS OVER)
The plot is Ricky is caught of manslaughter for fighting crime. It's a future dystopia and crime has run amok so Ricky with his powers tries to fight it, kinda like a superhero! I honestly could see if someone considered this a superhero movie as it is based off comic source material. Anyways, Ricky gets sent to prison and tries to fight crime there and after a series of events ends up freeing everyone. It sounds like I'm leaving stuff out and technically I am, but that is really the best summary I can give without going into too much detail.
There's no explanation for a lot of stuff, but its forgiven because thats not whats important, whats important is what you're looking at on the screen when watching it, the story it's telling you at that time, not the story before it or after it, the story then. And I really can't help but just love these characters, like I said before, they're all really good and I can still remember a lot of funny over the top moments that still shock people today. My god, is there a lot of blood, if you get squeamish over blood in something like Die Hard or Robocop, this movie is not for you.
Story of Ricky is great and definitely for a specific group of people. If you liked Braindead, I can't see anyone not having a blast watching this.
Score: 7.6
RED 2 (2013)
Not as good as the first. But still a fun comic book movie.
I went into this with mixed opinions. I didn't expect to hate it or love it. I knew it wasn't going to be as good as the first and I knew I wouldn't dislike it. I thought it would be like a 6.5 or 6.8 but I can actually say it was a solid 7.0.
A good chunk of the actors return (no Morgan Freeman for obvious reasons), Bruce Willis as Frank Moses, John Malkovich as the hilarious Marvin, Mary-Louise Parker as Sarah and Helen Mirren as the awesome Victoria. And a few new characters who are actually good and fit right in the universe. First is Anthony Hopkins who plays Bailey, it's a simple character, but come on, it's Anthony Hopkins. Byung-Hun Lee plays Han Cho Bai and I was quite surprised by his character. I thought I would hate a young cast member, but he actually fits in quite well. It gives you a sense of the generations of assassins and that they're not just all the same. And maybe I'm just a sucker for the business suit assassin, but its nice to see that you can throw in a young actor who holds his own and manages to actually make the older cast pop out a little more. The one character I wasn't really crazy about, Neal McDonough's Jack Horton. He was funny, but a very simple character that is pretty forgetful, which is unfortunate because all the other characters are very rememberable, so when you have a forgetful one, he takes away from the movie a little more than he would in other movies. And the final character is Catherine Zeta Jones as Katja. She was great but definitely not by herself, she just worked with the other cast and was definitely a great addition to the movie.
The story is pretty simple, but I was glad that they managed to step up the threat from the last one, although the villain's motives aren't totally clear. It's just kind of like, he's doing it because he wants to, but it can be forgiven as this universe is so crazy, it's what you'd expect. I did like the comic book feel to this movie, although the transitions from city to city are really ripped off from the first one, I did like the intro and the transition where the character turned into their comic book counterpart was nice, it reminded me that while this is an action movie, it is just as much a comic book movie. And there's a bit of a hidden visual style in this movie I found. Some shots seemed to really pop the colours and the costume design was very simple and comic book like.
I don't know if the humour is better or not as good this time as I did laugh but I don't know if I laughed more the first time or more this time. There was some jokes I didn't laugh at, but none were really bad, all the jokes were funny, I just didn't laugh outside sometimes. I do think the action is a bit of step up, (although there's no scene that is as awesome as the final of the first R.E.D.) I was surprised how well everything was choreographed, there were moments of cgi, but I don't mind in a comic book movie and they were small and far apart, they were only there when necessary (surprisingly yes, they were necessary.)
In the end, if you thought R.E.D. was okay/decent you probably won't like R.E.D. 2, but if you liked the first then the 2nd one is definitely worth watching, even if it's just for free on TV.
Score: 7.0
Hellboy II: The Golden Army (2008)
The Best Comic Book Movie of all Time
Yes, I know, I know. People will normally have something like Avengers, Dark Knight, Iron Man or one of the Spider-Man movies as their #1. And while I do like all those movies I mentioned, none can pass this powerhouse juggernaut of a comic book movie.
For starters, I must confess. I am a Guillermo Del Toro fan. The only movie of his I didn't give higher than a 7 to is mimic. And even then, I still didn't mind mimic and enjoyed my time watching it. But I can honestly say that this is his best work. It's not quite as serious as Pan's Labrynth, but it's also not as silly as Pacific Rim. It is everything I could want from a comic book movie.
Ron Perlman plays Hellboy, a demon that was raised by the US Government to be a hero, this cross makes for a very interesting anti-hero which often leaves you clueless to just what he will do. Selma Blair plays Liz Sherman, who at first glance just seems like your average, "I don't need anyone else's help," kind of character. But there's more to it than that. She is very original in the fact that the movie doesn't try to make her sexualized in the slightest. People may say this has been done before, but not like this. She doesn't strike you as a female character, she strikes you as a character. And even though I love Black Widow's character from the Marvel Universe movies, I'm constantly reminded that she is a female character. Seth MacFarlane voices Johann Krauss which is moved around by John Alexander and James Dodd. Not only is he an interesting character, but it's my favourite character that Seth MacFarlane has played. He fits so well in the universe that when you first see him, you're surprised for a second and then you think, "well, what do you expect from this universe?" Doug Jones plays Abe Sapien and it is an amazing role. Guillermo Del Toro uses Abe Sapien and another character, Prince Nuada (Luke Goss,) to really bring out his unique character designs. Both look stunning with the loads of make-up covered on them and yet you still believe that they're those creatures, not just actors.
The story is very interesting because it allows what seems like a straight forward, open-and-shut case, show that there's a lot that can be done to these stories within the visuals and experience that makes it unique. For example, there's a scene where Prince Nuada is fighting some guards and ends up killing his father. Now, that sounds straight forward and a bit clichéd, but for anyone who's seen it, if you ask them about it, they'll tell you how fast paced and colourful it appeared. How well the special effects were and just how realistic it was. Sure, you can say that about a lot of movies, but this one does it so well that anyone who hasn't seen it can listen to you and say something along the lines of, "that's how most good movies are," because they haven't lived it like you have.
Guillermo Del Toro does not waste any time, making only a few scenes about 60% way through the movie for comic relief, which is very welcoming as the movie is trying to push a lot on you at once, and the humour isn't only necessary, it's actually quite funny! Such examples as the Hellboy vs. Johann fight or the drunk singing. I also love just how interesting these character designs are. Some characters had so much make up on, I was mesmerized by the way the looked and they only got about 5 seconds of on screen time, which is a truly amazing piece of work. Most movies would only put that much effort into a main character and Guillermo Del Toro makes sure just as much effort is put into characters you could miss if you blink! The Troll Market especially, one of the best scenes in the movie. There's over 60 different looking creatures and you have to pause just to see them all, not even counting the ones that probably walked around and didn't end up walking where the camera was shooting, just there in case they did walk by the camera. It is an amazing amount of effort on Guillermo Del Toro's part and it really gets overlooked.
In conclusion, there are many amazing comic book movies and there are a lot that are very close to how much I like Hellboy 2. But Hellboy 2 stands above them, it is my favourite Guillermo Del Toro movie and my favourite comic book movie. If you haven't checked it out, you have to immediately. It is a must watch, and definitely work the $35 or so for the special edition Blu-Ray.
Score: 9.4