Tag: movies

Review: ‘Key: The Metal Idol,’ Episode 14

Protip: If you’re developing super-secret military robots in order to sell them to a foreign power, don’t send them walking all over Tokyo while simultaneously using them to run an idol business.

Key: The Metal Idol, episodes 14, “System.” Written and directed by Hiroaki Satō. Produced by Shigehiro Suzuki and Atsushi Tanuma. Music by Tamiya Terashima. Studio Pierrot, 1994-1996. 13 episodes and 2 movies. Rated 16+.

Available on Crunchyroll.

The good news is that it’s not a complete disaster. The bad news is that it’s not all it could have been.

Shattered arm of a robot idol
What a disaster.

Through its thirteen-episode run, Key: The Metal Idol ratcheted up the tension with a measured and deliberate pace. Then, as so often happens to anime, the money fell through. Instead of producing another thirteen episodes as originally planned, Hiroaki Satō created two ninety-minute movies to finish off the story. This is the first of those two.

This movie is a massive infodump. Most of the “plot” consists of two guys sitting on a park bench and drinking beer while discussing Key’s extensive backstory. Occasionally, these sequences are punctuated by scenes of a crazy dude talking to himself … and discussing Key’s extensive backstory.

Tataki and Kagami talk in a park
“And then this chick was like, ‘I’m a robot,’ and I was like, ‘No way.'”

Although this is a terrible way to make a ninety-minute film, it nonetheless displays the consummate skill of the people working on this project, in that they succeeded in making much of this actually interesting. Yes, I definitely got antsy and fidgety at parts, but it really is a good story that the characters are telling each other, interspersed with arresting imagery and intriguing flashbacks. It finishes off with a good cliffhanger ending that sets up for the next, and final, film.

Miho gloats over Tsuruki, who's tied to a chair
This looks like my last date.

Also, I must give Key: The Metal Idol credit for laying its storyline at our feet in this way. Other anime that ran out of resources (I’m thinking mostly of Neon Genesis Evangelion, which is back in the news thanks to Netflix’s new dub) simply gave up on storytelling and took refuge in opacity and esoterica instead. By contrast, instead of telling us, “You just don’t understand because we’re deeply symbolic and stuff,” Key says, “We gotta tap out, but here’s a lengthy description of what’s happening before we go.”

I respect that.

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Movie Review: ‘Detective Pikachu’

More like ‘Pokémon Go to the Movies,’ amirite? Guys …?

Pokemon: Detective Pikachu, directed by Rob Letterman. Written by Dan Hernandez et al. Starring Ryan Reynolds, Justice Smith, and Kathryn Newton. Legendary Entertainment, The Pokemon Company, and Warner Brothers Entertainment, 2019. 1 hour and 44 minutes. Rated PG.

If I may say so, I think I’m in a good position to review this particular movie: I happen to be something of a weeb, but I also happen to be largely unfamiliar with the Pokémon franchise simply because (with notable exceptions) I gravitate away from the the never-ending mega-cash cows in favor of smaller, more self-contained, more indie stuff. I have nothing against Pokémon; I just don’t know it. So today I intend to address the question, “How accessible is Detective Pikachu to the outsider?”

The answer is, surprisingly … pretty darn accessible.

Oh, sure, there are some concepts that could have been better fleshed out. The notion of “Pokémon evolution” is mentioned and even becomes central to the plot without adequate explanation. (Knowing that this is based on a franchise of video games, I could infer that evolving means “leveling up,” but other viewers might be lost.) The film also acts as if I’m supposed to know who the hell Mewtwo is. But aside from that—and these are ultimately minor—I could pretty much understand what was going on.

Detective Pikachu was originally a video game, and it is an unusual, quirky, stand-out title in the Pokémon canon, featuring as it does a mystery-themed story and a Pikachu who can talk. That makes it a decidedly odd choice for the first-ever big-budget Hollywood Pokémon movie. It would make more sense to start this movie franchise by introducing us to Ash, or a character like him—a bright-eyed young boy who wants to capture and train Pocket Monsters, and who does battle with Team Rocket or similar villains. We might expect the first-ever live-action Pokémon film to be a sports story, or maybe a Pokémon version of How to Train Your Dragon. Instead, Detective Pikachu drops us into the middle of the Pokémon universe and introduces us to a protagonist who’s jaded with Pokémon training and an antagonist who questions its very morality. That’s a bold move for a franchise’s first entry into a new medium.

It mostly works—except when it doesn’t. The film opens with one brief scene in which our hero, Tim Goodman (played gamely if unevenly by an anemic-looking Justice Smith), and a childhood friend we never see again make an ill-fated attempt at capturing a Pokémon with a Pokéball. A little later, an infodump delivered as a snippet from a television documentary introduces us to the concept of Pokémon battles—and that’s all we get as far as world-building goes. After that, the movie lets you sink or swim on your own.

If you’re comfortable with genre movies, you’ll probably swim, as many of the blanks are easy to fill in for someone familiar with fantasy or science fiction generally. It’s clear from the film’s mixed reviews, however, that a lot of critics are sinking: The movie has barely managed to eke out a “fresh” rating on the Tomatometer, and when we look over the comments from the negative reviews, we get the impression that the critics who hate it do so simply because they don’t “get” it. The movie has a straightforward story line, but they’re calling it incomprehensible.

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These Live-Action Adaptations Need to Stop

Seriously, it’s gone too far now. First there was live-action Alita, then a live-action Pokémon, then a live-action Sonic the Hedgehog, then a new live-action Masters of the Universe with some femmy pretty boy standing in for He-Man, and now this, this little slap at my industrial complex.

There it is, a live-action Dora the Explorer movie. You thought before that Hollywood was out of ideas? Brother, you don’t even know what out-of-ideas looks like.

Let’s get the inevitable jokes out of the way first: yes, Dora turned out nice and all that. But much more important is that this trailer is almost identical to a parody that College Humor created some years back with Ariel Winter:

The similarities are so striking, it’s as if someone at Nickelodeon watched this parody sketch and said, “Hey, we could actually do this.” Notice Dora’s reunification with Diego: the real movie’s version is just like the parody’s … except not funny.

The concept in both the parody and the real film is that Dora is like a miniature Lara Croft, though I can’t help but think that the parody version, while obviously lower-budget, is both funnier and closer to the spirit of the original cartoon, featuring the talking backpack, fourth-wall breakage, and bilingualism.

This parody enjoyed a popularity of its own, and in fact they went on to create a three-part miniseries. It’s pretty damn funny, probably funnier than the big-budget movie is going to be, considering that, according to the preview, most of the movie’s jokes consist of people hitting their heads on things.

I can’t claim to be terribly familiar with Dora the Explorer. I attempted to watch it once, but gave up: I like to think my endurance for children’s cartoons is pretty high, but that one was was too annoying even for me. Nonetheless … there’s a good chance I’ll watch this movie.

Cinemassacre on ‘Akira’

I have for some time been following James Rolfe, as I’ve enjoyed both his discussions of film and, in spite of the crassness and vulgarity, his role as the Angry Video Game Nerd. He mostly discusses retro video games and B-movies, so I was surprised when I saw a review of Akira appear in my YouTube recommendations.

The reason he hasn’t discussed much anime, as he freely admits in this video, is because he hasn’t seen much. His discussion here is positive, though I was disappointed to find that it was mostly fanboyish enthusiasm rather than analysis.

For any readers here unaware, Akira appeared in 1988 and depicted a dystopian future Tokyo of 2019. The protagonists are punkish biker thugs who begin as best friends and end up trying to kill each other on account of a secret government program investigating children with psychic powers.

The movie is credited with jump-starting the anime craze in the U.S., and it was extremely influential in Japan as well. The animation was some of the best ever made at the time, and involved some bold choices that might go unappreciated in the age of computer animation, such as the decision to set most of the story at night, which required considerable extra work because of the dark colors and backgrounds. Like many anime of the late Eighties, it takes influence from Blade Runner, and like many anime films, it is opaque and largely indecipherable, though it’s based on a much lengthier manga that’s considerably easier to understand.

It was probably popular in the States in part because it was shocking, with bloody ultra-violence and graphic nudity, which fans inevitably contrasted with the content of animation aimed at children.

Personally, I have to admit I’ve never cared for it, even though both the manga and the film are undeniably impressive achievements. Mostly, I just hate the characters.

I’m Actually Excited for ‘Detective Pikachu’

I don’t think this is going to be the next Who Framed Roger Rabbit, but maybe it will at least be good dumb fun.

Movie Review: ‘My Little Pony: The Movie’

Possibly the best thing ever to come out of the My Little Pony franchise.

My Little Pony: The Movie. Directed by Jayson Thiessen. Written by Joe Ballarini, Meghan McCarthy, Rita Hsiao, and Michael Vogel. Lionsgate and Allspark Pictures, 2017. 99 minutes. Rated PG. CNS Rating is A-I, General Patronage.

As I expected, critics are panning it, and it might turn out that My Little Pony: The Movie will prove to be a financial mistake for Hasbro and Lionsgate.

That being said, I honestly don’t know what the complaints are about. I thought this was a great movie. My only (mild) criticisms are that none of the musical numbers are among the franchise’s catchiest, and some of the animation could be better, but aside from that, this is a fine, if not exactly stunning, children’s film. Looking at a few of the negative reviews, I get the distinct impression that the critics are turning up their noses not because it’s a bad movie per se, but simply because it’s My Little Pony.

However, in my humble opinion, this may be the best thing ever to come out of the franchise. I daresay this is the first time My Little Pony has come close to living up to its potential.

G4’s central cast, from left to right: Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Twilight Sparkle, Spike, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, and Applejack.

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This Woman Ruined the Perfect Score of ‘The Emoji Movie’

Betsy Bosdech, you had one job.

And that job was to give The Emoji Movie its perfect Tomatometer score of zero. Now, thanks to you, it’s up to three percent as of this writing.

Tsk.

 

‘The Emoji Movie’ Has a 0% on Rotten Tomatoes

I didn’t even know that was possible.

I confess to having a case of the Schadenfreudes over here. I’m frankly tired of politics in my escapist entertainment; maybe a few more bombs and Hollywood will figure it out.