 Akira and Ghost In the Shell are supposed to be the two best Japanese animated movies ever. Well, they aren't. In fact, they are both almost completely unwatchable, incomprehensible, and intolerable. Akira - The premise behind Akira seems to be seeing how much animated gore can be crammed into the movie. Every time someone can bleed, they do bleed. People explode, get eviscerated, and die in many other horrible ways nonstop. Somewhere in there is a plot about a boy named Tetsuo who was experimented upon (or something) and gained powerful telekinesis. He seems to be drawn to a huge cryogenic storage unit that contains Akira, or what's left of him rather. Why the things that happened in this movie happened is never explained. This movie also does the one thing I can never forgive a movie - good or bad - for doing: a likable character, Tetsuo's girlfriend, is brutally killed. Her death is, in fact, the most brutal death in the entire movie. Doing that, Akira earned my wholehearted hatred. Ghost In the Shell - Much, much better than Akira, it still isn't as good as it's supposed to be. This movie seems to be about a computer virus that's actually a living thing. People living in the time in which the movie is set can have computer enhanced brains that give them virtually telepathic links with one another or certain computers. The living computer virus can control these people and use them for . . . something. A female, cyborg cop becomes obsessed with the virus and eventually mates with it (sort of) to produce offspring. Uh huh. Ghost was largely devoid of action but when something did happen, it was good. Most of the time, the characters sit around and wax philosphic about being cyborgs. The movie might have been redeemable if not for the horrible ending. I won't spoil it for you, I'll let you watch the movie. It will spoil itself well enough without my help. Admittedly, I saw the dubbed versions of these movies. Subtitled foreign films - especially Japanese films - are always better. If you want to see either or both of these movies, search for the subtitled versions. About the author: Send your thoughts on these movies, or any others I've reviewed here to whamontree@hotmail.com. Visit my website at www.angelfire.com/tn/potpourri. You may read another review, submit your own, or return home. |
