Generally speaking, I’ve loved animation since well, forever. Over the past several years, besides the rise of Japanese anime in US pop-culture, another worthwhile offshoot of animation has been a variant of (arguably) good ol’ claymation – except with Lego bricks. Saw this Lego Matrix homage today, reminded me of the White Stripes Lego video of several years ago – enjoy!
candybowl
So in anticipating the new Clash of the Titans movie about to come out – I got the old one (1981 vintage) from the library. The last (and only) time I saw this movie was around 1984 while staying with friends in Nicoya, Costa Rica – the town had a small theater and we saw the movie there one night (with english subtitles).
So….on the one hand, this probably was an impressive movie for its time (given the varied Ray Harryhausen animation throughout if for no other reason) – I was about 15-16 at the time and remember there being sound issues in that theater, don’t really remember much of the movie. I think I remember the Kraken, who is essentially a cross between Godzilla (size), Creature from the Black Lagoon (appearance) and the silly big multi-armed Goro from the also ridiculous Mortal Kombat movie (multiple arms). And yes, I saw at least half of THAT movie, and let’s just say it doesn’t merit its own review – play the video game instead.
Rumbling forth to modern times, ‘COTT 1981’ looks pretty dated. Like other journey + monster(s) + hero/heroine movies, there are several tedious sequences where they are just riding around. This was my main complaint about the The Two Towers (theatrical version, anyway – the extended Two Towers DVD version is much better on that score). Too much running around with obviously a camera plane tracking them from above (thankfully never saw a shadow – an Orc probably got the camera plane with a flaming arrow at some point – that’ll learn ’em!).
Neither hero nor heroine are very good actors – Harry Hamlin (Perseus) does a lot of staring into space with a half-frown and his mouth hanging open and the heroine isn’t given many lines or much to do at all. Burgess Meredith (Perseus’ helper guy Ammon) isn’t bad, but he was better playing a flightless bird earlier in life (or when he trained Italians). Zeus gets all the best lines (but considering the actor playing him, pretty unsurprising).
As to other silliness – most of the men run around in non-existent pants that would even embarass Richard Simmons – and I don’t want to know how it is to ride horses (flying or no) in effectively a medieval jockstrap for miles on end – there is a reason they invented chariots and rickshaws, guys!
Perseus’ sword is pretty cheesy – I think i’ve either seen that thing before at Brookstone or that nerd store in The Market. The matte painting backgrounds are a bit too easily spotted as such. and as for Bubo, the mechanical owl given to Perseus by Athena – I didn’t mind him but at least they open with him breaking a dead tree branch by landing on it (because as a metal owl, he’s too f’ing heavy? :))
Let’s sum up by saying there was a lot of fast-forwarding (the magic of DVDs!) and hope that the new version is decent – although if the story is the same, i’ll wait to see reviews before getting in line. Hopefully The Kraken will get a shot at eating Liam Neeson or something cool 🙂
candybowl
Finally popped up on my hold list at the library, and was able to watch the original Ghost in the Shell movie (again – saw it several years ago once before) tonight.
While the first two GITS movies have the same characters but an almost completely different storyline than the two series and much later 3rd movie, it’s interesting now to go back and watch this one again, having seen all the rest. It’s obviously older – there isn’t any CGI in this one, all classic animation (although I guess it has since been remade itself and incorporated some CGI). The characters, excepting Aramaki, all seem somehow ‘younger’ – almost as if you are seeing The Major in her late 20s or something.
As the story here (and in the second original movie) are again, not part of the rest – seeing them before/after everything else is fine, you aren’t losing out – there are only really five characters here from the later series – The Major, Batou, Togusa, Chief Aramaki, and Ishikawa. Saito gets mentioned but they never show him, and Borma/Paz don’t exist here.
I think of the three movies, I like this one best. Its story can stand alone, even though of course it was easy to build a sequel and later series from it. Of the two series, the first one was better for me (see earlier post on this). Great stuff, definitely top-tier anime, for sure.
candybowl
Well, after 2-3 weeks of off-on watching, I finally finished the second Ghost In the Shell anime TV series – S.A.C. 2nd Gig. This series is a continuation from the previous Ghost In The Shell: Stand Alone Complex (see earlier post on that one here).
This second series is more of a political thriller than the first. Both series have a long story-arc that persists until the end, but they don’t seem to ‘explain’ as much in this one by the end – there are still at least a few motivations and actions I didn’t quite understand. There is more straight up ‘battle’ and conflict in this one too – and I liked the fact that they gave the other members of Section 9 (Paz, Boma, Saito and Ishikawa) a lot more to do in this series, than just focusing on the main four characters (Togusa, The Major, Batou and The Chief) as seen in the previous series.
There is a great villain in this one too – Kazundo Gohda, the head of the Cabinet Intelligence Service. Besides being facially disfigured and scarred (like all great over-the-top villains) this guy has plans within plans within plans, something every other main character finds out all too often along the way. While personally I thought The Laughing Man from the previous series was a more interesting foe for a variety of reasons – I had small hopes he’d show up in this one at some point – Gohda is definitely a man with a complex and hidden mission.
The main ‘anti-hero’ in this series Hideo Kuze, who remains at least in part a semi-major enigma. It would have been neat to see another episode of flashback(s) to his wanderings in Eurasia and how he came to his revolutionary stance portrayed in the series. They explore some of this through dialogue, but IMHO not enough. The Tachikomas even get a bit more to do – there are computer simulations of them used for the various episodes centered around computer hacking, besides their usual role as battle-backup for Section 9.
All in all, another great and interesting series – the animation is again excellent, The Major isn’t near as invincible in this one, and even Batou has to face up to a number of his own demons by the end.
candybowl.
gee, another one? Yep. This is the third Ghost in the Shell movie, but unlike the first two, it follows the storyline(s) from the two seasons of the anime TV series, Ghost in the Shell: SAC and Ghost in the Shell: SAC 2nd Gig. I am just about to watch the latter season, so there are still back-story gaps for me, but suffice it to say, this is a very good movie, and I would judge it better than Ghost in the Shell: Innocence for both plot and character detail (see earlier post for that review). Both are equally beautiful animation, no issues in that dept.
The same characters from Section 9 are here again, although most get short shrift per usual. Another unusual element in this one is the comparatively minor role of the Tachikoma AI ‘tanks’ seen in other parts of the various movies and series – while they help in one major assault in the movie, they are otherwise largely ignored or left out. As in the previous movies and series, The Major, Batou, Togusa and The Chief are the main four to watch – the Chief less so this time around, however.
As these series/movies are largely detective stories, I don’t want to talk about spoilers – just watch the darn thing and enjoy it! I did.
This is the second Ghost in the Shell movie, circa 2004. It focuses mainly on two of The Major’s investigator/partners from Section 9 – Batou and Togusa, and a wide-ranging crime investigation that spans yakuza battles and pleasure robots killing their masters.
While I liked this movie, it has some similar plot elements (albeit more complex given it’s a self-contained movie/story) to a later S.A.C. episode from the TV series. And the absence of The Major means they have to flesh out the two male characters much more – which is a good thing, but I’m not sure they are completely successful. I think they paint a more sympathetic portrait of both Batou and Togusa in the later S.A.C. tv anime than here, but I may be biased, having seen that first.
One other interesting thing – I felt a strong Blade Runner influence on this film – from the noir-esque atmosphere, some of the things that happen to Batou during the investigation, and some of the philosophical commentary both Batou and Togusa make at points throughout the story (odd coming from hard-bitten cyberpunk cops, but that’s the noir element, definitely).
Still definitely worth watching, but if you haven’t seen S.A.C. – watch this first, THEN watch the first series. 🙂
Having been a huge animation fan for most of my life, over the past few years I have become interested in anime. For those of you who don’t already watch it, it’s the highly stylized, often violent and over-the-top (depending on the genre) animated art form originally from Japan (although its influence has been spreading for years). I tend to avoid most of the kiddie stuff (where grade schoolers seem to obtain super powers, enlist the help of monsters to help them solve crimes, mysteries or join up with elves, etc. to save the world) and go for more of the sci-fi, cyberpunk or borderline occult themed series. They just seem more interesting and often have better character development IMHO. And then the occasional guilty pleasure such as Initial D or Wangan Midnight, of course.
So, I saw the first Ghost In The Shell movie some time ago, and despite the main character apparently able to defy gravity with her cybernetic body, this is essentially a cyperpunk detective story at heart, and a good one. I’m not really sure what the risque content adds to the show, unless it’s just there to ‘excite the 8 year-olds’ given that it otherwise has little to no relationship to the actual plot (kind of like how Dr. Manhattan walks around au naturel in The Watchmen, but that’s a whole different set of gripes :))
There are several later movies and at least two series that grew out of the first movie – this review is of Ghost In The Shell: Stand Alone Complex (the first series). This is a GREAT show – they recently started showing it on Adult Swim (which is how I picked it up, then simply rented the DVD set and watched the rest on a recent business trip).
So the series tracks an elite group of mostly cyborg cops in future Japan called Section 9, and has at least one or two long-term multi-show stories beyond the episodic crimes being solved. The central character is ‘The Major’ – the same chick from the movie – and her fellow cyborgs/detectives and their section chief, who is both an old-school cop and master politician/administrator at the same time.
Some of the great things about this show are that it never insults the intelligence of the viewer, with the possible exception of the Tachikoma characterizations (a bit too ‘little kid’) – and treats the unfolding story around The Laughing Man (elusive criminal? hacker/vigilante? Watch and judge for yourself) with extra care to draw the viewer in and keep them guessing nearly until the end.
While it would be nice to see more of the history around other members of Section 9 in more detail (they are often only seen in limited scenarios or when the whole group is briefed on something by the chief) there’s still more than enough going on here to occupy the viewer. They also don’t ‘explain everything at the end of the episode’ a la Star Trek (I love ST since forever, but this IS a fundamental flaw, for pete’s sake!), which is nice. Many things about future Japan are never explained at all, or simply mentioned once or twice to suit moving the story forward but not much else.
The animation is generally very well done, and doesn’t seem to flip between drawings and CGI the way say, Initial D does. Or they are far better at hiding it. But generally, fluid and pretty animation (kind of has to be given the level of action, explosions, and running around in most of the episodes – this IS a cop show, after all).
Reading between the lines a bit, I’d have to say the future portrayed is a bit bleak, however – if people give up their human bodies when only a toddler or young child (like The Major and at least two other main characters) how can they be expected to really relate to society later on, not having gone through those same challenges we all do as we age? This perspective seems to flip all the recent military sci-fi I’ve read on its head – instead of a person nearing the end of their human life with a worn out body (only to be transposed into a super-soldier with a brand new, young, cybernetic body) – GITS: SAC has them doing it before they’ve really even lived much at all? Interesting….
At any rate, if you like cyberpunk mixed with detective stories, this is a very entertaining and thought-provoking series. It helps to watch some of the other movies first to set the scene and learn about some of the characters, however.
candybowl