I will admit that there are some mindless action movies that I simply enjoyed watching and not care of the flaws that it carries. However, with movies like this, the negative really stands out and it really caused me to dislike this film more and more as the story progresses. I will admit that I haven't seen any of the original movie and the anime that this was based off of, but judging the movie as a whole, this movie simply sucked!
One of the main problems I had with the film was the story itself. Not only was in convoluted, but it felt extremely rushed to where I couldn't follow what was going on. The film took no sign of time and dedication to make any sort of sense toward what was going on, explaining character motives and having a sense of story that the audience can somehow enjoy. An example is when Saya is talking about her past and explaining what happened to her. During that scene, she introduces a person she loved, but was simply written out of that flashback without explaining why. Nothing is ever explained in this movie and I was left with only questions as the movie ended way too abruptly.
This leads to my other concern: characters. All of the characters were just flat and the film didn't do anything to add any sort of depth, characteristics or information about them. Many characters are introduced and they come and go like candy. There is a secret organization that Saya works for that was not explained. A character dies in a movie that Saya had a strong relationship with and yet you didn't know anything about him or why Saya was enraged with his death. There are hints of many of these throughout the film to where I didn't even care for any of the characters.
The acting is as expected bad and filled with actors overacting. The main actress was okay in the film and was the only one who didn't suck. Everyone else was bad and at times looked like they didn't even want to be on the set. One thing that did bother me was Koyuki, the actress who portrayed as Kogen. I can say in confidence that her voice was absolutely dubbed since there is no way in high heaven that she was able to speak perfect English like that! I maybe wrong, but after watching some of her performance on Japanese TV and movies, her voice didn't sound anywhere near to her voice in this movie.
The action itself was simply unentertaining to watch. All of the scenes were choppy to the point where I couldn't tell who was cutting whom. The CG effects on the blood were extremely cheap, making the blood splatter on "The Expendables" series to be more realistic. There is a huge fighting sequence with Saya and a horde of monsters that was unentertaining to watch and failed to bring any sort of thrill/excitement. These scenes mainly lacked any sort of excitement to the point where I unintentionally laughed. The only positive thing I can say about the action and with the film itself was that the main actress did her own stunts and have to give her credit for that.
One last thing I have to bring up that the CGI on these creatures were definite discounts of the vampires from "From Dusk Till Dawn." The make up on these creatures was outright cheap and the look of their full-on transformation was utterly hilarious to look at.
Personally, this film is filled with plenty of unintentional laughs; from how they depicted Japan, making it look like Chinatown, silly moments and a possible dubbed voice for Koyuki. This movie was just not my taste and another example of a film adaptation of an anime gone wrong.
One of the main problems I had with the film was the story itself. Not only was in convoluted, but it felt extremely rushed to where I couldn't follow what was going on. The film took no sign of time and dedication to make any sort of sense toward what was going on, explaining character motives and having a sense of story that the audience can somehow enjoy. An example is when Saya is talking about her past and explaining what happened to her. During that scene, she introduces a person she loved, but was simply written out of that flashback without explaining why. Nothing is ever explained in this movie and I was left with only questions as the movie ended way too abruptly.
This leads to my other concern: characters. All of the characters were just flat and the film didn't do anything to add any sort of depth, characteristics or information about them. Many characters are introduced and they come and go like candy. There is a secret organization that Saya works for that was not explained. A character dies in a movie that Saya had a strong relationship with and yet you didn't know anything about him or why Saya was enraged with his death. There are hints of many of these throughout the film to where I didn't even care for any of the characters.
The acting is as expected bad and filled with actors overacting. The main actress was okay in the film and was the only one who didn't suck. Everyone else was bad and at times looked like they didn't even want to be on the set. One thing that did bother me was Koyuki, the actress who portrayed as Kogen. I can say in confidence that her voice was absolutely dubbed since there is no way in high heaven that she was able to speak perfect English like that! I maybe wrong, but after watching some of her performance on Japanese TV and movies, her voice didn't sound anywhere near to her voice in this movie.
The action itself was simply unentertaining to watch. All of the scenes were choppy to the point where I couldn't tell who was cutting whom. The CG effects on the blood were extremely cheap, making the blood splatter on "The Expendables" series to be more realistic. There is a huge fighting sequence with Saya and a horde of monsters that was unentertaining to watch and failed to bring any sort of thrill/excitement. These scenes mainly lacked any sort of excitement to the point where I unintentionally laughed. The only positive thing I can say about the action and with the film itself was that the main actress did her own stunts and have to give her credit for that.
One last thing I have to bring up that the CGI on these creatures were definite discounts of the vampires from "From Dusk Till Dawn." The make up on these creatures was outright cheap and the look of their full-on transformation was utterly hilarious to look at.
Personally, this film is filled with plenty of unintentional laughs; from how they depicted Japan, making it look like Chinatown, silly moments and a possible dubbed voice for Koyuki. This movie was just not my taste and another example of a film adaptation of an anime gone wrong.