If the first live action film was a jam session, this one is the symphony. This is the one with the high production values and a much more epic feel than the first one.
It opens with a spectacular view of Shishio standing in what could be the pit of Hell and taunting Saitou by dangling his subordinates from ropes over the flames, threatening to drop them in if Saitou doesn't join him.
The first part that really stood out for me were the Shingetsu Village scene. The village was a desolate ruin and the image of the two people hanged from the large tree is chilling. The little boy who acted as Mishima Eiji did a great job portraying Eiji's grief at the brutal murder of his family. The part where Kenshin tells Eiji that he shouldn't kill his parents' murderers was handled sensitively and made my eyes well up a bit.
The other great part was Kenshin's battle with Sword Hunter Chou in order to save the life of baby Iori. The battle is face paced, brutal and action packed. The part where Arai Seiku tosses the sheathed holy sword to Kenshin and Kenshin kneels down motionless, eyes squeezed shut is riveting. You can totally see that he's battling with himself over whether or not to use the sword. Then when he unleashes the attack, everything explodes. In the aftermath, we see Kenshin walk away slowly, clearly upset with himself.
The Kyoto battle scene is awesome because we finally get to see Kaoru, Yahiko and Misao, who were often sidelined in the source material, strut their stuff and lend Kenshin a huge hand.
The ending will leave you wanting to know what happened next.
It opens with a spectacular view of Shishio standing in what could be the pit of Hell and taunting Saitou by dangling his subordinates from ropes over the flames, threatening to drop them in if Saitou doesn't join him.
The first part that really stood out for me were the Shingetsu Village scene. The village was a desolate ruin and the image of the two people hanged from the large tree is chilling. The little boy who acted as Mishima Eiji did a great job portraying Eiji's grief at the brutal murder of his family. The part where Kenshin tells Eiji that he shouldn't kill his parents' murderers was handled sensitively and made my eyes well up a bit.
The other great part was Kenshin's battle with Sword Hunter Chou in order to save the life of baby Iori. The battle is face paced, brutal and action packed. The part where Arai Seiku tosses the sheathed holy sword to Kenshin and Kenshin kneels down motionless, eyes squeezed shut is riveting. You can totally see that he's battling with himself over whether or not to use the sword. Then when he unleashes the attack, everything explodes. In the aftermath, we see Kenshin walk away slowly, clearly upset with himself.
The Kyoto battle scene is awesome because we finally get to see Kaoru, Yahiko and Misao, who were often sidelined in the source material, strut their stuff and lend Kenshin a huge hand.
The ending will leave you wanting to know what happened next.