oZo61

Watching this, ask yourself...if it was a different character than Bruce Wayne/Batman, would you even notice? I don't think so. It's like they just decided to make one of the protagonists Batman as an afterthought. The animation is up to par, the voice acting is good, the choreography of the fights scenes is excellent. The cast is, quite frankly, awesome! Especially Michael Jai White. He channels Black Dynamite, all over again. James Hong is, as always, a treasure. Mark Dacascos proves he is wonderful as a voice artist, and still sounds youthful. Kelly Hu ads a 70's self-sufficient women's lib vibe that is perhaps the most bad ass character in the ensemble. The only misstep is David Giuntoli (Grimm) as Batman/Bruce Wayne. Oh, he's good, but not a good fit for Batman. Or maybe it's that the Batman character is not a good fit for this story? Either way, something feels off about it. Don't get me wrong, it's a good animated movie, and a fun diversion in these trying times. But is it really a Batman movie? I don't really think so.

This is a good movie. Is it as good as the original? That depends. It depends if you think the original was all that, and a bag of chips. I think Blade Runner was extremely overrated. Now, that doesn't its not a great movie, but I just don't agree with the idea that it was a watershed moment in cinematic history. This movie carries the premise of the original, while modernizing it for a new generation. It does so without being a hack copy, and it avoids retconning the original to the point of being unrecognizable to those of us who saw it opening weekend, 1982. That is an accomplishment, by anyone's reckoning. The music is near the same, and thankfully not as overpowering as in the original, and the acting is noteworthy for one main reason. While the original depicts the rogue replicants as having a near manic personality, hidden from society only by the darkness they dwell in, we see in this outing that the replicants have a veneer of docile tranquility stretched thin over a pit of angst and darkness. One senses that they are in a sort of purgatory, somewhere between the Joi AI interface and humans. That there is a real despair the replicants all feel, but can't even admit to feeling. Officer K's own boss exudes a institutionalized bigotry against the replicants that I doubt her character would even acknowledge she possessed. I may get a lot of flack about not bowing to Scott's original as the seminal Sci Fi movie of the 20th Century, but I do like this entry into the canon. Gosling's performance is excellent as a man who isn't sure about, not only what he is, but why he is as well. It's done with the feel of a person truly walking on eggshells, but not sure where they lie. Enjoy the deep seated, self-induced paranoia. You may just look in the mirror, to see if YOU have a serial number in YOUR eye.

I wasn't exposed to the anime GitS when it came out. I had heard of it but that was all. I watched this movie after hearing all the cries of "whitewashing" because of Scarlett Johanssen being cast in the lead. After I had finished, I went and watched the anime movie from 1995. I was amazed at the reaction people had had. It was very close to the source material. It had some scenes identical, in fact. But what got me the most was the main character, 'Major', didn't really look all that Asian. Like a lot of anime characters she was kind of Asian, but not really. To the film, I thought it was fine. After viewing the original I feel the new film is more of an homage, or a love letter if you will, to the source material. The purist in any genre will always find something to pick apart when this sort of adaptation is made, and I get it. We like what we like, and we like it pure. But Scarlett got a bad rap in the role, as I felt she did fine. Some have said that the CGI is overdone, and detracts from the story. But if you look around you and see how modern advertising and multimedia are so 'in your face' already, it's not hard to imagine that a future city might well look as it does in the film. Michael Pitt's character was interesting, and he played it well. I would recommend it, but maybe not to an hardcore anime fan.

I was enjoying it, really I was. The tunes were passable fare. Nothing too intricate. A nice recurring theme about it. The set up was strong, with a nice variance here and there. I liked the Baker's shop and home being the center hub for all the catalysts in the plot line. Yes, we were off to an interesting start. And as it progressed, I was happily taken along, for the most part. But then it happened...that seemingly prerequisite twist that all modern fairy tales demand. Not as revisionist as in Wicked, and Maleficent. So at least it wasn't that "bad guy's really the good guy" ploy this time. No, this time it was "everyone's a schmuck!" But what was the point? The witch was eaten by her garden? The prince "kisses" the baker's wife, and she dies? And what was with all the sub-text with the wolf and Red Riding Hood? I thought that was borderline, at least. I felt the last act was what should have been scrapped for something a little more...I don't know, redemptive? I had the feeling that everyone in the final scene was, at best, a refugee. I guess, in fact, they were. But I was hoping to see something more uplifting. Not just survivors dealing with PTSD.

The very real paranoia of man being replaced by machine was tackled here with something not seen since Asimov...heart. Yes, heart. Unlike the malevolent machines from Terminator or The Matrix sagas, we see machines that want only to "live". Jacq Vaucan is caught in the very real, and yet surreal, dilemma of a man who at the surface seems to have to choose between his species, and the machines. And yet, the only choice is life. The symbol of the turtle recurs throughout the film, as a n avatar of what, exactly? Maybe the city,like a shell from the hostile world? The notions in a human mind, sheltered from a new reality? The image of Jacq, revolted by the automatons scavenging a fallen comrade {"vultures! They're vultures!"), only to be doing the same thing himself to a fellow human (while crying over the horrific irony of it), will stick with me for a long time. This was an excellent movie, a true science fiction work. For all of the best science fiction is, at it's heart, a study in humanity. Oh, and I liked the homage to HAL 9000 at the end. The music box playing "Daisy, daisy..." Bravo!

daisy daisy turtle vultures