Friday, February 13, 2009
Future vampire
Movies I have seen (not so) recently
Back to the Future
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Back_to_the_Future
So, to make this vaguely comic book related, the co-writer of this movie was Bob Gale, who has written a number of not very well received comics. I remember his Daredevil run being pretty bad.
So yeah, Back to the Future. It's regarded as a super amazing sci fi comedy, it's okay.
Michael J. Fox travels back in time to when his parents were kids. Oh no! He's messed up the timeline, he has to fix it before he can go home.
I guess seeing this when I'm 25, instead of like 10, probably doesn't help that much. Perhaps what really hurt this film is that I generally only watch terrible movies in which people shoot each other because of some cyber based thing. And this had none of that! Hell, there's decidedly little tech in this at all, since once Fox travels back in time he spends most his time interacting with high school students, while the time machine is fixed by the professor character off screen.
Parts of it were decent, but iunno, I guess it didn't appeal to me that much. I doubt I'll watch the sequels.
Shadow of the Vampire
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shadow_of_the_Vampire
This is one of those films I'd wanted to see since it first came out, but just never got around to it.
It's based around the idea that the actor who played Count Orlok in the 1920s German film Nosferatu, is in fact a vampire.
I saw Nosferatu (and the '70s remake) in a German film course in university, hell, I probably wrote essays on it. Though that doesn't mean I remember much of it. I do remember some of the scenes that were in this movie, so I guess that's good?
While I think the idea for this film is amazing, the actual end product kind of disapoints me. It doesn't seem to know if it's being a comedy or a sort of horrific drama or what. The characters just seem to wander around and interact occasionally, doing things for reasons that weren't revealed to the audience. Maybe that's a critique of the films made in the 1920s? Maybe I just watched this film a week ago and can't really remember what happened?
Yeah.
Back to the Future
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Back_to_the_Future
So, to make this vaguely comic book related, the co-writer of this movie was Bob Gale, who has written a number of not very well received comics. I remember his Daredevil run being pretty bad.
So yeah, Back to the Future. It's regarded as a super amazing sci fi comedy, it's okay.
Michael J. Fox travels back in time to when his parents were kids. Oh no! He's messed up the timeline, he has to fix it before he can go home.
I guess seeing this when I'm 25, instead of like 10, probably doesn't help that much. Perhaps what really hurt this film is that I generally only watch terrible movies in which people shoot each other because of some cyber based thing. And this had none of that! Hell, there's decidedly little tech in this at all, since once Fox travels back in time he spends most his time interacting with high school students, while the time machine is fixed by the professor character off screen.
Parts of it were decent, but iunno, I guess it didn't appeal to me that much. I doubt I'll watch the sequels.
Shadow of the Vampire
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shadow_of_the_Vampire
This is one of those films I'd wanted to see since it first came out, but just never got around to it.
It's based around the idea that the actor who played Count Orlok in the 1920s German film Nosferatu, is in fact a vampire.
I saw Nosferatu (and the '70s remake) in a German film course in university, hell, I probably wrote essays on it. Though that doesn't mean I remember much of it. I do remember some of the scenes that were in this movie, so I guess that's good?
While I think the idea for this film is amazing, the actual end product kind of disapoints me. It doesn't seem to know if it's being a comedy or a sort of horrific drama or what. The characters just seem to wander around and interact occasionally, doing things for reasons that weren't revealed to the audience. Maybe that's a critique of the films made in the 1920s? Maybe I just watched this film a week ago and can't really remember what happened?
Yeah.
Labels: Movies
Friday, January 09, 2009
Repo: The Genetic Opera
Repo: The Genetic Opera
Repo is a goth rock musical featuring Paris Hilton.
No, I'm being completely serious. I almost didn't go see this because she was in it, but it was my friend's birthday, I was procrastinating doing something else, and it was only $8.
We ended up being the only people in the theatre, which has only happened to me once before (High Fidelity, where I was the _only_ person in the theatre, and was kind of weirded out that a giant John Cusack kept talking directly to me).
Anyway, back to Repo.
It's set in a city fifty years in the future after some sort of super disease has made people's organs fail. GeneCo has managed to save the human race by creating new, artificial, super organs. Of course, that wasn't making them enough money, so they started pushing elective surgery, and it caught on because, well, elective surgery is popular now anyway, and it doesn't sound that ridiculous that people would want better livers ("Now! Drink more with LIV-R!") and stuff. I think one of the tag lines was "It's what's inside that counts!"
However, all this surgery is expensive. "Thankfully" GeneCo has a handy layaway method of payment. Organs now, money forever (or close to). And if you don't pay, the repo man (yes, there seems to be only one for the whole city) will come and take your organs back. Can they reuse the organs? I dunno, I can't imagine they could really. I guess they're just dicks.
Anyway, because of all the surgery people are having, they're also addicted to a painkillers (Zydrate). And while they could just buy these from GeneCo, knock off painkillers are available from street dealers, who somehow get the drug by extracting a blue liquid from corpses. This isn't explained either.
If this doesn't really sound like the plot for a movie (or anything), it's not, it's all background info.
The actual story doesn't really matter. There's some stuff about how the founder of GeneCo is dying, and he doesn't want any of his children (including Paris Hilton, and Ogre from Skinny Puppy) to be his heir. And there's this girl, Shilo, who's supposed to be really sick, and her father/doctor apparently killed her mother and gave her this disease, but none of that really matters that much, as the girl who plays Shilo isn't that good. Pretty ignorable really (and the appearance of Joan Jett during one of her songs is more embarrassing than anything else).
Similarly, while Paris Hilton doesn't do a bad job, she doesn't do a particularly spectacular one either, so I don't really understand why the director was so wowed by her (after initially refusing to even let her audition).
So yeah, some of the songs are okay, some of them are terrible, some of them are very Evanescence-y. The best ones generally involve the gravedigger character (see Zydrate above), who seemed to be the most interesting character in the movie, and was, of course, barely in it.
The computer generated sets are really nice though. I really liked the look of...whatever the city this place is set in. It was a pretty neat looking dystopian city. But I like pretty much any gothy dystopian future.
Oh, and something comic book related. There are these flashbacks told in comic book style. And by comic book style I mean there's pictures with word balloons and captions on the screen, and we go through them in sequence. There's some animation and I think a voice over or something. It seems sort of weird, but I guess it's a reasonable way to do flashbacks to "17 years ago" without having to get other actors to play the characters.g
Oh yeah, one problem I did have with them is that they _all_ happen "17 years ago" including the meeting and almost marriage between two characters, the marriage of one of those characters to someone else, and the eventual birth of their baby. That's one busy year!
If a goth rock musical sounds like something you'd like, it's probably worth watching once, even if it's not that good.
Labels: Movies
Monday, September 26, 2005
Blade Trinity
Blade Trinity
People generally didn’t seem to like Blade Trinity that much, and I know one person that hates the Blade films a lot. Still, I think they’re pretty fun generally. I don’t know. I like sci fi action movies as long as they’re not too stupid.
The plot’s the same as the other Blade movies: the vampires have some big new plan to kill all the humans/kill Blade/take over, etc. etc. In this movie they’ve brought back Dracula (Dominic Purcell), well, actually he’s not Dracula. He’s some several thousand year old guy who was also Dracula. Shrug, it’s a stupid idea, but the character is pretty good if you ignore the Dracula connection.
Blade (Wesley Snipes) is good, I liked his action scenes, but what’s the real selling point of this movie? The Nightstalkers! Yes, Hannibal King and a bunch of other people created for the movie show up. Ryan Reynolds plays a really awesome Hannibal King. I have no idea if it’s in anyway related to the comic version, in fact I’m sort of willing to bet it isn’t. This version of King practically has ADD or something. He doesn’t stop talking or making jokes at all when he’s on screen. It honestly shouldn’t work at all, but Reynolds does it in a really good way and I, at least, really liked his character.
Jessica Biel plays Abigail Whistler (Blade’s mentor’s daughter), who in the original version of the script was Frank Drake. Biel is really hot. Yeah. Anyway, her hotness is only added to because she is a wikkid ass archer. Yeah! Um, but she plays the part well too (gee, I’m shallow).
The other Nightstalkers are stupid though (well, two of them are, one of them (the driver guy) could be okay, but he only has like three lines). You want them to get killed. Kill them! I’m so bloodthirsty.
The villains are the basic business/goth vampires, which are old news now. But in one scene there are “punk”/skater/bmx vampire kids. You know I love the goth fetish vampires that appear in everything, but fuck, a movie that features vampires in non-goth, non-business clothing would be awesome. Punk vampires! (Okay, so they’re not done very well in this movie, but the idea is great).
The actors playing the main villains do a pretty good job too. Dominic Purcell (Drake) takes a pretty stupid idea and gave a good performance. Okay yeah, it’s stupid that he adapts to the 21st century so fast, and stuff, but who cares. There’s some good fight and chase scenes with him. Parker Posey is the main modern vampire. The character has ridiculous haircuts and is sort of ridiculous anyway, but she pulled off fairly well. And hell, Reynold’s character makes fun of the haircuts.
The movie does suffer from annoying kid syndrome. Though thankfully the kid isn’t in the film that much, but still. Bleh. Thankfully I can ignore the kid because a bunch of horrible dogs become horrible, gross vampire dogs. And get killed. Hah, yes!
Onto the music. I fucking hated the soundtrack to Blade II. I got it to review when I worked for The Muse, and fuck it was so terrible (I honestly don’t remember how it sounded in the movie). Now here I really liked the soundtrack. It wasn’t just rap (as the Blade II soundtrack was), and when it was rap I thought it fit. If I heard the same tracks on an album I probably would hate them.
Speaking of music, there seems to be some pretty blatant product placement for Apple (iPods and iBooks and stuff), but I was shocked to learn (according to the commentary) that Apple didn’t give them any money. iPods and stuff are mentioned by name and used all the time.
In the commentary track both Biel and Reynolds say they’d do another Blade film or a Nightstalkers film, but since then, sadly, Reynolds has said he doesn’t want to do a Nighstalkers film. Damnit! Do one! Similarly Wesley Snipes says he doesn’t want to do another Blade film. Sigh.
But! There’s a Blade TV coming show coming out on SpikeTV next year. New actors will play the characters, and there’s talk of it being a prequel. It could be good…
Now I want to go and get all buff and learn martial arts and archery and stuff. And ride a motorbike (clearly my scooter is not cool looking enough). And I need cooler clothes. Damnit, why can’t I live in a vampire movie? They always have wikkid ass clothes in them. I’m going to have to try and find something…
I also want to read Blade and Nightstalkers comics. All the Blade comics that have come out since the first movie have apparently been terrible (Marvel: just do an action comic), and I don’t have much hope for the 90’s Blade or Nightstalkers serieses (maybe they’re good?). If only I was still in Canada I could borrow all of Rodney’s Essential Tomb of Draculas, they’d be fun.
People generally didn’t seem to like Blade Trinity that much, and I know one person that hates the Blade films a lot. Still, I think they’re pretty fun generally. I don’t know. I like sci fi action movies as long as they’re not too stupid.
The plot’s the same as the other Blade movies: the vampires have some big new plan to kill all the humans/kill Blade/take over, etc. etc. In this movie they’ve brought back Dracula (Dominic Purcell), well, actually he’s not Dracula. He’s some several thousand year old guy who was also Dracula. Shrug, it’s a stupid idea, but the character is pretty good if you ignore the Dracula connection.
Blade (Wesley Snipes) is good, I liked his action scenes, but what’s the real selling point of this movie? The Nightstalkers! Yes, Hannibal King and a bunch of other people created for the movie show up. Ryan Reynolds plays a really awesome Hannibal King. I have no idea if it’s in anyway related to the comic version, in fact I’m sort of willing to bet it isn’t. This version of King practically has ADD or something. He doesn’t stop talking or making jokes at all when he’s on screen. It honestly shouldn’t work at all, but Reynolds does it in a really good way and I, at least, really liked his character.
Jessica Biel plays Abigail Whistler (Blade’s mentor’s daughter), who in the original version of the script was Frank Drake. Biel is really hot. Yeah. Anyway, her hotness is only added to because she is a wikkid ass archer. Yeah! Um, but she plays the part well too (gee, I’m shallow).
The other Nightstalkers are stupid though (well, two of them are, one of them (the driver guy) could be okay, but he only has like three lines). You want them to get killed. Kill them! I’m so bloodthirsty.
The villains are the basic business/goth vampires, which are old news now. But in one scene there are “punk”/skater/bmx vampire kids. You know I love the goth fetish vampires that appear in everything, but fuck, a movie that features vampires in non-goth, non-business clothing would be awesome. Punk vampires! (Okay, so they’re not done very well in this movie, but the idea is great).
The actors playing the main villains do a pretty good job too. Dominic Purcell (Drake) takes a pretty stupid idea and gave a good performance. Okay yeah, it’s stupid that he adapts to the 21st century so fast, and stuff, but who cares. There’s some good fight and chase scenes with him. Parker Posey is the main modern vampire. The character has ridiculous haircuts and is sort of ridiculous anyway, but she pulled off fairly well. And hell, Reynold’s character makes fun of the haircuts.
The movie does suffer from annoying kid syndrome. Though thankfully the kid isn’t in the film that much, but still. Bleh. Thankfully I can ignore the kid because a bunch of horrible dogs become horrible, gross vampire dogs. And get killed. Hah, yes!
Onto the music. I fucking hated the soundtrack to Blade II. I got it to review when I worked for The Muse, and fuck it was so terrible (I honestly don’t remember how it sounded in the movie). Now here I really liked the soundtrack. It wasn’t just rap (as the Blade II soundtrack was), and when it was rap I thought it fit. If I heard the same tracks on an album I probably would hate them.
Speaking of music, there seems to be some pretty blatant product placement for Apple (iPods and iBooks and stuff), but I was shocked to learn (according to the commentary) that Apple didn’t give them any money. iPods and stuff are mentioned by name and used all the time.
In the commentary track both Biel and Reynolds say they’d do another Blade film or a Nightstalkers film, but since then, sadly, Reynolds has said he doesn’t want to do a Nighstalkers film. Damnit! Do one! Similarly Wesley Snipes says he doesn’t want to do another Blade film. Sigh.
But! There’s a Blade TV coming show coming out on SpikeTV next year. New actors will play the characters, and there’s talk of it being a prequel. It could be good…
Now I want to go and get all buff and learn martial arts and archery and stuff. And ride a motorbike (clearly my scooter is not cool looking enough). And I need cooler clothes. Damnit, why can’t I live in a vampire movie? They always have wikkid ass clothes in them. I’m going to have to try and find something…
I also want to read Blade and Nightstalkers comics. All the Blade comics that have come out since the first movie have apparently been terrible (Marvel: just do an action comic), and I don’t have much hope for the 90’s Blade or Nightstalkers serieses (maybe they’re good?). If only I was still in Canada I could borrow all of Rodney’s Essential Tomb of Draculas, they’d be fun.
Labels: Movies
Tuesday, April 05, 2005
Movie reviews
I’ve been watching some comic book based movies recently (and eventually I will have non-superhero based reviews up here, I don’t know why I’m in such a superhero phase).
Spider-Man 2
Because I’m a bad nerd I never saw either Spider-Man or Spider-Man 2 in theatres. In fact I hadn’t seen Spider-Man until a couple of months ago when I watched it at my girlfriend’s house. I thought it was good. Anyway I was coming home the other day and stopped by Rodney’s house (yes, he will hopefully soon have reviews here too) and he said he was about to watch Spider-Man 2. I thought “I should watch this,” so I did. And I didn’t get home until 4am. This movie is long! (Okay, only two hours long, but yeah…)
I realized when I started to watch this I couldn’t remember the plot of the first movie at all. Peter becomes Spider-Man, fights the Green Goblin, Stan Lee appears, etc. But it didn’t matter that much, I mean these movies are basically taking the general idea from the comics and just putting them in a movie. I’m not sure if it works better as a movie. I mean they have the ability to just pick and choose what they want to used, they can ignore all the crap and just use the cool stuff.
And cool stuff they use in spades. I think using Dr. Octopus as the villain was a good idea, the science based villains are one of the major villain types in Spider-Man and it’s used well here. There was a good balance between the Spider-Man and Peter Parker stuff. You get your action, but you also get what makes the character so important.
Some of the dialogue was pretty lame, but I think that was in homage to the comic books themselves, which have had plenty of lame dialogue. There were some scenes where this was clearly a Sam Raimi movie. The scene in the hospital with the chain saw, it was excellent. But I have to wonder why Bruce Campbell wasn’t cast as the doctor.
Overall I thought the movie was good, but for whatever reason this review is incredibly disjointed. Um, yeah.
So what about for the next movie? I hear people constantly wanting Venom as the villain, but I don’t know if they could do him in one movie. Other ideas abound, the Lizard (I mean Dr. Curt Connors did appear in this movie… but another science villain so fast?)? Man-Wolf (sort of lame, but the John Jameson appeared in Spider-Man 2 as well, plus lots of J. Jonah Jameson)? The Green Goblin is set up too, but I think that’s too soon. Mysterio? Kraven? Sand-Man? Scorpion? Rhino? There are so many cool Spider-Man villains to choose from. I don’t really care that much as long as the sixth movie (if they get that far) is a sinister six movie.
Anyway, watch these totally wikkid lego versions of Spider-Man 2 (there’s a normal version and an alternative ending version, watch both).
Link: http://www.spiteyourface.com/spidey.html
The Cat Returns
This was one of the Studio Ghibli films released a few weeks ago. It was the one I knew the least about (I’d seen both Porco Rosso and Nausicaa before), but I picked it up anyway.
It’s a film by Hiroyuki Morita, who had worked on other Studio Ghibli films before. Hayao Miyazaki and others had been afraid of what would happen to the studio and were actively seeking out new people to direct films. However if this is representative Ghibli should be in good hands.
The movie based on a comic by Aoi Hiiragi, which hasn’t been released in English. It’s sort of a sequel to the movie Whisper of the Heart, which also isn’t in English. However where Whisper of the Heart is a drama thing, this is a comedy.
The movie follows Haru, who seems to be having some bad luck at school. On the way home she rescues a cat from a speeding van. After being saved the cat thanks her and walks away. Haru is pretty scared and confused. Stuff gets even weirder when the king of cats shows up and thanks her. Then she starts receiving gifts, which aren’t that great.
Eventually Haru meets up with Muta and the Baron (from Whisper of the Heart) and ends up in the kingdom of the cats.
It’s a really fun little story, a bit short (at 75 minutes) but over all good. I’d actually rank it higher then one of Miyazaki’s films (Kiki’s Delivery Service). However it’s not as good as similar “journey to magical kingdoms full of cute things” movie My Neighbour Totoro. But really, what is?
Unfortunately the short included on the Japanese version of the DVD isn’t included here, but overall this is definitely worth picking up if you’re looking for something cute and fun. If you’re looking for giant robots, try something else.
Link: http://www.nausicaa.net/miyazaki/neko/
Spider-Man 2
Because I’m a bad nerd I never saw either Spider-Man or Spider-Man 2 in theatres. In fact I hadn’t seen Spider-Man until a couple of months ago when I watched it at my girlfriend’s house. I thought it was good. Anyway I was coming home the other day and stopped by Rodney’s house (yes, he will hopefully soon have reviews here too) and he said he was about to watch Spider-Man 2. I thought “I should watch this,” so I did. And I didn’t get home until 4am. This movie is long! (Okay, only two hours long, but yeah…)
I realized when I started to watch this I couldn’t remember the plot of the first movie at all. Peter becomes Spider-Man, fights the Green Goblin, Stan Lee appears, etc. But it didn’t matter that much, I mean these movies are basically taking the general idea from the comics and just putting them in a movie. I’m not sure if it works better as a movie. I mean they have the ability to just pick and choose what they want to used, they can ignore all the crap and just use the cool stuff.
And cool stuff they use in spades. I think using Dr. Octopus as the villain was a good idea, the science based villains are one of the major villain types in Spider-Man and it’s used well here. There was a good balance between the Spider-Man and Peter Parker stuff. You get your action, but you also get what makes the character so important.
Some of the dialogue was pretty lame, but I think that was in homage to the comic books themselves, which have had plenty of lame dialogue. There were some scenes where this was clearly a Sam Raimi movie. The scene in the hospital with the chain saw, it was excellent. But I have to wonder why Bruce Campbell wasn’t cast as the doctor.
Overall I thought the movie was good, but for whatever reason this review is incredibly disjointed. Um, yeah.
So what about for the next movie? I hear people constantly wanting Venom as the villain, but I don’t know if they could do him in one movie. Other ideas abound, the Lizard (I mean Dr. Curt Connors did appear in this movie… but another science villain so fast?)? Man-Wolf (sort of lame, but the John Jameson appeared in Spider-Man 2 as well, plus lots of J. Jonah Jameson)? The Green Goblin is set up too, but I think that’s too soon. Mysterio? Kraven? Sand-Man? Scorpion? Rhino? There are so many cool Spider-Man villains to choose from. I don’t really care that much as long as the sixth movie (if they get that far) is a sinister six movie.
Anyway, watch these totally wikkid lego versions of Spider-Man 2 (there’s a normal version and an alternative ending version, watch both).
Link: http://www.spiteyourface.com/spidey.html
The Cat Returns
This was one of the Studio Ghibli films released a few weeks ago. It was the one I knew the least about (I’d seen both Porco Rosso and Nausicaa before), but I picked it up anyway.
It’s a film by Hiroyuki Morita, who had worked on other Studio Ghibli films before. Hayao Miyazaki and others had been afraid of what would happen to the studio and were actively seeking out new people to direct films. However if this is representative Ghibli should be in good hands.
The movie based on a comic by Aoi Hiiragi, which hasn’t been released in English. It’s sort of a sequel to the movie Whisper of the Heart, which also isn’t in English. However where Whisper of the Heart is a drama thing, this is a comedy.
The movie follows Haru, who seems to be having some bad luck at school. On the way home she rescues a cat from a speeding van. After being saved the cat thanks her and walks away. Haru is pretty scared and confused. Stuff gets even weirder when the king of cats shows up and thanks her. Then she starts receiving gifts, which aren’t that great.
Eventually Haru meets up with Muta and the Baron (from Whisper of the Heart) and ends up in the kingdom of the cats.
It’s a really fun little story, a bit short (at 75 minutes) but over all good. I’d actually rank it higher then one of Miyazaki’s films (Kiki’s Delivery Service). However it’s not as good as similar “journey to magical kingdoms full of cute things” movie My Neighbour Totoro. But really, what is?
Unfortunately the short included on the Japanese version of the DVD isn’t included here, but overall this is definitely worth picking up if you’re looking for something cute and fun. If you’re looking for giant robots, try something else.
Link: http://www.nausicaa.net/miyazaki/neko/
Labels: Movies
Tuesday, March 08, 2005
Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind
Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind
Written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki
It seems a bit odd to start a comics blog with a review of a movie, but it is a movie based on a comic, and comic reviews will start up soon enough.
I’d say I first saw Nausicaa when I was in junior high school (so at least seven years ago), and I thought it was really good. It was around this time that I also saw a number of Miyazaki’s films, and in general I thought they were excellent. However they were available only in fansubbed, bootlegged versions. Not something I could really buy in a store.
In high school Princess Mononoke (by the same writer and director) came out in theatres (even here!) and then on DVD. It was exciting, perhaps soon Miyazaki’s other films would come out.
They didn’t.
Disney owned the rights to release the rest of the Studio Ghibli films, but choose to do it incredibly slowly for some reason. Waiting for ever and ever to release them.
While I was in high school I bought the collected versions of Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind. Written and drawn by Miyazaki (I believe the only long form comic Miyazaki has completed), the manga is the basis for the movie. However Nausicaa is unlike many other manga to anime adaptations. For one the manga was unfinished when the anime was made, only the first two (of seven) volumes were completed when Miyazaki made the movie. These two volumes cover about the first half of the movie, while the second half of the movie goes in a different direction then the manga eventually did. The manga took over twelve years to be produced, starting in 1982 and not finishing until 1994 (though there were a number of break years as Miyazaki worked on movies). The manga was excellent and it only made me want to see the movie again more, but I couldn’t.
(The version I have is the four volume set released by Viz in the mid nineties. It’s larger then the current size most manga is put out in, but smaller then a traditional American comic. Currently there’s a new, larger, edition out that looks really nice and is tempting me to buy it again. I will be strong though.)
In 2002 (I was in university by this point) Spirited Away came out in theatres. In 2003 Disney released Spirited Away on DVD, additionally they released Laputa, Castle in the Sky and Kiki’s Delivery Service, with promises of more DVD releases of Studio Ghibli films to come. The excitement of it all!
Three more Studio Ghibli films were supposed to be released in 2004. And so I waited, and waited and 2004 passed and still I waited. And finally they were released. I hate Disney so much, I just want them to release these films in a vaguely timely matter.
It’s been twenty years since Nausicaa originally came out, and at least seven since I originally saw it in a bootlegged, fansubbed version, but finally I have a copy of my own (though even that was difficult).
When I heard the DVDs were coming out I did not rush out immediately to buy them as that would mean going to one of the places I like the least: the mall. However, later that week I had the misfortune of being in the mall and went to buy them. The first store I went into didn’t have it. They had Porco Rosso, but that was it (they did however have lots and lots of copies of Porco Rosso). So on I went to discover that the other stores didn’t even have Poroco Rosso. I resigned myself to not owning Nausicaa for a while yet. Meanwhile two of my friends had journeyed to the ends of the earth (the other side of town) to get copies of Nausicaa after phoning up every DVD selling place in town they had found one store that had three copies of it.
About a week later I discovered that my girlfriend was in the mall area and was actually (shock horror) going into the mall itself. I asked her to get me the DVDs and said I’d pay her back if she could get them. Success! I had acquired both Nausicaa and The Cat Returns, my collection of legitimate Studio Ghibli films is complete once more (until, hopefully, next year). But I was now faced with a new problem. I had moved and did not have a DVD player at my new house. In fact I didn’t even have a television. Almost a week went by before I could acquire a television and a DVD player (during this week I lent out my copies of Porco Rosso and The Cat Returns to a roommate and a friend who could watch them elsewhere).
Finally I could watch it. Myself and my roommates hooked up the television and DVD player (actually a PS2), though even this caused problems (why does our living room have so few electrical outlets? We shouldn’t have to use an electrical socket in the kitchen to watch a movie), and we were able to watch the movie. I was vaguely worried that it wouldn’t be as good as I remembered it. It had been a long time since I had seen it, and perhaps I wouldn’t like it this time.
Thankfully I was wrong; the movie was as good as I remembered it. Since it had been a long time since I had seen the movie, and since I had read the manga, giving an alternate series of events since then, the movie even held certain surprises for me. Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind is set one thousand years after the collapse of civilization. Much of the world has been destroyed and a giant forest of poisonous plants and giant insects dominates. Beyond the edges of this forest lies a desert, and the occasional fertile area where humans can still survive. Those humans that are still around haven’t really learnt much and still plot war and destruction, the newest plan being one to destroy the forest by using one of the weapons used to hurt the earth in the first place (Nausicaa, like several of Studio Ghibli’s other films, has a fairly central environmental message).
Nausicaa is a princess, and a popular one. But unlike the princesses that you see in many of Disney’s movies she takes action. Nausicaa makes frequent trips into the forest on her glider to view the plans and insects that live there. When the weapon ends up in Nausicaa’s valley, she does her best to keep the fighting and violence away from her people there. Nausicaa travels across the land and meets (and sometimes fights) people and tries to discover what is best for her land and her people.
The animation is generally strong, though there are a few weak points, and features some beautifully designed flying machines and animals. The characters are well developed, though the ideas of good and evil are not as muddled as they are in the comic (but as Miyazaki had far more room in the comic to develop characters this can easily be excused). The music can be very eighties in a few parts too, but like the rest of the movie is generally excellent.
The DVD comes with a number of extras, including complete storyboards (sort of pointless), all the Japanese trailers (mind numbingly boring after 8 minutes of the same footage being used over and over again), a documentary I haven’t watched yet but that’s supposed to be pretty good, and an interview with the English voice actors. I’ll probably never hear the English dub, they’re generally pretty crappy. And even if they are good (like Princess Mononoke’s was, I’m unlikely to watch them as the dialogue will have been changed for North American audiences. I’m not even sure who they’re aimed at. Little kids I guess.
One thing that is currently puzzling me is a scene I thought I had remembered from Nausicaa when I saw it many years ago. It was a scene where two characters (the male and female leads I believe) are chasing each other through a forest while a battle between the two sides they represent is fought by a castle nearby. I had thought this scene was in this movie, but it is not. Where on earth is from?
So was it worth the wait? Yes. Though I wish that I hadn’t had to wait at all. I wonder how long I will have to wait until the next DVD releases (Howl’s Moving Castle, My Neighbour Totoro and…?). Probably at least a year, hopefully not another two.
Still to come: Reviews of Porco Rosso and The Cat Returns (over the next few weeks), and reviews of Valiant and Milestone comics later this week.
Written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki
It seems a bit odd to start a comics blog with a review of a movie, but it is a movie based on a comic, and comic reviews will start up soon enough.
I’d say I first saw Nausicaa when I was in junior high school (so at least seven years ago), and I thought it was really good. It was around this time that I also saw a number of Miyazaki’s films, and in general I thought they were excellent. However they were available only in fansubbed, bootlegged versions. Not something I could really buy in a store.
In high school Princess Mononoke (by the same writer and director) came out in theatres (even here!) and then on DVD. It was exciting, perhaps soon Miyazaki’s other films would come out.
They didn’t.
Disney owned the rights to release the rest of the Studio Ghibli films, but choose to do it incredibly slowly for some reason. Waiting for ever and ever to release them.
While I was in high school I bought the collected versions of Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind. Written and drawn by Miyazaki (I believe the only long form comic Miyazaki has completed), the manga is the basis for the movie. However Nausicaa is unlike many other manga to anime adaptations. For one the manga was unfinished when the anime was made, only the first two (of seven) volumes were completed when Miyazaki made the movie. These two volumes cover about the first half of the movie, while the second half of the movie goes in a different direction then the manga eventually did. The manga took over twelve years to be produced, starting in 1982 and not finishing until 1994 (though there were a number of break years as Miyazaki worked on movies). The manga was excellent and it only made me want to see the movie again more, but I couldn’t.
(The version I have is the four volume set released by Viz in the mid nineties. It’s larger then the current size most manga is put out in, but smaller then a traditional American comic. Currently there’s a new, larger, edition out that looks really nice and is tempting me to buy it again. I will be strong though.)
In 2002 (I was in university by this point) Spirited Away came out in theatres. In 2003 Disney released Spirited Away on DVD, additionally they released Laputa, Castle in the Sky and Kiki’s Delivery Service, with promises of more DVD releases of Studio Ghibli films to come. The excitement of it all!
Three more Studio Ghibli films were supposed to be released in 2004. And so I waited, and waited and 2004 passed and still I waited. And finally they were released. I hate Disney so much, I just want them to release these films in a vaguely timely matter.
It’s been twenty years since Nausicaa originally came out, and at least seven since I originally saw it in a bootlegged, fansubbed version, but finally I have a copy of my own (though even that was difficult).
When I heard the DVDs were coming out I did not rush out immediately to buy them as that would mean going to one of the places I like the least: the mall. However, later that week I had the misfortune of being in the mall and went to buy them. The first store I went into didn’t have it. They had Porco Rosso, but that was it (they did however have lots and lots of copies of Porco Rosso). So on I went to discover that the other stores didn’t even have Poroco Rosso. I resigned myself to not owning Nausicaa for a while yet. Meanwhile two of my friends had journeyed to the ends of the earth (the other side of town) to get copies of Nausicaa after phoning up every DVD selling place in town they had found one store that had three copies of it.
About a week later I discovered that my girlfriend was in the mall area and was actually (shock horror) going into the mall itself. I asked her to get me the DVDs and said I’d pay her back if she could get them. Success! I had acquired both Nausicaa and The Cat Returns, my collection of legitimate Studio Ghibli films is complete once more (until, hopefully, next year). But I was now faced with a new problem. I had moved and did not have a DVD player at my new house. In fact I didn’t even have a television. Almost a week went by before I could acquire a television and a DVD player (during this week I lent out my copies of Porco Rosso and The Cat Returns to a roommate and a friend who could watch them elsewhere).
Finally I could watch it. Myself and my roommates hooked up the television and DVD player (actually a PS2), though even this caused problems (why does our living room have so few electrical outlets? We shouldn’t have to use an electrical socket in the kitchen to watch a movie), and we were able to watch the movie. I was vaguely worried that it wouldn’t be as good as I remembered it. It had been a long time since I had seen it, and perhaps I wouldn’t like it this time.
Thankfully I was wrong; the movie was as good as I remembered it. Since it had been a long time since I had seen the movie, and since I had read the manga, giving an alternate series of events since then, the movie even held certain surprises for me. Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind is set one thousand years after the collapse of civilization. Much of the world has been destroyed and a giant forest of poisonous plants and giant insects dominates. Beyond the edges of this forest lies a desert, and the occasional fertile area where humans can still survive. Those humans that are still around haven’t really learnt much and still plot war and destruction, the newest plan being one to destroy the forest by using one of the weapons used to hurt the earth in the first place (Nausicaa, like several of Studio Ghibli’s other films, has a fairly central environmental message).
Nausicaa is a princess, and a popular one. But unlike the princesses that you see in many of Disney’s movies she takes action. Nausicaa makes frequent trips into the forest on her glider to view the plans and insects that live there. When the weapon ends up in Nausicaa’s valley, she does her best to keep the fighting and violence away from her people there. Nausicaa travels across the land and meets (and sometimes fights) people and tries to discover what is best for her land and her people.
The animation is generally strong, though there are a few weak points, and features some beautifully designed flying machines and animals. The characters are well developed, though the ideas of good and evil are not as muddled as they are in the comic (but as Miyazaki had far more room in the comic to develop characters this can easily be excused). The music can be very eighties in a few parts too, but like the rest of the movie is generally excellent.
The DVD comes with a number of extras, including complete storyboards (sort of pointless), all the Japanese trailers (mind numbingly boring after 8 minutes of the same footage being used over and over again), a documentary I haven’t watched yet but that’s supposed to be pretty good, and an interview with the English voice actors. I’ll probably never hear the English dub, they’re generally pretty crappy. And even if they are good (like Princess Mononoke’s was, I’m unlikely to watch them as the dialogue will have been changed for North American audiences. I’m not even sure who they’re aimed at. Little kids I guess.
One thing that is currently puzzling me is a scene I thought I had remembered from Nausicaa when I saw it many years ago. It was a scene where two characters (the male and female leads I believe) are chasing each other through a forest while a battle between the two sides they represent is fought by a castle nearby. I had thought this scene was in this movie, but it is not. Where on earth is from?
So was it worth the wait? Yes. Though I wish that I hadn’t had to wait at all. I wonder how long I will have to wait until the next DVD releases (Howl’s Moving Castle, My Neighbour Totoro and…?). Probably at least a year, hopefully not another two.
Still to come: Reviews of Porco Rosso and The Cat Returns (over the next few weeks), and reviews of Valiant and Milestone comics later this week.
Labels: Movies
