Okay, her eyes are weird; once that fact is accepted, this movie is a joy to behold. At the recommendation of a friend of Janelle's, we picked up this movie a little while ago, and it has been sitting in our "to watch" pile (which we have been slowly whittling down). It immediately became one of my favorite sci-fi dystopian movies, even earning a place near our beloved The Fifth Element.
I do not know anything about the anime upon which this movie is based, but the movie does an excellent job capturing the graphic novel feel (which is not a huge surprise considering the director Robert Rodriguez's experience with movies like Sin City). The world built is both fantastic (in the sense of being like a fantasy) and believable (more so than the Maze Runner series we recently watched). I ended the movie still intrigued about the "history" of this future vision of our world. There are so many questions that I have--and hope that future installments will provide.
What I truly loved was the characters. The actors do an amazing job of making me care about their characters and their situations. I've already made a Maze Runner connection, but I should note that Rosa Salazar, who did a great job in the last two Maze Runner movies, really came into her own with this film--despite the large amount of CG enhancement her character takes. For playing a cyborg, her character's human reactions and emotions were a main selling point of the film for me. I should also mention that Mahershala Ali was not given enough screen time; his presence is undeniable even when given an otherwise cliche bad guy to play.
My regret about this movie is that I did not see it at the theater; this is a movie that certainly deserves a big screen showing. In fact, I wish I could have seen it in 3D as not only was it filmed using 3D cameras, but its producer is none other than the 3D master James Cameron himself (which also explains the believable, yet fantastic, world design). I will just have to settle for watching it again ... and perhaps again ... and so on until the sequel hopefully comes out.
I do not know anything about the anime upon which this movie is based, but the movie does an excellent job capturing the graphic novel feel (which is not a huge surprise considering the director Robert Rodriguez's experience with movies like Sin City). The world built is both fantastic (in the sense of being like a fantasy) and believable (more so than the Maze Runner series we recently watched). I ended the movie still intrigued about the "history" of this future vision of our world. There are so many questions that I have--and hope that future installments will provide.
What I truly loved was the characters. The actors do an amazing job of making me care about their characters and their situations. I've already made a Maze Runner connection, but I should note that Rosa Salazar, who did a great job in the last two Maze Runner movies, really came into her own with this film--despite the large amount of CG enhancement her character takes. For playing a cyborg, her character's human reactions and emotions were a main selling point of the film for me. I should also mention that Mahershala Ali was not given enough screen time; his presence is undeniable even when given an otherwise cliche bad guy to play.
My regret about this movie is that I did not see it at the theater; this is a movie that certainly deserves a big screen showing. In fact, I wish I could have seen it in 3D as not only was it filmed using 3D cameras, but its producer is none other than the 3D master James Cameron himself (which also explains the believable, yet fantastic, world design). I will just have to settle for watching it again ... and perhaps again ... and so on until the sequel hopefully comes out.
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