Smeelia
Thousand Master
009 Re: Cyborg
Interestingly, although this is apparently made by the "Stand Alone Complex" guy of Ghost in the Shell, it reminded me more of Innocence. It seemed a little too concerned with trying to come up with some big and clever philosophical idea/statement and that made the film more difficult to enjoy. Innocence managed to somewhat get away with this by having decent characters and a reasonable investigation story for the main plot, unfortunately 009 Re: Cyborg struggles in both areas.
One of the central themes of the movie seems to be "trust" but I'd say it's handled badly throughout. At one point, there's a critical dangerous situation and two people who don't fully trust each other are in a position to stop it. Rather than dealing with the immediate danger, they'd rather have a bit of a debate and get distracted by each other. It's frustrating because trust really isn't necessary in the situation, they could easily handle the threat then worry about if they're going to have to fight it out afterwards.
The dialogue tries to be clever by having people make ambiguous statements and never clarify their meaning but it's generally obvious what they really mean and they're really just being silly. In general, the characters act and react more based on where the writer wants the plot to go than as a believable consequence of their personalities. It's difficult to have any sympathy for (or interest in) the characters when they spend most of their time with what essentially boils down to petty bickering. The characters that do seem the most interesting also tend to get sidelined (though perhaps the reason they're more interesting is because they're less involved in the plot and thus are less affected by the silliness).
If I'm honest, I think I understood what the philosophical rambling was trying to say. I don't think it was saying it very well and I don't think it was as clever as it seemed to think but I'm fairly confident I understood it. If I had to summarise it, it basically boils down to "People have different ideas about the way the world should be".
Unfortunately, the plot is closely tied to the philosophical rambling so in the end it doesn't really feel like much has been achieved. There are an awful lot of unanswered questions, plot holes and gaps in logic and I found them difficult to ignore. I'd imagine there are a lot of things I could go on about but it'd be tough to deal with them without major spoilers.
Still, even despite the flaws I didn't hate the film and I'd say I did somewhat enjoy it. The action scenes are generally quite decent and I liked the art and character designs for the most part. The actual Cyborg team seemed like they could have potential if they had decent characterisation and plot to work with. I have to admit, part of my enjoyment was probably also fuelled by the unintended hilarity of some of the moments.
I suppose I should note that I haven't seen any 009 stuff before, perhaps that would have an effect on someone's enjoyment of the movie. I'm not sure it would be a positive effect though, I get the feeling the characters might have had more to them in previous instalments and may not have been so well handled here (at least, I'd like to think that's the case).
So overall, it wasn't great and I don't think I could really recommend it to anyone. I wouldn't say it was the worst thing in the world and it might be watchable purely for the visuals but I do think the story and dialogue might get in the way at times even then.
Interestingly, although this is apparently made by the "Stand Alone Complex" guy of Ghost in the Shell, it reminded me more of Innocence. It seemed a little too concerned with trying to come up with some big and clever philosophical idea/statement and that made the film more difficult to enjoy. Innocence managed to somewhat get away with this by having decent characters and a reasonable investigation story for the main plot, unfortunately 009 Re: Cyborg struggles in both areas.
One of the central themes of the movie seems to be "trust" but I'd say it's handled badly throughout. At one point, there's a critical dangerous situation and two people who don't fully trust each other are in a position to stop it. Rather than dealing with the immediate danger, they'd rather have a bit of a debate and get distracted by each other. It's frustrating because trust really isn't necessary in the situation, they could easily handle the threat then worry about if they're going to have to fight it out afterwards.
The dialogue tries to be clever by having people make ambiguous statements and never clarify their meaning but it's generally obvious what they really mean and they're really just being silly. In general, the characters act and react more based on where the writer wants the plot to go than as a believable consequence of their personalities. It's difficult to have any sympathy for (or interest in) the characters when they spend most of their time with what essentially boils down to petty bickering. The characters that do seem the most interesting also tend to get sidelined (though perhaps the reason they're more interesting is because they're less involved in the plot and thus are less affected by the silliness).
If I'm honest, I think I understood what the philosophical rambling was trying to say. I don't think it was saying it very well and I don't think it was as clever as it seemed to think but I'm fairly confident I understood it. If I had to summarise it, it basically boils down to "People have different ideas about the way the world should be".
Unfortunately, the plot is closely tied to the philosophical rambling so in the end it doesn't really feel like much has been achieved. There are an awful lot of unanswered questions, plot holes and gaps in logic and I found them difficult to ignore. I'd imagine there are a lot of things I could go on about but it'd be tough to deal with them without major spoilers.
Still, even despite the flaws I didn't hate the film and I'd say I did somewhat enjoy it. The action scenes are generally quite decent and I liked the art and character designs for the most part. The actual Cyborg team seemed like they could have potential if they had decent characterisation and plot to work with. I have to admit, part of my enjoyment was probably also fuelled by the unintended hilarity of some of the moments.
I suppose I should note that I haven't seen any 009 stuff before, perhaps that would have an effect on someone's enjoyment of the movie. I'm not sure it would be a positive effect though, I get the feeling the characters might have had more to them in previous instalments and may not have been so well handled here (at least, I'd like to think that's the case).
So overall, it wasn't great and I don't think I could really recommend it to anyone. I wouldn't say it was the worst thing in the world and it might be watchable purely for the visuals but I do think the story and dialogue might get in the way at times even then.
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