Ok so I went to that all nighter thing on Saturday this is what I thoughs of the movies
Akira: Its easy to forget after so long without seeing it just how great a movie Akira is. It just doesn't put a foot wrong and easily deserves all the hype it gets. And that soundtrack surely up there as one of the most haunting and memorable, not a note out of place. Looks great in HD too.
Eden of the east air communication: This is where things start to go down hill. Its just not very good. I wasn't expecting the whole thing to be redone or anything, but a couple of extra scenes to perhapes shed a bit more light or even just to help the edited down series flow better would have been appreciated. What we do get though is a rather irritating and pointless running commentary by a few of the cast. It was hard enough for me(someone who recently saw the show) to distinguish between the voices, but somone who has never seen the show will probably find this completely impossible, it also doesn't help that some of the characters doing the commentary aren't even revealed until late on thus further alienating a newcomer. To be honest it was even hard at times to distinguish what was commentary and what was really been said in the scene. A pretty bad system, especially when its mostly just used for light comic relief.
Another problem is that the show in its full form is convoluted enough, but in this version if your not already familiar with the story its practically impossible to keep up with, the ideas are explained way too fast.
Unltimately this was neither here nor there and unsatisfying for everyone, it doesn't do the show justice. Still at least all the major scenes were there.- 5/10
Eden of the east: King of Eden: This is probably the first time I felt a bit let down by Kamiyama. Of all the anime directors out there you'd think surely he's one that could definitely nail a feature length film(thanks to all the movie references in his work), sadly it wasn't meant to be. This movie answers next to none of the questions you'd have hoped would have been, instead it just gives us more un anwsered questions to ponder.
Rather like Air Communication, this movie also suffers somewhat form occasionally throwing too much information at you too fast. It was ok in series as it came at a slightly slower pace and was digestible. Unfortunately in movie form certain elemets of the story managed to lose me, as I just couldn't process it that quick. But hey maybe I' slow.
Now onto the biggest flaw of the movie. While the series left us guessing at certian loose ends, it was ok as it still provided us with a somewhat satisfying climax to the show. King of Eden attempts no such satisfyng climax, and just suddenly ends. When it did even though the cinema audience said nothing, you could almost feel everyone at the same time thinking " What?!... is that it!".
All of this leaves Kamiyama's next Eden film with a lot of explaining to do, and while I don't doubt he will do provide a satisfying end to the story, I have to wonder why they didn't just make it a 24 ep series rather than bother with these "movies". Because to be honest this one was more like the first part of a 2 part TV special(with the second part coming the week after) rather than a proper movie.
Still it is the same style of bourne-lite entertainment, and will provide some enjoyment to fans. My honest advice to Eden fans: don't see this yet you'll only be disappointed wait until the second movie comes out and watch them back to back.- 6/10
Redline: Genius. Genius with a generous helping of maddness. Just a perfect film really, and absolutely beautiful to look at. Mad house at the top of their game. Stole the show completely for me.- 9/10
I didn't watch the last film I decided the leave on the high of Redline.
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