20th Century Boys

Could 20th Century Boys be the Japanese Watchmen? Like in the case of Alan Moore's masterpiece, Urasawa's sprawling story covers the cultural myths and obsessions of the past century: from the nuclear catastrophe following the war to the western cultural influences, conformism and totalitarian tendencies, the demilitarized, defenseless Japan, the economic boom of the sixties . Even a touch of mecha and the pervasiveness of media in society.

Judging the movie, however, can be more difficult: its competently shot and acted, but like most transpositions, it makes its manga origin very clear, which can be appalling for the manga-illiterate in the audience, which at the projections I was sighed, left early or giggled in all the wrong places. Sound editing was awful, but it might be a result of the copy I saw.

Where the film could use some help is in the editing. Fans will appreciate the attempt to be faithful to the original source, but movies simply work in a different way: act II is too long, and the final climax and resolution is reduced to a few choppy scenes. It might definitely look better when parts 2 and 3 are released.

The story is interesting to begin with, with a bunch of kids creating an "end of the world" story and then watching it made come true when they are adults. They embark on a mission to save the world, as their original story prophesied.

However, the plot is really weird. There is a virus that kills people by making their blood explode, but it seems it is not contagious, it needs to be sprayed on. A giant robot smashes through Tokyo and the police stop in front of it to shoot guns. The leader of a hypnotic cult becomes the leader of the most important party in Japan, and so on and so on.

Then, as world saviors go, the heroes are the most inept I have ever seen. The movie is very long, at 142 minutes, and it is only the first part of a three film story. The acting is pretty bad, too.

Bottom line: it seems this is a failed attempt to mix the success of the Death Note franchise (I don't know what that thing was successful either) and the comic book/manga craze that is taking over the movie world in the US and the rest of the world. There is a feel reminiscent of Watchmen in the film, but only a trace. I am not saying that it is not worth watching, but I can't say I liked it.

20th Century Boys has more twists and turns than you can count and it pulls no punches when it comes to waving "Bye-bye-bye" to main characters. Unfortunately, in my opinion, that was one of this film's drawbacks, the characters. There was at least a dozen characters to keep track of and it becomes a bit daunting figuring out which friend is which and who is who. It wasn't physics or anything but careful attention to the film will be required.

Outside of that, 20th Century Boys was thrilling and the production design fantastic, my 11-year-old loved it and I was thoroughly entertained. Decent dialog? Check. Meaningful character arcs? Check. Heartwarming moments? Check.

After having the privilege of watching the first and second films in this series, I'd say I'm a fan of the 20th Century Boys series and I'm undoubtedly looking forward to the third installment slated for fall. This first installment can indeed be a slippery beast if you don't pay attention but if attention span isn't a problem for you and a bevy of "Who the hell was that again?" characters don't bother you, you're in for some major entertainment! I honestly couldn't find anything that I didn't like about this film, really. Sure there were quite a few "childhood flashbacks" but they're necessary so suck it up, plug it in and have a ball! Hopefully when this hits the states it's not trimmed down by an hour for the ADHD crowd.

Good, strange film this.

it's tongue in cheek, live action straight out of the manga comics. You don't need to have seen any of the Manga series to tell where to origins of this film come from.

the flashbacks are done well, the story is strange but flows nicely, and there is a great soundtrack.

Looking forward to the next two films, as anyone who has seen this will confirm, it would have been a very annoying ending had this not already been planned to be a trilogy.

This film seems to have had a relatively big budget, according to IMDb and wiki, for the type of film it is, which is good to see.

I have not yet had the pleasure of reading the original Manga of the same name, and as with many other live action adaptations, can understand if the films have to leave out or change material to make the production work...

I can't speak for this film series, but what I do know is that it is huge!

Both huge on characters and story, you can forgive any slip ups it may have in trying to pack in as much as possible in the name of entertainment. And entertain it most certainly does. The first hour introduces most of the characters via childhood flashbacks and reunions offering up some great moments and plenty of funny scenes.

Once we reach the second hour, the action kicks in and the madness begins!

I just love this film and its sequels. The cast is fantastic and to be honest, I can't really think of a thing to complain about. Its intense, its funny, its big and its well worth a watch if you are looking something a little different.