Garm Wars: The Last Druid

I watched the Garm Wars, a movie nobody knows of, even when it's written and directed by Mamoru Oshii. Despite having English actors, it feels as if it's an anime movie that follows all the trademarks of Oshii. That dog he loves so much is there, and the characters simply exist to talk about existentialism.

It's pretty heavy on CGI and it feels like it's cut scenes from a PS3 video game. If you expect to see only super duper polished CGI, then you are not going to like it. If you manage to see past that, as far as setting and atmosphere goes, it is superb.

It's also a patchwork of a dozen cool sci-fi anime of the past. At times it's like Ghost in the Shell, at others it's like Sky Crawlers, or Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind. The nostalgic side of me was jumping from joy. The problem is the usual way Oshii writes plots and characters. Everything is dull and mechanical. You don't feel the characters are alive and thus whatever they say about the meaning of life feels dead.

The movie is also so concept based that the actual plot becomes an afterthought. Characters do stuff for the sake of progressing the story and not because it makes sense or feels natural. In fact half of it is exposition and couch philosophy, while the ending is open for a sequel. So, it's Cool concepts, thought provoking material, great atmosphere, but not entertaining or that appealing. Recommended only if you like something like Texnolyze.

Animation can not solve everything , story can be better but crachters, names, action was not good.

OK so this film is insane. For two reasons:

1- for being utter nonsensical fantasy gibberish 2- for investing as much time, effort and money into developing such a bonkers story into such an amazingly vivid spectacle of CGI beauty.

Nothing about this film made much of any sense to me. I've just finished watching it and literally have NO idea what a Garm is. Absolutely none. I understood nothing about this film other than some mad old bloke and some woman with a gun were on the run, accompanied by some other bloke with an unreasonably large gun.

Now, I said this film was visually beautiful, and it is. There are some breathtaking scenes in it. Unfortunately, to balance that out and reinforce the rating of a majestic four that I have given it, they have countered these high action scenes with two really, REALLY long scenes of the aforementioned people just sitting on their buttocks discussing the also aforementioned nonsensical drivel.

So the only way I would recommend this film to you is if you were really high, and even then I would suggest fast forwarding through the beach scene and any other time they seem to be too focused on the act of talking. The only strength of this film lies in its aesthetic beauty and I will admit the dog was the only element of bafflement that I found entertaining.

..and if you aren't high, then do yourself a favour and pick any other film in the world.

Garm Wars is a cyberpunk sci fi with a distinctly Japanese flavour. This is perhaps not surprising given the director is Japanese.

This story mixes a lot of cyberpunk elements, high tech, social disruption in the form of a war of attrition as well as spiritual elements, with the presence of a menacing, seemingly omnipotent, alien other.

Perhaps, whats most conspicuous in this fantasy outing, is the special effects. A lot of work has gone into the technological mechanisms and machinery that dominate this world. The effects are of a high standard and very intricate but at times they tend to make this film feel overly busy. So much so, that its easy for the senses to feel a little overloaded at times.

The acting is of a good standard and includes a solid cast, with some well known faces, such as Lance Hendrickson and Kevin Durand. There's plenty of action too, especially early on to keep things interesting.

All in all a worthwhile watch that looks to have set itself up for a sequel. Seven out of ten from me.

The 2 star review is right, there's no beginning, there's no end, there's barely a story. It's more like a showpiece for the CGI studio than a movie. I finished watching it and really had no idea what just happened.

To be fair the effects, model creation, and scores are fantastic, unfortunately too much time is devoted to them instead of actual character/story development.

Apparently the story universe is created by the director/writer just for this movie, I have to say it has good potential, but this movie did not take advantage of it. Hopefully we will see a sequel to better develop it.

Hey, if you are bored on a Saturday night, why not, certainly not the worst movie out there.