Kaiju No. 8: Mission Recon

This movie and anime is just so corny and predictable and the soundtrack are the corniest sounds that have entered my ear i wish i could delete my memories of this bum movie Rarely has a film packed so many cringe-worthy moments into such a short runtime.

Kaiju tries hard to be epic - but ends up somewhere between an unintentional comedy and a film school project that should've never made it out of the editing room. The dialogue? Pure cringe. The plot? As full of holes as Swiss cheese in an earthquake. And the direction is dripping with cheap pathos and corny moments that make you genuinely wonder if this was meant to be taken seriously.

Nothing about this film feels authentic or convincing - except maybe the gnawing sense that you've just wasted your time. Anyone hoping to get emotionally invested should first bury all expectations for storytelling and logic.

Kafka had given up on his dream of joining the defense force until a new colleague convinced him otherwise. While preparing for the entrance exam, Kafka is in a peculiar situation, becoming a monster he hopes to vanquish one day. Determined to catch up to his childhood friend, he sets out to achieve his goal while hiding his secret.

This anime movie is the first season streamlined and compressed into a one-hour and fifty-minute runtime. The story is excellent, taking a fresh take on Kaijus. The anime has great action sequences, comedy, and a great cast of characters. The movie has a short sequence that is not part of season one and gives more time to the supporting cast but does not do much to change the story's trajectory. This movie is superb for those wanting to get into it. This movie will be an excellent refresher or boring for those who have already seen season one.

"Kafka" had tried to join the elite defence force but had realised his own limitations and instead taken up a job cleaning up after them as they police a Japan frequently assaulted by deadly "Kaiju". When team gets a newbie, "Ishikawa", this younger lad politely but pointedly stresses that he is aiming for more, but he understands why his new colleague "quit"! Subliminally provocative? Well as the pair start to work together, the former man starts to get a little of his mojo back and so when the Force extends it's age limits, he decides to have another go. Meantime, his would-be colleagues are facing their biggest challenge ever as the mysterious and powerful "Kaiju No. 8" continues to evade them. Now we know a little more about that that the soldiers do, and that helps tee this story up for quite a dramatic ending that tests loyalty, trust and friendships across the board as peril ebbs ever closer and the monsters starts to acquire some distinctly zombie traits. This is a solidly executed and quickly paced adventure that spends a little time building the characters, but for the most part just engages us in an action-packed squash the baddies festival with plenty of squelching and loads of gunge and goo covering the street as and "Kaiju" and buildings prove to be collateral damage during the battles. There's a bit of sarcasm hidden in the dialogue which I quite liked, and the messages of team playing, inter-reliance and of age not necessarily being a barrier to attaining your goals are here but not laboured. Stick around after the credits, there's another twenty minutes or so that serves to humanise some of these folks, and if you're looking for a colourfully vibrant series of shoot/slice/blow 'em ups, then this is for you. Not quite sure how menacing the "sunflower thrust" would be, though...?

The movie skips over some of the best fights of the series and the entire last two episodes, just so it can use the last 20 minutes to show a boring pointless side story. Just watch the original anime, cause I can guarantee you'll have a much better experience with that than with this movie.

I would only recommend this movie to people who have already watched the original anime, since although it does skip some amazing action scenes, the cinema experience does definitely hype up the still remaining fight scenes with the big screen and boosted up sound quality. Even though I'm a bit disappointed with how the movie butchered the anime, It did manage to give me some chills a couple of times.

Had to see it on the big screen and it did not disappoint me. Usually theaters have the sound too low when they are playing special anime features, but not this time at the Alamo. They did a good job condensing the first season into a movie. There were only a couple places where the jumps in time didn't work. The problem though is the first three quarters is exciting, dramatic and funny, whereas the ending is a slice of life comedy that just feels completely out of place. If you have already watched the tv series it shouldn't bother you, but if you haven't it will seem really weird. Remember to stay when the first credits start rolling, they come on twice before the actual ending I think?

Enjoy!