aleclemlij

Friend of mine read a review saying this movie reminded the reviewer of a Miyazaki film. Being a Ghibli fan myself, I had to watch it. Lets see: The movie isn't bad. It brings a lot of nostalgia of that bitter-sweet moment we all had as children: our first love. All the happy moments and all the emotional roller-coaster that came with it. My problem are the voice overs. The ENTIRE movie format is based on them. We're already seeing whats happening so we don't need the protagonists explaining it to us. Maybe some small bits would've worked. But not every single step. Not the full time. It gets tedious. If you can bypass that, then the movie isn't too bad.

I'm a grown up and a reasonable man, so I have no problem in understanding when a movie is "for girls, by girls". But using vampires or any other popular character type, you have to respect the basic standards. Vampires don't sparkle in the sun, they die. Vampires have fangs. If I'm seeing a movie about vampires and werewolfs, I want to SEE vampires and werewolfs. (AT LEAST go to the dollar shop and buy some plastic fangs) Sure, girls reading this review might disagree because I'm a man. But how would you feel if someone made a Barbie movie and give Barbie a machine gun??!! Betrayed? Ripped off?? Directors would be killing the very essence of the character. And thats EXACTLY how I feel here. It just doesn't work. And I'm being extremely generous with this review. I could go on an endless rant but I guess the lack of stars speak for itself.

Nothing new under the sun, nor under the land of the RISING sun. Battle Royale was probably based on Wedlock, and this one was based on Battle Royale itself. Being both a WWE fan and Asian cinema fan, I wouldn't have any problem with that. But similarities felt like a lot more than just coincidences: You can NOT mess with a great and cult movie like Battle Royale and do it wrong: This movie was a Battle Royale RIP-OFF. Basically add 15% of "The Running Man" ,85% of Battle Royale, remove all emotions replace them with action and thats it. I loved old-school WWE and how the rattlesnake Stone Cold Steve Austin drank beer and drove Vince insane every time, when wrestling had attitude (pun intended) and Stone Cold was the master of the middle finger, so you might as well call me a Stone Cold fan. But here, I was disappointed by the acting and the script. . Still an OK movie, but not a "good" one. Nothing new or original. Go with battle royale instead