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That movie, from the same guy who made the also very boring "Avalon", is very similar to it: - Great special effects - Everything is gray all the time, giving you the chance to take a nap - No story - Looooooong scenes that never end, containing nothing.

Just as an example, there is a scene of a guy eating for 3 minutes at some points. And not a nice artistic scene or something that make the story to advance. Just 3 minutes of a guy eating like a pig.

Well, if you rented this movie, I would recommend you to go immediately to the 10 last minutes of it. That's the only interesting part. And, if the movie had been exactly those 10 minutes for the entire length of it, maybe it would have had some potential.

To read another review that seems to exactly write what I wanted to say, go read the review from "Paul Haakonsen". It's exactly that !

I picked this up on a lark because the cover was three hot Japanese babes, and the flick was directed by the same guy behind Ghost in the Shell. For a bargain bin find, it was well worth it.

I'll say straight away, if you're not into hard sci fi (especially written hard sci fi), you're probably going to find it dragging and dull, and you're going to hate the intro.

If you don't really like Japanese movies/anime/manga, you might struggle to like this film. If this is your first Japanese movie, put it down, and go pick up Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children instead, it has a more universal appeal, and fewer long scenes that don't advance the plot.

The basic plot: The world had some big problems, there was a big economic collapse, wars, stuff like that. Afterward, the world fell into a kind of dark ages where everything (technology especially) stagnated. People were no longer satisfied with their lives in the false utopia that followed all the problems. A lot of them found an outlet for their most basic human emotional needs in a video game named Avalon. This movie follows a group of players in a second imagining of Avalon, named Avalon-F, which is basically a MMO/Hunting game on steroids. The characters all start off trying to solo a big boss, which the game informs them is not really possible. However, the gamers are stubborn and want the glory/advancement for themselves, and it takes them a while to come around to working together. The movie is about them finally coming to the decision to work together, and the struggles, internal and external they go through in the process.

There are lots of long, pretty shots where you don't see anything that advances the story in a meaningful way, just gives you things to think about. I enjoyed it, I like meandering around in video games and exploring my surroundings, so for a movie about a video game to do that was fun for me. That said, if you're a passive viewer who doesn't like sitting around waiting for action to happen, this movie is not for you.

I loved the costume design. Lucifer in particular was great. She appears to have feathers for hair, which will make sense if you keep watching. I love the personal moments that show this character having fun, she's a pretty character, and looks like she really enjoys herself in this virtual world. She finds unexpected ways to have fun, considering the premise of the video game she's playing.

My biggest complaint about this movie comes from the choice of having the actors wear masks, but not recording their voices in a recording studio later. It makes their speech very hard to follow because it's muffled all the time. Movie making 101 should have told the director not to make that mistake.

Overall, it's a good movie, and it hits all the right points for me. If you can pick it up cheap and like sci fi and Japanese movies, go for it.

I study long form film to see how it works.

Some times what I end up seeing doesn't work. That is the case here; only the costumes matter, and one episode has resonance. Does that one episode qualify this as long form?

Maybe. Long form has less to do with length than whether things evolve and the film has some chance of helping the viewer evolve.

The outer wrapper of this is a dreary ten minute initial narration that gives us completely irrelevant history. An inner wrapper that constitutes most of the hour has three young women (hardly girls) and a scruffy guy "playing" a virtual reality game. This is as much a waste. We never exit the game but we sometimes 'pause play.'

But smack in the middle is an odd sequence. Twice earlier we have a well photographed closeup of a snail. One of our 'girls' puts it on the head of a small weathered statue of a wizened it young traveler.

It is a very Katachi action. She and us study, admire and move on. In turn, each of the other three encounter it and we are supposed to get key aspects of their person from this. We don't, so that is a waste too. But that initial encounter evokes a deep inner narrative I have about some facet of Japanese spirituality and form, sex and striving in general and within my private shell what urgent peace is all about.

All the hard work was done by me, based on what boils down to one moving image. Would I call this long form? It had the effect of long form, but there was essentially no dialog between me and the artists.

In the midst of all the provocative narratives I had spinning within me (whether to fight, whether to seek grace), was one about other filmmakers and who I wish was my companion here.

Fruit Chan. His Public Toilet goes on and on, using lives I could not care about, folded casually. But at the end, oh what resurrection of everything that went before. That one scene connected with all else, in the film and without. Mastery. Now that's long form.

I can't say for sure that I understood what's this movie about, but I think I kinda got it. So there are above mentioned characters in some VR world, they are playing some futuristic MMORPG, and they kinda need to work together to complete a difficult quest (which is killing some sort of dragon). Two girls are obviously pro gamers, one is total nutcase but still has gosu skills. They contact one guy for help, even though he is total noob, because he has like some advanced tier weapon. Snail is a NPC and has nothing to do with the story but still director wastes on him about ten minutes out of 70 (which is full running time of this film).

This movie could be interesting to MMO game addicts, which I am not ... I was lured into it with it's catchy title. I kinda got what I expected, three sexy heroines, armed with heavy artillery and in futuristic combat suites. Their hair is waving throughout the movie carried by a chilly breeze in the desert like looking scenery. There is some music in background. Some long shots aiming at girl's faces, searching for emotions I guess. A bit of a special effects and also a little action ... when I think of it as a whole, there is little of everything. I wish that director had made up his mind and put more either of these elements ! Looking forward for Zack Snyder's "Sucker Punch" to fix this next year !

I give this a 7 because of the Introduction: It was Long. Looooong. Talky-talky Loooooong. Boringly LONG! I began to wonder if I had mistakenly streamed a documentary.

But really, you don't need the beginning Blah-Blah-blah to enjoy this flick. So Fast-Forward past the first 8 minutes. Don't need it.

Now to enjoy this movie-- you get extra oomph if you are a Gamer, because this flick is speaking on a basic level about Gaming and what it does to people, and thru implication, to greater society. Now the other reviews have the plot firmly on the head. A couple of female players team up to take on a mega-dragon/sandworm.

But that's not really the plot-- it's a context. And the Movie itself, is a Commentary.

Warning-- especially to Gamers. Even though it's about a Game-- it's Not non-stop blood guts and explosions. Instead it's scenically poetic. And when the action happens it's very nicely FX-ed, but it's pointedly emplaced.

Instead, pay attention to the Characters and the direction the Dialogue is going. When the End comes, because I have placed an online game, I actually busted out laughing because IT MADE SENSE! And it was that moment that made the entire flick pleasantly enjoyable (Minus the 8 minutes of blah-blah-blah, that is) I wouldn't make this a Main event movie for a Saturday night though. I'd stage this as a Friday night runner-up with some friends. Even Better if ALL of you do online games. You'll get a kick out of this one.

Extra Warning-- Even though the lead actors are women, this is NOT a Girlfriend Friendly Flick. . .unless she's totally cool and she also plays online games with you.