Kiseijû: Kanketsu-hen

I still haven't gotten around to watching the Parasyte anime, I hear mixed things. I did however watch the first Parasyte live action film and found myself entertained, it was good stuff.

The sequel following directly on is more of the same but lacked the novelty value of the first and I found myself rather disappointed by it.

Full of frantic fast paced actions sequences, a continuation of the originals plot and decent sfx I'm not saying it's bad by any means I'm simply saying it's underwhelming as a sequel.

Maybe this is a travesty compared to the anime like the live action Attack On Titan movies were, maybe the live action is better alike Assassination Classroom. Time will tell, but I'm not upset there are no more Parasyte movies after this one.

The Good:

Follows on from the first film

Looks great

The Bad:

Messy plot

I still think Migi looks ridiculous

Things I Learnt From This Movie:

If a mothers last wish is that you take care of her baby, seconds after she dies dump it on the first person you see

Teenage boy with a creature for a right hand, there are so many questions/jokes here I wouldn't even know where to start

I've seen people have different opinions about Part 2. Some like it better but for me, I think it didn't reach that climax I've been so excited about. Throughout the two films, I could say that acting was decent, the MC looked better when he was "serious" rather than goofy at the first half of the first film. I also like how the female parasyte actress played her role. The problem for me for the second film was that there wasn't much build up to the final fight where you don't really feel the part of the villain on the story. I also was expecting a huge some kind of war between parasytes and humans and instead, one party overwhelmed the other. Overall, still pretty decent and a nice change of pace for anime and horror fans.

Part 1 - 7.5/10 Part 2 - 7.0/10.

Part 1 of the "Parasyte" movies, from 2014, wasn't overly impressive, but at least it was better than this 2015 sequel. But I didn't know that prior to sitting down to watch "Parasyte Part 2" (aka "Kiseijuu: Kanketsuhen").

Sure, the special effects in this movie were great, just as they were in the previous movie. Some interesting enough creature designs as well.

However, the entire movie was just swamped with too much drama and politics, to the point where the entire storyline was just turning to mush. I didn't enjoy much of anything of this movie.

The acting in "Parasyte Part 2" was good, taking into consideration the limitation of the script and storyline imposed upon the actors and actresses.

I am sure there are some hardcore fans for this. I, however, wasn't just particularly into it, and as such, the movie scores a mere three out of ten stars because it was too much of a political drama that it was an enjoyable movie. And this is definitely not a franchise that I will be sitting down to watch again.

I was disappointed by the first Parasyte film, and though I'd never seen the anime, I felt the feature lacked depth and characterisation, focusing too much on the violence than on the story, which resulted in an, at times, emotionally impotent experience. Parayste Part 2 however is highly recommended, much of the concerns I had with the original been brilliantly addressed in this sequel.

Some time has passed since the original film, and Shinichi (Shota Sometani) has become more adept with his abilities, as he and Migi (Sadao Abe) continue to grow in unity and strength. Shinichi's confrontation with his diminishing humanity is an important aspect of the film, his relationship with girlfriend Satomi (Ai Hashimoto) keeping him grounded.

Ryoko (Eri Fukatsu), the smartest of all parasites, has continued her experiments, and it is her character who occasionally seems the most human of all, the film sometimes doing little in its way to make the audience want humanity to survive the conflict at all. In Ryoko's attempts to keep tabs on Shinichi, she has hired reporter Kuramori (Nao Momori), whose fascination with revealing the truth to all of Japan makes for further problems. At the same time, Ryoko continues to convince the rest of her kind to refrain from been so violent, an ask that is especially difficult for Miki (Pierre Taki), the most dangerous parasite of all.

As Shinichi wages his private war against the parasites, a special police task force begins finalising its coordinated attack, using vile murderer Uragami (Hirofumi Arai), a man who can see the parasites within people, to help locate and kill the invading horde.

With so many characters and so much happening, it's no surprise actors like Ms. Hashimoto go without the screen time they deserve, the feature wanting to pack so much into its two hour script.

Moral ideas concerning the environment and global warming are occasionally discussed, and though these are passionately employed, the addendum that most who discuss these end up with their legs and arms in the air makes it difficult to take such important concerns seriously. Additionally, the theme of which race is more dangerous, the parasites or humanity, is loosely touched upon, though towards the end, it's difficult to distinguish which species is more destructive.

The fight scenes are frenetic and enjoyable, the film fantastically milking the sense of dread, keeping you continuously on the edge of your seat, the feature having what could only be described as multiple endings – just when you think it's over, another threat emerges, though the eventual conclusion is a little too anti-climatic.

Some of the set pieces, including that of the final fight sequence, which incorporates hellish fire in the background, are extraordinary, adding to the visual appeal, the special effects again been amazing. Though violent, the film is not as reliant on blood and gore as the original, which allows the emotional depth of the film to come into effect. Unlike the original, the film has its compellingly touching moments, from its exploration of motherly love and sacrifice, to its story of friendship, redemption and identity, there been an ironic softness and beauty in this horror/sci-fi feature.

Parasyte Part 2 does feel a little rushed at times, and though we gauge the intentions of all characters involved, significantly more depth would have benefited the feature. The film strikes all the right tones, and has just enough content to be unsettling, refusing to shy away from the increasingly dark content, while employing a good dose of humour every so often to give us an occasional break from the themes, though this lacking seriousness does get in the way of the messages the film strives to send. To fully appreciate this movie, one would have had to have seen the first, though the finish Parasyte Part 2 promises is well worth it.

This was always a single movie, they just released it in two parts. But while the first part went quickly over the events that set up the arrival of the aliens and presented the main characters, thus compressing a lot of the original manga/anime story, this part loses the pace and gets to have a few boring scenes. They are mostly flashbacks and emotional explanations of what the characters felt (even if it was quite obvious from their actions and they were dying :) ), but still, a little jarring. I think a better edit of the material would have created a nice two hours and a half single movie that didn't suffer from pacing issues.

That being said, the movie ends well, with too little of Gotou, one of the more interesting characters in the story, but with great development for all the others. Maybe except Satomi Murano, who was always the damsel in distress and not doing very much. I recommend this movie to sci fi fans from all over. While the philosophical speeches increase in number in this part, I still think Parasyte is a good sci-fi horror movie that needs more recognition.