Terraformars

This is adapted from the manga of the same name. The story in the manga continues well past where this movie stops. That means that there are a lot of things that are set up here but not resolved. The main storyline is not revolved. I get that it is part of a longer story but a movie needs to have a beginning, a middle and an end. It needs to be able to stand on its own.

The effects for this are a real mixed bag. The sci-fi spaceship sets look really good. The CGI for the monsters looks really dated and poor. The costumes for the bug transformations mostly look terrible. There are a lot of characters but most of them are only there to get killed and get no development. The movie doesn't have much of a story. It's not one of those movies where nothing happens. Something is happening all of the time. There just isn't much of a through line. There's a not a lot of rhyme or reason to some of it. It really feels like it's condensed from a longer story and sometimes coherence suffers as a result. As for the ending, it doesn't have one as I mentioned before. It just sequel baits and then stops. This one flopped at the box office so that sequel is probably not coming.

Initially when I sat down to watch the 2016 movie "Terra Formars" from director Takashi Miike, I must admit that I was expecting a bit more than what the movie turned out to be. Why? Well, because this was directed by the legendary Japanese director Takashi Miike, of course.

Sure, "Terra Formars" was a watchable movie, but it was hardly among Takashi Miike's best work, not even by a long shot.

It was the storyline told in "Terra Formars", as written by Kazuki Nakashima, that didn't really sit well with me. Sure, the concept of colonizing Mars was interesting, but the whole bug vs. Bug concept was one that just was a bit too far out there.

Visually then "Terra Formars" was actually rather interesting. The CGI was good and the visual effects for the transformed hybrids of human/insect was actually interesting to look at, and it had a lot of nice details to it. However, again, the concept was just one that didn't really find a base of approval in my liking. And having great visuals can only do so much when you don't have a fully working storyline and script.

The acting in the movie was adequate, though I can't really point out any particular performances to be memorable or outstanding though.

All in all, then "Terra Formars" was a watchable, albeit somewhat quite far out there action sci-fi movie from Takashi Miike. The movie is also listed as horror here on IMDb. Well, there weren't actually much of anything horror about "Terra Formars".

My rating of "Terra Formars" lands on a mediocre five out of ten stars. This was, however, hardly a movie that I will be watching a second time.

When u think Japanese stories wouldnt get any weirder but u are just so wrong everytime. Any point of the movie u just sorta keep asking why youre still watching this but ... i honestly dont know and dont have an answer to that.

Why would people wanna imagine this sort of a thing? Is even more baffling question. Im confused

Some reviewers have taken this movie far too seriously and read far too much into the it.

So imagine an 80's kids cartoon does The Breakfast Club with the plot of Aliens, all with a modern take. That's basically it. Plus being as it's Japanese you get crazy fight scenes with insects, bonkers daft and nothing to trouble the brain.

So yeah it's a Miike movie, but it also feels almost normal. Kind of formulaic in a way. Something you can sort of predict and see where it's going. Which is a weird thing to say about a Miike movie. But here we are (again). It's still fun, if you let yourself into it and just enjoy it for what it is (Miike light?).

So just don't expect this to go far out (even though it is mainly in space or beyond) and just take the weird character mix. This is almost like a film like "Man with the Iron Fist". The one RZA made, which is kind of a dream some Teenagers might have had. You know, throw in some ridiculous characters, let them do their thing. It's way funnier than the one RZA made of course, but still not masterpiece and certainly not something Miike fans might have been hoping for ...