Hirokin

My summary line is the title the movie received when it was released in Germany. You've got to admit, that makes it sound intriguing and interesting. But the movie itself, that tries to copy quite a lot of Sci-Fi movies (some of them have copied other formulas of course, so there is nothing wrong with that idea), never quite gets there. It starts with the dialog and continues with just above the average (sometimes) fight scenes.

Don't get it twisted, it's not completely awful (I've seen worse FX and worse stories). The stoic acting of Wes Bentley will make you wonder if he has lost or never had any acting abilities. A fantasy tale that tries to be epic and does look good (colors on Blu Ray), but is it enough?

When I picked up the "Hirokin" DVD it was solely because Julian Sands was starring in it, and prior to that information then I knew absolutely nothing about the movie, so I had no expectations or beforehand impressions.

"Hirokin" is taking place on another planet where Griffin (played by Julian Sands) is a ruthless tyrant, keeping the natives oppressed and downtrodden. People live in fear and is waiting for a hero to come along. Enter Hirokin (played by Wes Bentley) who have to come to terms with his own heritage before he can save mankind from oppression and strife.

The story told in the movie was nothing new or innovative, it was all stuff that has been used and seen before. "Hirokin" seemed like a mutated mixture of "Dune", "The Last Samurai" and "Star Wars". But oddly enough it worked out well enough. And the movie did suffer from being rather predictable, as you knew exactly how the movie would end right from the very beginning.

The effects in the movie were adequate, though don't expect top of the line, million dollar CGI effects. However, the costumes and the scenery was really great. Especially the outfits of the soldiers serving Griffin. Their armor and outfits looked really nice, and had somewhat of a "Star Wars" feel to it. And the landscape and scenery was really spectacular.

As for the acting, well people did good enough jobs with their given roles, though it is nothing award-winning. And they had managed to get together a great enough ensemble of actors and actresses to play the various characters.

One thing that I didn't fully understand, was the sub-title to the movie; "The Last Samurai". So there are even samurais in outer space? Sure there were subtle references to the samurai and Japanese culture to be seen here and there (especially in the clothes), but it just seemed so misplaced in a Sci-Fi movie.

"Hirokin" is a good enough Sci-Fi movie and does manage to keep a certain level of entertainment and action all throughout the 105 minutes it is running. However, the movie failed to leave a lasting impression for me, and I doubt that I will ever be making a return trip to watch it again, despite being a huge fan of Julian Sands.

The movie seems to well suited for a younger audience, probably late teenagers.

This film's cover caught my eye: I wasn't expecting anything great, but I was at least enthralled to see some samurai dude on another planet hacking and slashing away at some aliens or something.

Surprisingly, there's not much hacking or slashing involved; a few cheap and stupid fights, but nothing more. One of the more inventive scenes involved the fighters chained to a post, and whenever the chain slackened, a big spike would come down and murder a hostage. Aside from that, the film came off as being rather dull.

The story didn't really captivate me either; it's full of dull and lifeless characters, going through the motions of some drama and plot that I really couldn't care about. The movie overall tried to hard to resemble films like John Carter and Prince of Persia, but both are miles better.

This film must have been made on the cheap. It sports okay, but never exceptional, photography and editing. Acting and writing are serviceable at times, but they are often marred with certain levels of cheese, amateurism, or plainness. This production uses a limited amount of sets, props, and costumes. Music is very generic too.

1/5 (Entertainment: Poor | Story: Very Poor | Film: Very Poor)

...this is the first of three films I've watched recently that look great, but don't have much else going for it. The story involves our man Hirokin, who is a human that lives on a planet that looks like Earth, who gets involved in a rebellion against the oppressive human regime. In the desert.

Our aliens look remarkably like humans (one even has a Scottish accent) and are led by Agnus McFadyen. Hirokin is the chosen one and blah blah you've heard this thousands of times.

Bad stuff: Far too many over-emotional scenes of people standing around while the music swells, which is all fine if something was going in between these scenes, but there's a lack of action here. So if, like me, you were waiting for Hirokin to man up and starts slashing hordes of bad guys, you're in for disappointment. Hirokin is in fact a bit of a knob.

I couldn't care about anyone in this film. It looked really good though. More action, less arsing around talking philosophy.

I must say that Sci-Fi B movies is not all in the toe crunching class. But this movie is really terrible; I know that the budget was low but come-on! If you can't make a decent CGI in the year 2011 don't even attempt to do it. In the 80'ties there were a lot of movies in the "atomic wasteland Mad Max" category, this one will fit nicely in the row of movies that failed to get past the firing ramp. I watched the movie in 1080p and it didn't help much, so if you love Sci-Fi B movies you can give it a try on day, if nothing else come to your mind.

The scenery was great, and the fighting scenes were "sort of" OK, but everything else didn't deliver the silver screen magic at all. If you decide to watch this one don't expect anything, then you wont be disappointed.