I should mention that I heart the Liquid Television shorts. The ones without any dialogue where she kills a lot of guards using ridiculous acrobatics and you have no idea wtf is going on.
So the movie has lots of dialogue. And voice over. But there is all sorts of weird stuff where you don't know what's going on really. And I enjoyed that. And so I didn't think it was as bad as the reviewers all said it was. And actually thought that parts of it were quite enjoyable. I mean she looked great, and a lot of the set design and costume design was just amazing. But then there was some pretty shabby dialogue and they broke several cardinal laws of show-don't-tell. And the end sequence effects weren't done as well as some of the earlier ones.
So I don't know how I feel about it. Certainly not standing on my chair clapping. But not running out of the theater before setting fire to the place.
Posted by Ozu (Member # 1778) on :
I completely agree with your review. I loved the original animated episodes as well and was looking forward to the release of this film. I, of course, expected liberties to be taken with the story in an effort to flesh out a full length picture, and I think they did ok considering the vague nature of the source material. I didn't think that it was a "must see in the theatre" experience, but certainly worth a rent.
As a side note, MTV recently re-released all 10 episodes of the original animated series on a 3 disc DVD boxed set. These are a "directors cut" that have been slightly modified to enhance story continuity. They look awesome and the set is a pretty nice little package. I'd certainly suggest fans of the series check it out.
Posted by TSN (Member # 31) on :
I tried to watch the cartoon once and got through an episode or two. But then I stopped, because I didn't know what was going on, and because the animation style was really awful, I thought. Obviously, the movie wouldn't have that latter problem. So, my question is, does it make sense? Could I watch it, and, at the end, not be thinking "what the fuck was that?"?
Posted by Nim (Member # 205) on :
I haven't seen one Flux-piece that didn't make sense. But they follow their own internal logic. And many episodes have her die only to be reborn again, somewhat like a Itchy&Scratchy piece, or Happy Tree Friends.
Like the one where she trains fiercely in acrobatics in order to infiltrate the nest of a multiped alien animal and harvest eggs, only to find that the multiped is about 200% more "able" to cross the bouandaries of its nest than she is, followed by a wet cracking sound out of frame.
More like art short movies than cartoons. Some undoubtedly think of it as decadent and pretentious, I think it's...well, fun.
I liked the creator's "Chronicles of Riddick: Dark Fury", very beautiul. And, of course, his contrib to "Animatrix". One of the more spirited of the sequences.
Posted by Ozu (Member # 1778) on :
quote:So, my question is, does it make sense? Could I watch it, and, at the end, not be thinking "what the fuck was that?"?
Well, each persons idea of "making sense" is subjective at best. If you watch all 10 episodes in order you will have a pretty good impression of the commonalities in each episode that will eventually amount to something resembling sense. You will not, however, be drawn in to an epic tale the way that a more serialized type of show could do. The series, as it stands, asks questions more than it offers answers, so it's up to the viewer to decide if the overall tale has any relevance.
Also, the art is primitive at times, but always very stylized. You can see the awesome evolution of this style in some of Peter Chungs more recent works that were mentioned in previous posts.
Posted by Jason Abbadon (Member # 882) on :
quote:Originally posted by Nim: I liked the creator's "Chronicles of Riddick: Dark Fury", very beautiul. And, of course, his contrib to "Animatrix". One of the more spirited of the sequences.
What? No "Reign the Conqueror"? I thought it was handled much better than Aeon Flux (but then, there was more time to tell each story also).
A bit much on the whole "everyone wears a thong to battle" bit though. Posted by Ozu (Member # 1778) on :
quote:A bit much on the whole "everyone wears a thong to battle" bit though.
lol, very true.
Prepare the men!! And bring me my battle thong!!
Posted by Jason Abbadon (Member # 882) on :
Hmmm...was Phantom 2040 his as well? I thought so but cant confirm it- definitely his style (storywise too).
Huh. Harlan Ellison was one of the voices on that.
Posted by TSN (Member # 31) on :
"And many episodes have her die only to be reborn again, somewhat like a Itchy&Scratchy piece, or Happy Tree Friends."
I don't really remember the specifics, but possibly this is the sort of thing that was confusing me. I was probably expecting inter-episode continuity and not finding it.
But, frankly, it was really the drawing style that put me off, mostly. The same guy did something for "The Animatrix"? I'm guessing the one where someone's running a race and breaks apart?
Posted by The Mighty Monkey of Mim (Member # 646) on :
No, it was "Matriculated," the one where they bring one of the machines over to the human side by sending him through some weird psychedelic tunnel of love. And it sucked, BTW.
Posted by Topher (Member # 71) on :
Well I rather enjoyed the movie. I never saw any of the animated episodes, so I didn't know anything about the concept at all. But I found it was a pretty good movie in and of itself.
Posted by Nim (Member # 205) on :
Hmm, it hasn't come to Sweden yet. Let's hope for your sake you're right.
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