Anshuman
Member
Yeah, here I am making another one of these. Oh, well, nothing better to do with my time just now. =D
Watched this movie today -- the MI sub, specifically. Two-part not-that-detailed review:
DVD: Menu looked good. Theme got really repetitive when I was doing something with the DVD in the player, since it was a maybe 4-second clip that just started over and over. But who really cares about the menu?
The DVD played on my computer in VLC, but the colors were washed out so much as to be completely unreadable. Played fine in the DVD player, though.
The subtitles were, unsurprisingly, mildly painful BUT perfectly adequate. Because I have a limited knowledge of Japanese (from watching a lot of anime/toku lately) I could piece the movie's events together easily, and being used to ESL speech, it wasn't too hard to figure it out.
My main gripe comes from being used to the TV-N subs, where they'd include names and include things like -chan, -kun, -san, etc. In this DVD, as is pretty normal, those are edited out -- and names like 'Takumi' are replaced with 'Sikuru', and 'Mari' with 'Zheli'. I eventually decided this was their Cantonizations of the names, particularly after seeing them replace 'Takashi' with 'Guaijee' and nearly dying on the spot of pain.
I suddenly wish I was a capable fansubber, but yeah, I'm over it now. Which means we move on to...
MOVIE: I loved this movie, having enjoyed the 555 series thoroughly and being a HUGE alt-U storyline fan. The story's setting - a world ruled by Orphenochs -- makes for an extremely interesting 'what if?' and allows the cast of 555 to put themselves in some different circumstances and costumes, and allows for a lot more play with the idea than the series allowed.
Takumi was fun to watch as always, as were the others, but (for the most part) I had the most fun watching Leo (a movie-only character) and Kiba Yuji. Leo, because he spoke -perfect- Cali-Asian English, and Yuji because I've always liked his character and the movie let him flex his chops just a -tiny- bit more. How many chops he had in the beginning is up for debate, but I enjoyed watching him anyway.
The storyline is dramatic and engaging but nothing really special -- I'm sure part of the reason I enjoyed it so much is because I watched through Faiz first not too long ago. The introduction of the movie Riders is also pretty interesting, including Leo's toss of his phone.
The CGI was also great, particularly for the 'advanced Orphenoch forms' -- the ones more resembling animal than human; the last couple Orphenoch battles had me watching the TV steadily going 'oh crap! oh crap! oh that was tight!' because everything was smooth and integrated well into the overall scene.
Gripes: Kusaka's a bastard and all, but we really didn't see much of him. I'd like to have seen Mihara -- I always felt Mihara was a great character but didn't get a chance to develop, and instead of allowing that in the movie (which I thought had aired after Mihara's intro and development) he doesn't appear at all. Same for Rina. I wasn't sorry to not see Sakamura, though, so character consolidation isn't all bad.
The ending was nice and open-ended, but not as much as Ryuki's Episode Final. The entire last big, big scene was pretty contrived, and there was a pretty 'walk into the sunset' feel. Things followed the series a little more closely than I would have liked in some ways; I'd have liked to see a little more divergence from the most basic ideas regarding Kiba, Takumi, and Mari's development, but no big deal, I still had fun.
Also, the Rider battles rocked as always -- the suit actors for Kamen Rider 555 have always been great at expressing character, and IMO, Paradise Lost is no different.
Overall, I would recommend this movie to anybody who's seen 555 -- but since this is a talkback thread and the above might contain mild spoilers, hopefully anyone who replies has probably seen it already. =D
Watched this movie today -- the MI sub, specifically. Two-part not-that-detailed review:
DVD: Menu looked good. Theme got really repetitive when I was doing something with the DVD in the player, since it was a maybe 4-second clip that just started over and over. But who really cares about the menu?
The DVD played on my computer in VLC, but the colors were washed out so much as to be completely unreadable. Played fine in the DVD player, though.
The subtitles were, unsurprisingly, mildly painful BUT perfectly adequate. Because I have a limited knowledge of Japanese (from watching a lot of anime/toku lately) I could piece the movie's events together easily, and being used to ESL speech, it wasn't too hard to figure it out.
My main gripe comes from being used to the TV-N subs, where they'd include names and include things like -chan, -kun, -san, etc. In this DVD, as is pretty normal, those are edited out -- and names like 'Takumi' are replaced with 'Sikuru', and 'Mari' with 'Zheli'. I eventually decided this was their Cantonizations of the names, particularly after seeing them replace 'Takashi' with 'Guaijee' and nearly dying on the spot of pain.
I suddenly wish I was a capable fansubber, but yeah, I'm over it now. Which means we move on to...
MOVIE: I loved this movie, having enjoyed the 555 series thoroughly and being a HUGE alt-U storyline fan. The story's setting - a world ruled by Orphenochs -- makes for an extremely interesting 'what if?' and allows the cast of 555 to put themselves in some different circumstances and costumes, and allows for a lot more play with the idea than the series allowed.
Takumi was fun to watch as always, as were the others, but (for the most part) I had the most fun watching Leo (a movie-only character) and Kiba Yuji. Leo, because he spoke -perfect- Cali-Asian English, and Yuji because I've always liked his character and the movie let him flex his chops just a -tiny- bit more. How many chops he had in the beginning is up for debate, but I enjoyed watching him anyway.
The storyline is dramatic and engaging but nothing really special -- I'm sure part of the reason I enjoyed it so much is because I watched through Faiz first not too long ago. The introduction of the movie Riders is also pretty interesting, including Leo's toss of his phone.
The CGI was also great, particularly for the 'advanced Orphenoch forms' -- the ones more resembling animal than human; the last couple Orphenoch battles had me watching the TV steadily going 'oh crap! oh crap! oh that was tight!' because everything was smooth and integrated well into the overall scene.
Gripes: Kusaka's a bastard and all, but we really didn't see much of him. I'd like to have seen Mihara -- I always felt Mihara was a great character but didn't get a chance to develop, and instead of allowing that in the movie (which I thought had aired after Mihara's intro and development) he doesn't appear at all. Same for Rina. I wasn't sorry to not see Sakamura, though, so character consolidation isn't all bad.
The ending was nice and open-ended, but not as much as Ryuki's Episode Final. The entire last big, big scene was pretty contrived, and there was a pretty 'walk into the sunset' feel. Things followed the series a little more closely than I would have liked in some ways; I'd have liked to see a little more divergence from the most basic ideas regarding Kiba, Takumi, and Mari's development, but no big deal, I still had fun.
Also, the Rider battles rocked as always -- the suit actors for Kamen Rider 555 have always been great at expressing character, and IMO, Paradise Lost is no different.
Overall, I would recommend this movie to anybody who's seen 555 -- but since this is a talkback thread and the above might contain mild spoilers, hopefully anyone who replies has probably seen it already. =D
