Movies I've seen recently...
HALO Legends (2010) B
If you are a fan of the mythological story of the "HALO" video game series, then you need to see "HALO Legends." This is an anime style anthology movie that comprises of seven stories based in this video game universe. These stories are considered canon to the mythology, so fans of the franchise really should check this out, as it fleshes many elements that were only briefly mentioned in the games. The animation of this film do vary in quality and style, from a moving painting look that "the duel" has, the more cartoony look of "Odd One Out," to the computer generated animation of "the package." Just about all the stories are well told, with several ones containing a lot of gravitas, involving tragedy, prejudice, social commentary, and of course heroism. "HALO Legends" is a well done movie for fans of the franchise, and although I understand that the stories are short because of the anthology nature, I actually wished that this project could have been longer.
Justice League : Crisis On Two Earths (2010) B
One of the many excitements that come from super hero comic books, is when the super heroes team up to fight a group of super villains. With "Justice League : Crisis On Two Earths," this premise is used, except with a twist. The villains in this story are mirror opposites of the heroes, as the plot revolves around a parallel universe where super heroes from "our" world could be villains in the other world, and vice-versa. This brings about some exciting match ups where we get to see how a character like Superman could turn out if he was a super villain, and watching Lex Luthor use his intelligence for good instead of evil. While this is a high concept story, the movie pretty much ends up being mostly about the action sequences, which unfortunately means that they cut some corners in fleshing out some of the plot elements. Keep in mind that "Crisis On Two Earths" also expects you to already be familiar with the characters, but the fans should definitely enjoy this.
Planet Hulk (2010) B
Based on the graphic novel story of the same name, "Planet Hulk" brings one of the strongest characters in Marvel comics; the Hulk, into an alien world somewhat resembling the gladiator days of ancient Rome. The first thing that should come to a movie goer's mind is that this is Ridley Scott's "Gladiator" retold with the Incredible Hulk as the main protagonist. Not entirely the same story, but the plot progresses in a similar fashion with a good portion of the movie showcasing the Hulk fighting it out in a gladiator arena, as well as involving a powerful and ruthless ruler. This movie is actually a pretty fun watch, and not just for the action sequences, but this story of heroism, rebellion, conspiracy, treachery, and whether the Hulk is just a monster or not, will keep you interested to seeing this through to the end. There are some plot points that take some suspension of disbelief, but "Planet Hulk" is overall a very entertaining animated movie. In fact, this is probably the best Hulk movie that's been made so far.
Dante's Inferno (2010) C
Adapting Dante Alighieri's epic poem "The Divine Comedy" into an action based animated feature isn't an easy task to do, although "Dante's Inferno" valiantly attempted it. This movie is actually more or less a promotional tie-in to the video game of the same name, and in doing so, this film does not completely feel well polished. The story is rather rushed for an 88 minutes feature, which is unfortunate as the representations of the nine circles of hell is very creative and imaginative here, that I wished they could have spent more time expanding on this journey. All this movie did was focus more on the action sequences; which really wasn't that great, plus the quality of the animation was all over the place. The most interesting story element here is paralleling the many sins that Dante has done in his time in the Crusades to the different circles of hell, but even that isn't completely well developed. "Dante's Inferno" is mildly enjoyable, but simply didn't live up to it's fascinating premise.
The Girl Who Leapt Through Time (2006) A-
If you had the ability to travel through time, what would you do? In the case of high school student Makoto Konno, it's apparently nothing too outlandish. If she didn't like her current dinner, she would just go back in time to when she had a better meal. Got caught off guard by a surprise test in school, she would just go back in time so she knew about it in advance. Teenage romance problems? Go back in time to fix it! That's the extent of creativity Makoto would use time travel for, and it's quite entertaining to watch. As the story progresses though, she starts noticing the the simplest changes she would make, would dramatically alter the present in unpredictable and most often unwanted ways. Eventually, this leads to a though provoking conclusion to the story. Filled with humor, drama, fantasy, and philosophical ideas, "The Girl Who Leapt Through Time" is simply one of the best time travel movies I've seen, dealing with the "butterfly effect" in creative ways. As an anime film, the story does have plot cliches mostly dealing with the teen romance aspect and some questions that are meant to never be answered. Overall though, I thought this was one of the best anime movies around.
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