Welcome, one and all, to an all new Reaction & Review. Tonight, ladies and gentlemen, I'm gonna be covering an animated film from 1998. That movie is "Spriggan".
Now, I have a bit of a story about how I got my hands on a copy of this movie. You see, about a year or so back, I was searching for anime subscription services. Now, when I say that, I'm not referring to any streaming services like Crunchyroll. I'm talking about physical stuff you get in mystery boxes. Because I use to be in that sorta thing years ago, until the fad for it died off and I stopped it altogether. Well, I was then thinking about seeing if there were any services that offered anime DVD's. And there was one I came across called Boxuchan. For those who don't know what Boxuchan is, they are a subscription service box where they sell you either anime DVD's or Blu-rays (your choice). And they send you the type of movies and series based on your tastes. For example, they have genres involving action, adventure, horror, comedy, musicals, magical girls, etc. They have a LOT of genres. And depending on your tastes, you will get a movie, series, and a bit of merchandise that's centered around your interests. For example, when I first got this service, the extra merchandise I got was a pack of Yu-Gi-Oh! cards. Which was pretty cool, even though I don't really play the trading card game anymore. And I should mention that nobody is going to get the exact same thing everyone else gets. As I said, it depends on your tastes in anime, and the plan you get along with it.
So, with all that in mind, what else did I get with this service? Well, I ended up getting a series called "Moribito: Guardian of the Spirit". Which was a series that I vaguely remembered watching on Adult Swim. And this was way back before they brought back Toonami. Long story short, I watched a few episodes of it, and it was incredibly dull. One thing I didn't remember about it was that it involved this kid, that the main character protects, that also possesses a water demon inside his body. I do not remember that happening at all when I originally watched the series on Adult Swim. However, it could be because the dialogue in that show was so boring that I probably never picked up on that fact. But anyway, I'm just blabbering on about a series that I didn't care about to begin with. So, I ended up getting that series on DVD. And the other thing I got was the main feature movie that they always put in their boxes. And the movie that I got was "Spriggan". I had never heard of this movie before, and when I read the plot on the back of the case, I was sold on it because it sounded rather cool.
Now, what I can tell you about the plot to this movie is that there is a treasure called Noah's Ark. And that there are two teams that are after it. One of them wants it to enslave the human race. The other wants to destroy this artifact. And it's a race to see who gets it first. Which sounds rather interesting, and I'm really hoping that the movie's gonna end up being good in the process. However, I could also see this movie end up sucking massive balls. Because I remembered covering "Death Trance" a couple of weeks ago, and it had a very similar premise, only instead of an artifact, it involved a coffin with indestructible power. And that movie had no plot or characters worth caring about. So, I could easily see this movie having the same problems as "Death Trace". I'm hoping that's not the case, though. And the only way I'm gonna find out how good or bad this movie could possibly be, is if I shut up, and I push play, and I'm gonna do that right now. So, without further ado, it's time to kick back, relax, and check out "Spriggan".
8 minutes later
Well, guys, this movie's just started. And already, we have our first death via a suicide bombing from a high school student. That's...certainly different. Not totally sure WHERE he got the bomb vest from, but still, at least we're off to an explosive start. And yes, that pun was totally intended.
12 minutes later
All right, well, you know what, guys? I am willing to say that the music in this movie, so far, has been pretty good. You guys can't hear it for obvious reasons, but I'm really digging the score in this movie. The story, so far, has been kinda slow right now, but I am still interested enough to keep watching and see where this thing goes.
19 minutes later
Well, guys, the good news here is that the movie's actually going to focus on Noah's Ark. Bad news? It took the movie almost 40 minutes to get to this point, in a movie that's only about an hour and a half long. The pacing on this thing is a...little bit glacial, I'm gonna be honest here.
16 minutes later
This is rather sad, guys. We just got done with an action scene, and somehow, I just couldn't bring myself to care about it. This movie is doing something that I didn't think was possible for an action movie, but the action scenes are actually taking away what little story is here. And mind you, the story here could be great, but the actions scenes are not giving it enough time to develop. And that's a damn shame. I'm hoping the next half hour or so is going to get better, but I fear that it's gonna be too little, too late.
18 minutes later
You know, it's really cool that we're finally getting a backstory on our main character Ominae. Unfortunately, I just feel like all of this comes in too little, too late. And that's a real shame, because this story is just boggled down by it's horrendous pacing. I know I'm beating a dead horse by this point, but it seriously is becoming more and more clearer with each passing moment, as this movie goes by, that the pacing is just KILLING this movie. And I honestly can't wait for it to end.
The Review
Well, guys, that was "Spriggan". Let me shut the movie off here...OK. Wow, that was...rather disappointing. I guess if my reactions are anything to go by, yeah...this movie was just a huge letdown.
I guess there's no other way to start this review than by talking about the writing. I want to start with pacing. I know that I've hinted at this before I got to this point, but the pacing in this movie is just awful. And it really has to do with the movie's action scenes. You see, guys, I've commented before in the past about how action movies don't really need a deep, complex story. I am not expecting that for a lot of action movies. But you see, your movie just can't consist of action. You need some kind of interesting story that's gonna draw the viewer in. And we do have that here involving this artifact about Noah's Ark that's able to control the weather, and the person that controls it will be able to play God with it. Which again, sounds really cool. Now since this is an action movie, you also want to balance your story and action scenes enough to where you can get something out of both of them. In fact, as I was reading the back of the DVD case before I started up the movie, I noticed a blurb on the top of it. Well technically, there's 2 blurbs, but the second one below it is the more important one. I'm gonna read you the first sentence, which comes from E! Online. It says that it's a compelling mix of "Raiders of the Lost Ark" and James Bond. Now, while I haven't seen "Raiders of the Lost Ark", I have seen quite a bit of James Bond. In fact, I'm gonna replace "Raiders of the Lost Ark" with Lupin the 3rd, since it's easier to make my comparison. Now, do you know what those two franchises are able to do that this movie doesn't? James Bond and Lupin the 3rd are able to balance their action scenes with their story. They're not just going gung-ho with their action scenes like a lot of plotless action movies like to do. They actually are able to tell really good stories, while also knowing how to balance out whatever story that they're trying to tell. This movie, however, relies a little too heavily on action. And that wouldn't be so bad, except most of these action scenes don't have any real meaning behind them. For example, there's this half-man, half robot general named Fattman, who is storming the Spriggan base, along with his soldiers. And we get hit with a plot point in which our main character, Ominae, knows him and says that he should've been dead. Now this plot point doesn't get answered until very late in the film where we get dumped with Ominae's backstory. And this doesn't really matter in the end, because, a bit of a spoiler here, Fattman gets killed by him shortly after Ominae finds out he's alive. And it really has no impact, because this is before we actually get to our main plot, which involves Noah's Ark.
I should note that the first 40 minutes of this movie could've been condensed to about 15, maybe 20, minutes tops. Because that's where the pacing issues really start. It starts off when one of Ominae's friends gets killed with a bomb vest attached to him, and a message that's written in blood on him saying that "Noah will rule all", or something to that effect. And then it leads Ominae to Istanbul, where we have a chase scene in which Ominae is on the run from the people that are after him. Now this chase scene is actually OK, because it gives you an idea of what our main character is able to do. But then after that ends, we get about a 3 minute montage of him traveling to the mountain where he needs to get to. And this montage serves no purpose in this movie, because it drags the movie down to a screeching halt. The only thing that kinda helps this montage is the music, which I'll get to in a bit. But then we get to the next scene, in which Ominae is climbing up the mountain to where he needs to get inside a base. And he's dodging security camera's on the mountain, until he's able to see the base. And he ends up getting shot at, because the people at the base thinks that he's an enemy. To which Ominae yells at them that it's him, in hopes that they'll stop shooting. Mind you, this entire scene was taking place during sundown. And then it cuts to nighttime, where Ominae's in handcuffs as he's being lead further on into the base until he gets stopped by a couple of scientists that he knows. I guess it was fucking pointless to show Ominae getting into the base on the mountain, because none of that served any real purpose in this film, other than to pad itself out for time. Like I said, you could've cut this entire scene of Ominae trying to get into the base on the mountain, and you wouldn't have missed a thing. And if that's not enough, like I mentioned earlier, the action scene I mentioned a moment ago where Fattman and his soldier try to invade the base also drags itself out, because there's no reason for any of this to happen. I guess it was meant to bring some sort of closure between Ominae and Fattman, but you really won't end up caring about it, because you don't know why these two have a grudge against each other until towards the end of the film when we're hit with Ominae's backstory. It's not until after ALL of that with the conflict of Fattman ends, where we finally get to our main plot involving Noah's Ark. And like I said, all of that takes up 40 minutes of a movie that's only an hour and a half long. Now, mind you, the second half of the movie is certainly an improvement, but it still suffers from pacing issues because it cuts back and forth between the two scientists, who lead our main villain, Colonel MacDougall, to where Noah's Ark is being held, to another action scene involving another half-human, half robot and another Spriggan named Jean. And much like a lot of things in this movie, the pacing is what also brings these scenes down quite a bit.
While I'm on the subject, I may as well get into the characters. Like I said, the only character who gets any real background is Yu Ominae. When you first see him in action in Istanbul, he's athletic, he's strong, and he's able to put up a good fight when cornered. But you don't really know much about him until we get towards the final act in which we're dumped with a backstory about Ominae that almost comes out of nowhere. And I would probably care about this, if we had some hint of it early on. And I'm not going to count the encounter he has with Fattman, because you didn't know shit about him until much later on. As for the other Spriggan, Jean, he has no real character in this movie, other than the fact that he's French, and he's fast... whoopie. And then we have our villain, Colonel MacDougall. He's this kid that's related to Ominae, in a matter of speaking. Again, this all ties into the backstory of Ominae, and it really shows why the character depth in this movie is incredibly wasted. Because you could've hinted at something involving our main character's backstory before the final act, but we really don't get much of that. The only thing we knew about him was that he was one of Spriggan's top operative's. But aside from that, not much else about him is known. Now, I know I've said time and again that you don't really need mountains of character depth in action movies, because those movies usually can get away with lack of character depth, but that doesn't mean that you should skip out on giving your viewers a reason to care about your characters. If you want an example of how not to do this, try and watch shit like "The Ninja Mission" and "The Russian Ninja", two movies made by Swedish filmmaker Mats Helge Olsson, who doesn't know how to write characters or a story that's worth caring for. Or if you want a recent example, like I mentioned in my review of "Death Trance" a couple of weeks ago, that movie had no actual plot and characters with no names to begin with. At the very least, this movie tries with a story that could've been amazing, and it actually gave a shit on naming their characters. But that's still not enough. If you decide to not give a reason to care about the characters until very late in the film, then it just comes across as rather hollow and empty. And by that point, it's just too little, too late. And you're not going to end up caring about any of these characters by the time the film's done. If they had, maybe, put some of this character development somewhere in the middle of the movie, then it would've helped the movie tremendously. Not totally sure if it would still help the pacing on the action scenes, but it still would've helped a lot. However, this is what we ended up getting, which is disappointing to say the least.
So, writing here is a massive disappointment. What about the acting? Well, I opted to watch the English dub of this movie, and, uh...I have a question about something. Now it might just be me that noticed this, but why are there so many characters in this movie that are whispering? I ask this, because about a third of the dialogue in this movie has characters whispering their lines, and I don't know why that is. Because it does sound like it was recorded in a normal booth. So why is it that I'm hearing whispering from a majority of these actors? Was it because they were either holding back from trying to overact their scenes? Was it because of the voice direction from whoever directed this English dub? Why is it like this? I don't know, but it was definitely noticeable, at least, to me. And it was rather distracting at times, because certain characters have this habit of sounding like they want to raise their voices, but they couldn't, because the actors were either told to do so, or maybe it was because that's how they naturally sound. Again, I have no idea. And I understand that this may sound like a trivial thing to most people, and they probably won't notice this, but it was something that bothered me quite a bit. As for the dub itself...it's OK, I guess. It's certainly not great, but it's nowhere near the worst dub I've ever heard. So, yeah, the dub is rather average. However, it probably would've been better if some of these actors didn't sound like they were holding back.
Animation in this thing is damn near great. The art style is great to look at. The color palettes are used very well. It really is a great-looking film. But I have to admit, the picture quality is a little bit sketchy at times. And it's mainly during one scene where our two scientists, and Colonel MacDougall, are at the core of Noah's Ark. Now, during all this, you can kinda notice the graininess on the character's faces whenever a shot is focused on them, and something tells me that this wasn't entirely a clean process when they put this movie out on DVD. Perhaps it might've been a technical hiccup on ADV Films end when they put this movie out on DVD, but it was kinda noticeable. However, the rest of the film looks great, and I didn't notice any graininess for any of the other scenes. CG also looks pretty good, especially for 1998. There was, maybe, one shot I noticed that looked rather questionable, and it's during the scene in Istanbul, when Ominae was on the run. And during one shot, it focused on this one guy who turned his head, and I couldn't tell you if it was done in CG or if it was rotoscoped. It was something I noticed, however, I doubt many other people will notice that, unless they went into this film like I did. Other than that, the 2D animation looks great, and I would even say it looks great even by today's standards.
Sound-mix here is mixed well. The music is also another positive that I will give this movie. It's mostly the score, but it's a really good score, and I would totally say that the music is what helps carry this movie a bit.
Ultimately, guys, am I able to recommend "Spriggan"? Um...God, I'm trying to think of a way to answer that. Well...if you can find this movie cheap somewhere, be it on DVD or Blu-ray, then sure. But I would only recommend it if it's, like, $5 or less. Anything above that is not really worth it. Personally, I would say you can find better action movies to watch. Stuff like I referenced earlier, such as the James Bond films, or any movies involving Lupin the 3rd. Granted, I've only seen two Lupin films, but still, I would say watch any of those. This film is just disappointing, overall. Like I said, we had a story here that should've been awesome. But the pacing is what ultimately kills this entire movie, and that's what hurts the most, because this movie should've been amazing. I really wanted to like this movie, but the glacial pacing is what stops me from keeping this movie entirely. Now, normally, I would end it here. However, I'm going to do something a little bit different. Seeing as how I got this movie from Boxuchan, I'm going to give them a shoutout. If you want to get your own Boxuchan, just head on over to their website that I'll leave a link to this description, and you can get your own box there. They have different plan options for boxes, and they also leave links for surveys in their descriptions. Remember to fill that out, so, that way, you can get whatever anime films and series that cater to your tastes. Some of it is a little bit pricey, but if you can look past that, then you'll definitely get a bang for your buck. Especially if you are a fan of anime. Now, while I will admit, that the film they sent me wasn't exactly great, I'm still not going to knock on this service, because I had never heard of "Spriggan". And I would've not known if it was worth watching, had Boxuchan not sent me a box. So, I want to give a thank you to Boxuchan for sending me this movie. And when I have the time and money, I'll definitely come back and give this service another try. Now...with all that being said, I kinda want to watch a better action film. And you know what? I think I'm gonna go and watch my copy of the first "National Treasure" movie, because it's been a while since I last watched it. So I'm gonna go and do that, after I'm done putting this review together.
Anyway, guys, with that, we come to the close of another Reaction & Review. Until next time, ladies and gentlemen, take care, and I will see you all later. Peace.
No comments:
Post a Comment