Reaction & Review | DOA: Dead or Alive

 

Welcome, one and all, to the "Video Game Movie Marathon" here on Reaction & Review. Tonight, ladies and gentlemen, we're closing out this marathon by taking a look at a movie based off a fighting game. The movie came out in 2006. That movie is "DOA: Dead or Alive".

Now, some of you might be asking why I haven't covered a video game movie based off a fighting game this entire marathon? There are a lot of options for fighting game based movies, so why haven't I considered it? Well, there's a few reasons. A lot of the ones that I know of are games that I have never played. I'm talking about stuff such as the "Tekken" movie, "Fatal Fury: The Motion Picture", the Street Fighter movies, "The King of Fighters", etc. I've not played a majority of these games, because I'm not that big of a fighting game fan. I mean, I like Soul Calibur, Super Smash Bros., and Bloody Roar, but aside from those, I'm not that interested in fighting games. Now I have seen stuff like the "Street Fighter" movie from 1994, and the first two "Mortal Kombat" movies, so they're ineligible. So, it kinda left me with very little options.

But then I happened to remember one other fighting game series that I actually did play a little bit of. Which would be the subject of tonight's movie. I have played, at least, one Dead or Alive game in my lifetime. That game being Dead or Alive 4, which, I believe, was one of the very first games I ever bought with my own money for the Xbox 360. Mind you, this was a LONG time ago, but I do happen to remember that much about it. I remember liking the game a bit, even though I wasn't that familiar with the Dead or Alive franchise. Now, I should also mention that when I covered the "Ninja Gaiden" OVA earlier this month, I purposefully left out the fact that the main character, Ryu Hayabusa, was a part of the Dead or Alive franchise. And I did that, because if I mentioned it, then there might be a possibility that I would spoil what I might be covering later that month. So that's the reason why I did that.

Now, as I've just stated, even though I have only played one Dead or Alive game, I am not that familiar with the franchise. So I have no idea if this movie is even going to be loyal to this franchise. I have a strong feeling it won't be, but it might still be decent. I have no idea. The only way I'm gonna find out if this movie is even worth watching, 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 "DOA: Dead or Alive".

8 minutes later

Well, guys, I can easily tell you one thing so far. The acting in this movie is fucking terrible. I'm not totally sure if this thing is going to get any better, especially if THIS is the kind of acting I have to get use to for almost 90 minutes.

12 minutes later

OK, I know that I've stated that I've only played one Dead or Alive in my time, and I know I'm not up to knowledge about that series, but I don't remember Helena Douglas ever using roller-skates. I understand it's a very trivial thing to be bitching about, but it just comes across as strange to me, you know?

12 minutes later

You know, guys, I am willing to say one positive thing about this movie. The fight choreography is really fucking good. It honestly does feel like it would be something I would see from a Dead or Alive game. Everything else has been boring as shit, but, at least, the fight choreography is really good.

7 minutes later

So, now they're incorporating elements from that DOA Volleyball game into this movie. Wasn't totally expecting that. Not really sure how this contributes to the overall movie, but at least they're kinda staying true to the games...I guess.

20 minutes later

Guys, I know I've stated this earlier, but the fight choreography in this movie is just that fucking good. I REALLY wish I had more to say about this movie other than the fight choreography being really good, but I don't. This movie is just fucking boring. I never thought I'd say that about a fighting game movie, but it's true. This movie is putting me to fucking sleep! That's how boring this movie truly is. I'm genuinely hoping that the next half hour is going to be interesting, but I really don't think it's going to be.

14 minutes later

All right, I kinda have a stupid question that I'm probably not going to get an answer to. So our villain, Donovan, is wearing these sunglasses that is helping him fight and predict the moves of the fighters he has downloaded. And all of our main characters are fighting him. Why isn't anyone aiming for his sunglasses? Because, since Helena is the only one who's moves that Donovan hasn't downloaded, don't you think it would make more sense for the other fighters to distract Donovan so that way Helena can find a way to get the sunglasses off of him? I totally understand that I'm putting logic into a movie that is incredibly stupid, but I still feel the need to ask it, you know?

The Review

Well, guys, that was "DOA: Dead or Alive". Let me shut the movie off...OK. Dear lord, where do I even begin? Honestly, I'm trying to figure out what to start with, but even I'm kinda at a loss for words.

Um...I guess I should start by saying that, going into this movie, I kinda had a feeling that it was going to be a stupid, mindless action film. And that's what it kinda is, ultimately. Because there's barely anything here resembling a plot. Which, I guess is kinda on par with Dead or Alive, considering that Dead or Alive 4 wasn't that heavy on it's story. And I have to remind anyone reading this again that I've only played that one Dead or Alive game. I don't know how much of a story existed within the other Dead or Alive games, but if they're anything like this movie's story, then mission accomplished. I guess this movie really did stay true to it's source material. What I find funny about this is something I just noticed on the front of the DVD cover for this movie. It's a blurb from View London, and it states that this this movie is "The Best Movie Adaptation Of A Video Game So Far". Is it accurate to the games? I don't know. I haven't played enough Dead or Alive to fully say if that's true or not. Is it the best? Hell fucking no! You want the best adaptations of video game movies, go watch the first Mortal Kombat movie. Or something that I covered at the start of this marathon, which was "Professor Layton and the Eternal Diva". Those two are the BEST video game adaptation movies that live up to that blurb. And for anyone that mentions the live-action Sonic movies, I'm just going to pretend those people don't exist because those movies look like shit to begin with. At least, to me, they do. But anyway, I'm getting WAY off track here. So, this movie might be loyal to the games. But here's the thing. This movie, regardless of whether or not it's loyal to the games, is boring as shit. Our story is bare bones at best. Which, for an action film, that's perfectly fine, but you still want to have something here that will grab the viewers interest. And honestly, the only thing that WILL grab your interest is the fight choreography, which I'll talk about later on.

So, like I said, our story here barely exists. What I could grab from this is that our main characters end up getting invited to the DOA tournament, and the winner will win the $10 million dollar prize. Well, technically, it's a hundred million, but it doesn't really matter. So we have that as our framing device. We also have our characters who are in the tournament for different purposes. For example, we have Kasumi, who is searching for her missing brother that may or may not have died. I'll get to that in a bit. We have Tina, a former pro wrestler, who's in the tournament to prove that her fighting style isn't fake, seeing as how she came from the world of professional wrestling. Her dad's in the tournament, too, but he really doesn't play much of a factor into this movie. Ryu Hayabusa is also in the tournament, mainly just to follow Kasumi and try to convince her to go back home and stop this search for her missing brother. Not totally sure WHEN he got the invitation to join DOA, because I don't recall him ever getting an invitation, but oh well. Then there's Christie and Max, who are there to steal the prize money that is hidden somewhere on the island. We have our scientist, Weatherby, who has a thing for Helena Douglas, the other participant at the DOA tournament. And then there's our main villain, Donovan, who literally has all of the personality of dried paint. But then again, he is played by Eric Roberts, who I'll get to in a bit when I talk about the acting. And that's literally it for characters. We actually do have other characters who look like they came from the Dead or Alive games, but they're literally just thrown in here for the sake of this movie, so they really don't play any factor whatsoever. All of our characters are ridiculously shallow and lack any real depth. The closest we have to any actual background is during a flashback in which Kasumi was kidnapped, and was then rescued by Hayate, which is the missing brother that she's searching for. Aside from that, nothing much else comes from these characters. The only ones who come close to any likability is Tina and her father Bass. But then again, I'm being a little biased, seeing as how they come from a professional wrestling background. Everyone else is so fucking shallow that I couldn't tell you much about their personalities other than Weatherby has a thing for Helena, Zack has a thing for Tina, Max has a thing for Christie, and...wow, I just noticed that a lot of characters have a thing for each other. Which, I guess, sums up a majority of the character depth in this movie. Most of them have a thing for each other, and nothing of interest comes from it.

Speaking of which, I want to mention a couple of things about the writing in this movie that goes nowhere. For example, we get introduced to a volleyball game between Kasumi and Tina going against Christie and Helena. And again, I'm going to assume that they took this element from the DOA Volleyball games. Which I know are real, and if you're curious, look them up yourselves. This goes nowhere, because it ends up going into a no contest after another character named Ayane ends up popping the volleyball with her ninja star, which causes Kasumi to leave so that she and Ayane can fight each other. And yes, I did forget to mention Ayane, who was honor-bound to kill Kasumi if she left her home. It really doesn't go anywhere either, but that's neither here nor there. Another thing I want to mention involves Helena. Now earlier, I mentioned Christie and Max being in this tournament to steal the prize money. Well, Max finds out that Helena is 'the key'. What do I mean by this? Well, somehow, Helena has a tattoo on her body that has a code which unlocks the vault for the money. Now, on the flip-side to this, we also have our other main female characters captured, along with Ryu Hayabusa, by Donovan. Who ends up downloading their fighting data from some nanobots that were injected into their bodies before the tournament began. And he's able to get their data through a pair of special sunglasses so that he can copy their abilities and fight really well. He demonstrates this by fighting Hayate, who ends up turning alive after all. Big spoiler, in case you really cared. So after he kicks Hayate's ass, he ends up trying to sell the technology that he wore to fight Hayate to other businessmen across the world by transmitting it to them. But what I find strange about all this is that he still has ALL of that money in his vault. So, why exactly did he need to transmit the money digitally if he still has all of that physical currency within his vault? Unless if he had more money that I wasn't made aware of, then what was the purpose of trying to transmit the money if he already still has all of it in the vault? I don't know, but it didn't really make a ton of sense to me. Also, about that plot point involving the money, big spoiler, it ends up getting destroyed after the island blows up. So, we have another thing that goes absolutely nowhere in this movie. Also, and this is just based off the only Dead or Alive game that I played, but I could've sworn that the character of Helena Douglas played more of a part in that game. I don't know how that changes with the other games, but I happen to remember that Helena was more of a serious character in Dead or Alive 4. Here though, she's just used as a plot point that goes nowhere, and she herself also ends up becoming worthless, because she really doesn't have much of a character to speak of. So yeah, the characters in this movie mostly suck.

And I can easily say that the writing in this movie is mostly terrible, because we had story elements that go nowhere, and pacing is also a little bit glacial, mostly thanks to that volleyball game that served no purpose whatsoever. But with that out of the way, what about the acting? Oh boy, um...I can't believe I'm saying this, but there's one actor in this movie who turned in the best showing. And that actor is Kevin Nash. Yes, the man who can barely cut a fucking promo ACTUALLY turned in the best showing this entire movie. And that is really sad, because just about every other actor in this movie sucked balls, save for Tina, Christie, and Zack. Everybody else didn't fucking care. But then again, Nash wasn't in this movie for very long, so maybe he got the best out of this script for having very minimal dialogue. There's two other actors I need to make mention of. One of them is Eric Roberts. Eric Roberts sounds so fucking wooden that it almost hurts. But then again, his character, like I stated earlier, had all of the personality of dried wood. And Roberts didn't even try to make this character sound interesting in the slightest. If you want an example of good acting from Eric Roberts, go watch any episodes of "Justice League" where it involves the character of Gorilla Grodd. He's able to make that work, unlike his acting in this movie. The other actress I want to make mention of goes by the name of Devon Aoki. She plays Kasumi in this film, and it's horrible. How bad is it? Well, I want to give you guys a comparison. Because she plays another character from a different film called "Sin City". Do you want to know the big difference between her performance in "Sin City" and her performance in this movie? In "Sin City" she had no dialogue to work with. But it made sense there because her character was known as the silent assassin. And she was great in that movie. But in this movie, when she's given actual speaking dialogue to work with, it sounds so fucking wooden and lifeless that I wouldn't be surprised if this film killed her acting career. I don't know if she had anything beyond this or not, but I feel like this movie was a career killer for her. If I'm wrong on that, then so be it, but she sounded fucking horrendous in this movie. She does not know how to express an emotion whatsoever. It is just THAT bad. But anyway, as I just stated, most of the cast in this movie phoned it in, with the few exceptions being Kevin Nash, a couple of the main cast members, and the actor playing Zack. Beyond that, nobody else here tried. Which, I guess given how much they had to work with, it's not that surprising.

I can say, though, that, despite all of the problems I had with the writing and the acting, the fight choreography is really fucking good. Seriously, the fights in this movie look they might've came out from the Dead or Alive games. And that is really cool to see. Mind you, they're nothing memorable when compared to the fight choreography from other fighting game movies such as the 1994 "Street Fighter" movie or the first two "Mortal Kombat" films, but for what it is, it's still great. And I'm not gonna dump on the fight choreography for any real reason. If there really is any reason to watch this movie, watch it for the awesome fight choreography. It honestly makes this movie worth watching for that reason alone.

Special effects, what little there is here, is fine for what it is. CG, again, what little is used here, is perfectly fine, too. Camerawork here is really good. Lighting here is lit really well. Sound-mix here is competent. Music, well honestly, I couldn't tell you much about the score that was memorable. A lot of it is just really generic rock music that isn't going to make you want to head-bang along with it. It's just there for the sake of being there. Mind you, none of it is overly bad or anything, but like I said, none of it is going to stand out at you either. So, the score here, along with the soundtrack, is incredibly forgetful.

Ultimately, guys, when all is said and done, can I recommend "DOA: Dead or Alive"? Um...God, that's a tough one. Well...I can probably recommend it if you want to watch something with friends on a bad movie night. If you want to riff on something, then this movie will probably have a ton of riffing material for you. If you're someone who's into plotless action movies, then sure, I could maybe recommend it on that end as well. But if you're looking for a GOOD movie, then fuck no. This movie is a massive turd that you can easily bypass. It really will offer nothing here, unless you want to watch if for the fight choreography. Other than that, you can easily skip this. It may possibly be loyal to the Dead or Alive games, but that doesn't make for a good movie. Shit, I mentioned back during my review for "Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children" where that thing may be loyal to the games, but it still sucked on so many levels. So, accuracy to the source material means nothing to me. This thing was boring as shit, and I honestly struggled on a couple of occasions to stay the fuck awake. That's how boring it really is. And now that I'm thinking about good fighting game movies, I may just go back and rewatch the first "Mortal Kombat" movie. Because, that to me, is a fighting game movie that is both fun on an entertaining level, but also still holds the title for the best fighting game movie ever made. So, I'm gonna go do that after I'm done putting this review together. 

And with that, guys, we come to the end of the "Video Game Movie Marathon" for Reaction & Review. Wow...this has been a very interesting marathon to say the least. I kinda expected the worst from this marathon. And while I got a few turds out of it, I also got some surprisingly good results out of it, too. Again, that Professor Layton movie shocked me on how good it really was. So hey, it definitely wasn't a bust. I'm not totally sure if I would ever do another "Video Game Movie Marathon", but who knows? We'll just have to wait and see. Anyway, guys, take care, and I will see you all later. Peace.

Reaction & Review | Bayonetta: Bloody Fate

 

Welcome, one and all, to the "Video Game Movie Marathon" here on Reaction & Review. Tonight, ladies and gentlemen, I'm gonna be covering an animated film from 2013. That movie is "Bayonetta: Bloody Fate".

Now, for those of you who don't know, this movie is an adaptation of the very first Bayonetta game. Which, at the time that I heard about this thing, I wasn't even aware that it was a movie. I thought it was, like, an OVA that was adapting the Bayonetta games into a mini-series. But no, it's an animated movie. And I thought it would be perfect to cover for this marathon.

Now I should mention that I loved Bayonetta. I played the original incarnation of this game way back when it was only available on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. I've heard negative things about the latter version, however, I don't know how much of that is true. But anyway, I played it on the Xbox 360 and I loved it. I then played Bayonetta 2 on the Wii U, and I loved that as well, even though it was a tad bit easier than the first game. And I would love to say that I care about Bayonetta 3 being released on the Switch, however, I'm still waiting for more interesting and appealing games to appear on that system that isn't some half-baked port that retards will pass off as "new" for the Nintendo Switch. Until that happens, the Nintendo Switch, at least to me, is still nothing more than some half-baked console that mostly relies on ports.

But setting aside my grievances about a system that I don't care about, I'm really looking forward to watching this movie. Because, as I said, I really enjoyed the first Bayonetta game. And I'm rather curious to see what exactly this movie is going to do when adapting a game like this. I have no idea if it's going to be any good, but I am hoping for it to be. And the only way I'm gonna find out if this thing is any good at all, 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 "Bayonetta: Bloody Fate".

8 minutes later

Well, guys, I think I have run into a pattern with some of the movies that I've covered for this marathon. And that is that the music in this movie, at least so far, is lifted directly from the games. And I rather like it when a video game movie goes to that kind of detail. It just feels right to me, you know?

10 minutes later

Wait, did Enzo just call him "Rodan"? No...his name is pronounced as "Rodon". I know this, because that's how he pronounced his name in the game! And what's funny about this is that his name is spelled "Rodin". I know it's probably just the accent, and I'm probably commenting about trivial bullshit, but it just doesn't sound right to pronounce Rodin's name as "Rodan". That just sounds fucking stupid as hell.

11 minutes later

OK...I didn't know that Bayonetta's guns could break that easily. I don't think they ever did THAT in the game. But then again, it has been a while since I last played it. So maybe it's just something that I forgot about, but I still don't recall her guns being able to break that easily. But if they did, then I guess you learn something new everyday, don't you?

6 minutes later

All right, seeing Bayonetta using that chainsaw like that was actually pretty awesome. Then again, the chainsaw was one of the more fun weapons in the game. So, to see it being utilized here was a very nice touch.

6 minutes later

You know, guys, I have been having a problem with this movie's dialogue being lifted from the Bayonetta game not having much of an impact. That time, it actually did kinda work. I will talk more about that when the movie's done, though.

9 minutes later

All right, I think now might be the time to mention this as any. The animation in this movie is amazing. This is some really-awesome looking animation. Especially for both Bayonetta's hair and the angels. It really does look amazing in this movie, guys.

10 minutes later

You know, guys, even though I'm still not a fan of how they pronounced Rodin's name in this movie, he is still very much a badass in this movie, as I just saw him destroy a bunch of angels with, I think, a pink laser beam of sorts. It was still really cool, though.

The Review

Well, guys, that was "Bayonetta: Bloody Fate". Let me go ahead and shut the movie off...OK. Well...what to start with first? I guess I should say that this movie is gonna be a bit tough for me to review. Because what works here really well also kinda falters a bit with it's choices. Allow me to explain.

I'm gonna start with the writing. The writing is kind of a mixed bag. Being that this is an adaptation of a video game, you kinda have to take certain liberties with what you're adapting. Otherwise, your movie is gonna end up being a bit bland. One positive I can definitely say about this film's writing is that it's much better structured, when compared to the game's story. Because, for those of you who've never played Bayonetta, one of the problems that game suffered from was that it's writing was all over the place. It really didn't make much sense, especially if you were a newcomer that was going into that game for the first time. Because there was a LOT that went on in that game. And if you were to try and follow everything that went on in that game on your first playthrough, chances are, you would be totally lost on a lot of things. Such as the child character Cereza, and how's she's connected to Bayonetta. Or the backstory involving the Lumen and Umbra Sages, and how Luka's father was investigating them as a journalist. Speaking of which, the only way you know more about the backstory involving the sages is if you collected journal entries for Luka's diary. Because they mostly provided more background and lore about what happened 500 years ago involving the sages. That is, if you ever bothered to collect and read them. And if you didn't, well, then that's your own fault for not understanding the backstory. But anyway, this movie was actually able to flesh out what the game didn't do, and it actually does it very well. Our characters are very fleshed out and you do care about them as the movie goes on. In fact, this movie, for the most part, is a very faithful adaptation of the Bayonetta game. And that's really cool to see, because, it does fix the glaring story problems that the game suffered from, and it fleshed out a lot of details that were absent from the game. Most of everything here makes sense to where you don't feel like you're lost and confused. This movie does a very good job in fixing that problem, and you're able to understand just about everything that goes on in this movie.

Now, while it's really cool to see that this movie is rather faithful to the game, I feel like, at times, it's a little TOO faithful. And that's where one of my problems comes in with this movie's writing, which is the dialogue. Now, I should make mention that this is only a problem IF you played the game. If you haven't, then all of the problems I'm gonna be discussing involving the dialogue are gonna be completely non-existent to you. However, it is something that I noticed, and it kinda stuck out at me. First of all, I should mention that when it comes to the dialogue, I'm not talking about dialogue that sounded stilted or poorly acted, but rather I'm talking about dialogue that is misplaced. In fact, this movie changes a couple of scenes from the game in different orders, and it's mostly only the beginning that they changed. Instead of starting out at the graveyard with Bayonetta praying, it actually starts out at a cathedral, where Luka is trying to take pictures of Bayonetta in action. Mind you, Luka doesn't originally appear in the game until a little bit later on. However, he plays a role right from frame one in this movie. In fact, he ends up replacing Enzo's role by having his car being smashed by Bayonetta instead of Enzo's. And as for Enzo, he really doesn't play much of a role in this movie, when compared to the game. Where in the game, he had a slightly more significant role in helping Bayonetta trying to find clues about her past. In this movie, though, he only has two sequences where he's sitting at a table at Rodin's bar. And yes, I'm gonna talk about that issue involving Rodin's name later. But anyway, Enzo's role in this movie is completely wasted, and he doesn't really serve much of a purpose at all. And to be fair, his role in the game isn't that much better, but at least he had more to do there. Anyway, going back to the dialogue before I forget about it, this movie, in some cases, lifts it directly from the game. Whether it's for story purposes or for jokes. For the story, it's not that noticeable. But for stuff involving jokes, it's almost the exact opposite. Such as when Luka makes references to female characters that have names from other Capcom games, it felt really fucking forced. Especially when compared to the game, in which he doesn't make those references until a little bit later on in the game. In the movie, he makes that reference near the beginning of the movie, and it doesn't have any real impact. The only time that lifting the dialogue involving jokes from the game actually worked was when Luka planted a tracking bug at Bayonetta's apartment. And it was shortly after Bayonetta and Cereza had taken a bath that Luka thinks that Bayonetta had a child. Which she doesn't, mind you, but that would be me talking about spoilers for both the movie and the game. And the dialogue that comes after that came from the game, and it actually did work, because the timing of it was actually sorta clever. Everything else, not counting for story purposes, doesn't work.

Now again, that's mostly an issue, if you've never played the first Bayonetta game. For people who have played it, it's definitely noticeable. And for me, personally, it sorta bugged me a bit. Now, since I mentioned the jokes a moment ago, I want touch upon the movie's humor. Or should I say...lack thereof. Because what's definitely missing from this movie that was in the game was the humor. Because the game's writing, even though the story was all over the place, actually had some rather sharp humor. And it was definitely funny in a lot of areas. But then again, the humor was also timed really well in the game. Here though...it really isn't. In fact, a lot of the humor in this movie is incredibly downplayed. And that's really quite a shame, too. Because that's one of the things that the game's writing did so well. And to see it missing here is definitely disappointing. One example that I wanted to see was during a bit in the game where Bayonetta was pointing her gun at Rodin and she said something, like, "How do you Americans say it? Oh yes. Bust a cap in yo ass..." Like, that was seriously one of the most missed opportunities that the movie could've capitalized on in terms of humor. And sadly, they didn't do that. Instead, they downplay the humor to a tee, and this movie definitely missed the mark when skipping out on the humor. But that honestly can also be seen as a minor thing, because again, it's only an issue if you've never played the Bayonetta game. Anyone who hasn't played it are not gonna notice the issues that I had with the movie's writing. In fact, a lot of these issues are very minor, and I'm only making them more of an issue because I've played the game. And it definitely stuck out at me as somewhat of a problem. And like I said, those who haven't played Bayonetta are not gonna notice it or even care. However, it definitely stuck out at me, so you just have to take it for what it's worth.

With that aside, the writing here is pretty good as a faithful adaptation of the game. However, it also sacrifices humor and sometimes poorly executes dialogue that was lifted from the games in a couple of scenes. But with out of the way, let's get into the acting. Now, I did watch the English dub, and what I did like was that they got most of the actors reprising their roles from the games with the one lone exception being Enzo. Enzo's voice actor definitely sounds different when compared to the Bayonetta games. And while I will say that it's not as good as Enzo's original voice actor was, it's still decent for what it is. In fact, the entire cast here did a pretty good job with what they had to do. However, there are two things that stuck out at me. One of them has to do with the pronunciation of Rodin's name. Now the way they pronounced his name in the game is "Rodon". But in this movie, for whatever baffling reason, decided to pronounce it as "Rodan". Which sounds like one of the creatures from Godzilla. And I wanted to be sure about this, because as I was typing this up, I looked up one of cutscenes from the original game, and sure enough, they did pronounce his name as "Rodon". I don't know WHY this movie decided to pronounce his name as "Rodan". I don't know if it was an issue involving the dub, or if Funimation, again, had this issue in mispronouncing a character's name. But then again, they also mispronounced Lupin's name as Lu-pen back when I reviewed "Lupin the 3rd: The Pursuit of Harimao's Treasure". So, I guess it's just par for the course with this dubbing company. Who knows? But anyway, there is one other thing that I noticed involving an inconsistency is when the angels talk. Because in the game, they spoke in this bullshit gibberish language that is inaudible. I guess it was suppose to pass itself off as angel language, but it still didn't really make a ton of sense. In this movie, they speak perfect English. I have no idea why that is, but it is rather noticeable. But honestly, I don't really mind this inconsistency, because I can actually understand what they're trying to say, instead of just using a made-up bullshit language from the game. Anyway, though, the acting is still pretty good, and the cast turned in a fine showing that is considered decent. So, kudos to most of the cast for trying, even if there were some things here and there that didn't make much sense.

The animation is fucking amazing in this movie. The art style here is great, and everything moves pretty smoothly for the part. The character designs are very good, and the color palettes are used very well. I honestly thought that this movie was animated by Madhouse. However, that is not the case. It is instead animated by a studio known as Gonzo. And from what I've seen, it looks really good, when it comes to the 2D art style. And the CG is not too bad either, but I do have to admit, there a couple of hiccups when it comes to the CG. One of them involves a shot here and there where Luka is piloting a helicopter, and the CG model on the copter looks like it might've been rendered out of a cutscene from a SEGA CD game. It looks THAT bad. I can also say that one of the angel bosses that you fight in the game was also rendered in CG. Which looks fine from a distance, but when viewed up close, it looks...kinda shitty. And I did say that the animation involving the angels looked really good, but I won't deny that one of the angel bosses looks kinda like shit. But that may just be me that noticed it. However, everything else involving CG looks great. So, I can at least say that the animation, for the most part, looks great for a movie like this.

Sound-mix here is mixed fine. The music is also something that was taken out of the Bayonetta games. But I will admit that it's only for a few scenes, and that's also a bit of a disappointment. But at the same time, it's not something that I'm gonna harp on this movie too much for. Because while I did like the music from the Bayonetta games, it's not something that's gonna be ultra memorable, either. At least, when compared to another video game movie such as "Halo Legends", where they recycled a bunch of music from the Halo games, and I'm more partial to that music rather than for Bayonetta. However, I am just comparing apples to oranges, so I should probably just drop that comparison all together. Anyway, the score here is perfectly fine for what it is, so I may as well just leave it at that.

Ultimately, guys, when all is said and done, am I able to recommend "Bayonetta: Bloody Fate"? I'm able to say yes, for a couple of different reasons. The first one is that if you've never played the Bayonetta game, then all of the problems that I discussed with the writing are not going to apply to you. You can go into this thing, and you would not notice the issues that I had with the film's writing, because I was mostly comparing it with the game. Speaking of which, if you're someone who has played the game, I can still recommend it, but I will also say that's not a completely perfect adaptation. Like I said earlier, the dialogue that is lifted from the games doesn't necessarily work with every scene in this movie. That, and the humor is definitely missing from this movie. However, if you're able to look past all of that, then this movie is still a very good adaptation of the video game. It may not have everything here, but what IS here is still pretty fucking good. And I'm quite happy to own a copy of this movie for myself, which will definitely have a spot on my DVD shelf. Also, if you've never played the first Bayonetta game, I would definitely recommend it, if you're into action games. You can definitely find the first game through a lot of different consoles, whether it's for the Xbox 360, PS3, Wii U, Switch, PS4, Xbox One, or PC. Whatever you find it on, pick it up. It definitely is worth your time, provided, again, that you're into action games. In fact, I'm kinda interested in replaying the first game again right now. I have the first two games on Wii U, so I'm definitely gonna be doing 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.

Reaction & Review | Doom

 

Welcome, one and all, to the "Video Game Movie Marathon" here on Reaction & Review. Tonight, ladies and gentlemen, I'm gonna be covering a sci-fi movie from 2005. That movie is "Doom".

Yes, guys, this is the second time this marathon that I'm gonna be covering another video game movie starring Dwayne Johnson. I honestly did NOT plan that when I was scheduling what movies to cover for this marathon. And if you read my review for "Rampage", you will know the reason why. And with circumstances being what they are, I figured it would be sorta cool to give Dwayne Johnson a bit of spotlight for this marathon, even if it was unintentional.

Now, for those of you that are new here to this "Video Game Movie Marathon", last month, I reviewed "Rampage". Which was a movie that was very loosely tied in with the video game franchise of that same name, and that it also starred Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson. Well, to make a long story short, the movie sucked hard. It sucked as an action movie, it sucked as a video game movie, and Dwayne Johnson was the worst actor in that entire movie. At least, to me, he was. However, as I just stated earlier, I am giving Dwayne Johnson a second chance here with tonight's movie.

And...I actually have a little bit more faith in this movie. Because unlike with "Rampage" where I didn't have a whole lot of experience with that franchise, DOOM, on the other hand, I actually have quite a bit of experience with. You see, my Dad use to own a very old PC, and one of the games that I use to play on it was the original DOOM. I loved it as a child, even though I never beat it. Mainly because, the game became harder later on and the game was REALLY long. Speaking of which, I remember picking up a copy of DOOM 3: BFG Edition for the Xbox 360, and that game was also really long. Mind you, both games are really fun, but I didn't realize how long those games really were. So yeah, even though I've only played two DOOM games, I really enjoy that series.

So, I'm REALLY hoping for this movie to be entertaining. I was gonna say that I'm hoping for it to be good, but considering how much "Rampage" sucked, I'm setting the bar on this one pretty low. But still, I want to have some fun with this movie. And who knows? Maybe Dwayne Johnson will improve on his acting here. It's kinda doubtful, but I still have some hopes. So, the only way I'm gonna find out if this thing is entertaining at all, 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 "Doom".

18 minutes later

You know, guys, the dark lighting in these shots here is actually helping build the atmosphere for this movie. I never thought I would actually get to comment on something like the lighting, but holy shit, this movie is doing a really good job at it! I'm rather impressed.

10 minutes later

O...K, that was kinda painful. I mean, just ripping off your fucking ear like that would probably cause you to scream with intense pain. But then again, considering what this doctor has been through, I think he's suffered more than enough pain as is.

10 minutes later

You know, guys, I was just gonna bring this up, but why didn't they kill this doctor before he fully turned into...whatever monster that he currently is? Because any sense of humanity within him is pretty much gone at this point. And the fact that he already escaped is gonna lead to more disaster. I'm just saying, maybe they should've had some common sense and put the doctor out of his misery. But hey, maybe that's just me.

6 minutes later

All right, you know what? Now that we've finally got a chance to see this monster that's been roaming around the sewers, I can actually say that the monster looked really fucking cool! And the buildup to it was actually rather creepy. I'm genuinely impressed by that.

15 minutes later

Well, guys, this movie teaches you a very valuable lesson. If you see one of your dead soldier friends come back to life and they're clearly not human anymore, just let them crash into a glass wall repeatedly until they're completely dead. You learn something new every fucking day, don't ya?

9 minutes later

You know what's satisfying, guys? Just seeing Portman getting his shit caved in from this fucking monster. Quite honestly, I am totally happy to see this. Oh...and The Rock just used the BFG....awesome! Anyway, I was gonna say that if the movie wanted to keep this up for a while longer, I would've been all for it. Portman deserved everything that came to him, you know?

16 minutes later

Well...somehow, within two movies this marathon, The Rock's character has become incredibly unlikable. I didn't think that was actually possible, but somehow, he totally nails it. And honestly, his reasoning for being unlikable here is actually for legitimate reasons this time. I'll talk more about that, though, when this movie is done.

7 minutes later

Guys, this first-person camera angle I'm seeing right now is fucking great. This really does feel like it came from the DOOM games. This is just awesome stuff.

The Review

Well, guys, that was "Doom". Let me shut the movie off...OK. Well...what to start with first? I guess, maybe, I should state that I went into this thing with low expectations. And I can actually say that my low expectations were far from what I expected. This movie was not too bad. Mind you, now, this movie isn't great, and it's certainly not a work of art. But I was pretty entertained for the most part. And on that end, it certainly surpassed my expectations.

So, I guess I should go into this by talking about the writing. I can tell you right off the bat that this movie pretty much falls in line with what the games intended. Where you destroy monsters, aliens, and all these bizarre fucked-up creatures that are inhabiting this science facility. And that's what this movie's plot is, in a nutshell, where The Rock and his team are sent out to Mars to destroy whatever is lurking around the space facility there. It is a very bare bones plot that is very self explanatory. And that's really all you need for a story involving DOOM. Because DOOM was never really known for it's strong writing. You just do what you need to do and destroy a ton of monsters while trying to survive at the same time. Unlike another FPS series such as Halo, where that thing is deep into it's story and characters, DOOM is nothing like that. It is straight to the point, and it knows what it wants to be. In fact, I should mention that this movie's atmosphere is fucking great. Because you really feel like you are in the world of DOOM. Where you feel isolated and you're cutoff from the rest of the world with very little communication from your teammates. This movie, on that end, accomplishes that tremendously. Now, I should also say that because this movie doesn't really have an enriched story, some people are gonna be turned off by this. And I'm gonna tell you, if you go into this movie, and if you're expecting a deep complex story in terms of something like Halo, you are not going to find that here. What this movie ultimately amounts to is a mindless popcorn flick. Where you can watch this thing knowing that it is a goofy mindless action film that's gonna entertain you from the moment it kicks off it's story, and it stays with you right towards the end credits. Now, I know I've stated before that I'm not a huge fan of plotless action movies, but with DOOM, it is a very rare exception, because I know that game's plot is very bare bones at best. And if you go into it, knowing that it's just some mindless popcorn flick, then you are going to absolutely adore this movie.

As with our characters, well...guys, this is an action movie. And much like with a lot of action movies, character depth is not something you're going be looking for with these types of movies. Just about everybody here has almost no depth to them. We have this one black soldier that has a thing for Sam, the scientist that is also the sister of John, which is Karl Urban's character in this movie. We have one soldier that is very timid, we have another solider that is kinda religious, we have another black soldier named Destroyer with absolutely zero character to him, we have another soldier named Portman, who is also a dick, and then there's John, who ends up becoming our Doomguy. A bit of a spoiler there, but again, DOOM's story is really non-existent. Like honestly, I could barely remember any names from this movie outside of a few soldiers, because that's how much their 'depth' really contributed to this movie. But I guess I could talk about the one remaining character in this movie, that being Sarge, which is Dwayne Johnson's character. Now, if you didn't read my review for "Rampage", one of my problems with that movie was that Dwayne Johnson's character had really unjustifiable reasons for disliking humanity. I won't go too deep into that, because I've said plenty about in my review for "Rampage", but one of the reasons was because that he hated what they did to George the gorilla's mother, and that somehow is enough of a reason for him to dislike humanity as a whole. Which, to me, is a very shallow and kinda stupid reason, to be honest. Now, with this movie, The Rock's character is basically a meathead soldier that is giving out orders to his team and destroy whatever is roaming around the facility. And the point where The Rock's character becoming unlikable actually makes sense here. Because we find out that these monsters are choosing to infect whoever they come into contact with. And when the timid soldier finds a group of non-infected humans hiding in some sort of bunker, he doesn't follow The Rock's orders to kill everyone that might be still alive. The Rock insists that he follows orders, because the monster has escaped to Earth and has killed a lot of people that came into contact with it. And some of them might be possibly infected. And when the timid solider refuses, because they AREN'T infected, The Rock decides to kills him because of insubordination reasons. Now...this is actually more of a reason to dislike Dwayne Johnson's character in this movie, because he comes across as a judgmental asshole that wants the entire place empty, regardless if they might be infected or not. Not that he knows this, because if the timid soldier actually did show The Rock that they were still alive, he probably would've killed them himself anyways. But regardless, this is definitely more of a justifiable reason to dislike his character in this movie, unlike with "Rampage" where the reasons there are rather half-assed.

So, characters, and character depth, are very much non-existent in this movie. And the writing, as a whole, is very one dimensional. But, once more, this is a movie based off a game franchise that doesn't really have much of a plot to begin with. So, on that end, it totally works for this movie. As for the acting, well, most of it here is OK. None of it is great, but it certainly is decent for what it is. The best actor for me, personally, has to go to Karl Urban. He is just great in this movie. He really turns in a showing that sounds legitimate and really makes this movie worth watching for him alone. Now, I should probably answer this, while I'm on this subject. Is Dwayne Johnson's acting better here than what was in "Rampage"? Kinda yes, but not exactly. I really feel like his meathead soldier mentality actually works for his kind of acting, because he doesn't really have to go out of his way to try and sound like he's phoning it in. It really sounds much better here, at least with what he had to work with for this movie. But at the same time, I also feel like he's overacting a bit when he has to shout his lines or when he's cursing up a storm. Which isn't a whole lot, mind you, but when he's trying to say something like "Fuck!", it just sounds like he's trying too hard to sound intimidating. But still, for what it is, the acting from Dwayne Johnson in this movie is still an improvement here, even if it's not saying very much. As for everyone else, the acting is decent, but it's nothing amazing, especially when you consider the script that was given to them. At the very least, they were able to take their incredibly shallow characters and run with it as best they can.

Special effects in this thing are really fucking good. In terms of blood effects, there is a lot of it in this movie. But then again, since with we're working with a video game movie that's based off a franchise such as this, it's to be expected. All of the blood effects are really good in terms of both practical and digital, what little digital blood is used for this movie. The gore effects here are really awesome. The makeup and costuming on the monsters are designed very well. The costuming on our soldiers are also really good, too. So really, guys, the special effects in this movie are just that damn good here.

There's one thing I need to make mention in terms of camerawork. I brought it up really late in the film, but there's one scene in this movie where it goes into first-person, and it is such an awesome scene. Because it looks like it came from the DOOM video games, and it is such an awesome thing to see here. It really makes the film all the more fun to watch. Granted, as I just stated, it's only for this one scene, but it's still totally awesome to see something like that incorporated into this movie. Lighting is also another thing I need to make mention of. And I don't often to get to mention lighting for movies, but this movie certainly deserves that. Because throughout a majority of the film, there is a lot of darkness in this movie. And it's counter-balanced with this blue lighting that you get to see whenever The Rock's team are trying to find the missing scientists. And the lighting during these shots helps build up the atmosphere and isolation in this movie. Again, it's not often I ever get to mention lighting for these reviews, but this movie definitely deserved that extra praise in lighting. Sound-mix here is mixed competently. The score here is pretty good, too. There are moments when the film wants to be silent, and it totally works there. When it's working in the horror elements, the score will usually work in some typical horror movie score, which also works, too. And then there are moments when the movie will want to play rock music, which is when we get to see some of the soldiers fight these bigger monsters, and that totally works, too. So, the score here for this movie works really well.

Ultimately, guys, can I recommend "Doom"? I can, as long as you go into this movie knowing that it's a mindless popcorn flick. If you go into it with that kind of mindset, then you are going to love this thing. If you're expecting a more serious film with a complex story, then you're not going to find any of that here. It is a dumb mindless popcorn flick at best. And again, I normally am not a fan of these kinds of films, but considering that this based off a video game franchise that has very little story, I'm willing to overlook that with this movie. It is dumb mindless fun, and I quite enjoyed this thing. I went into it with really low expectations, but it surprised me a bit by actually being a rather entertaining flick. And that's more than what I could ask for when it comes to movies like this. Now...seeing as how this movie starred Karl Urban, I'm kinda in the mood to watch "Dredd" again. It's also another movie that he starred in, and it is fucking awesome, too. So, I'm gonna go do that after I'm done putting this review together. And who knows? Maybe after I'm done with that, I might just go and replay the first DOOM game through DOOM 3: BFG Edition. Because it has been a long time since I last played that game, and I want to see if I can beat it this time. But for now, "Dredd" comes first.

And with that, guys, 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.

Reaction & Review | Ninja Gaiden

 

Welcome, one and all, to the "Video Game Movie Marathon" here on Reaction & Review. Tonight, ladies and gentlemen, I'm gonna be checking out an OVA from 1991. That OVA is "Ninja Gaiden".

Now, I know some of you are probably looking at that title and your thinking to yourself "There's an OVA based off the Ninja Gaiden series?" And the answer is yes. I stumbled upon this thing on YouTube by accident about a year or so back, and I wasn't totally sure if I was ever going to cover it. And I thought to myself, back then, that if I ever end up doing a marathon dedicated to video games, and this movie was still up on YouTube, I would probably end up covering it. Well, sure enough, the movie is still up on YouTube, and I figured why not? I'll go ahead and cover this thing since I doubt many people even know of this OVA's existence.

While I'm on that subject, this movie's title is a bit...questionable. And the reason why is because this movie goes under a bunch of different titles. One of them is just "Ninja Gaiden", some refer to this thing as "Ninja Ryukenden", IMDB lists this OVA as "Ninja Ryu: The Dragon Sword Story", and another lists this OVA as "Legend of the Ninja Dragon Sword". So...yeah, this title is very inconsistent. However, I am going to stick with the original title that's listed on YouTube as "Ninja Gaiden", because that's how I first came across this thing when I accidentally discovered it.

Now, I actually have played one Ninja Gaiden game in my lifetime. That game being "Ninja Gaiden 3: Razor's Edge" on the Wii U. And it was OK, at best, but it wasn't really my kind of game. The game's difficulty was a bit too hard for my tastes. In fact, that's what most people think of when you ask them about the Ninja Gaiden games. They are hard as shit. Which is probably a reason why I haven't bothered to play the Ninja Gaiden games on the NES, because I don't think I would be very good at those games. But that's just a personal thing, really.

I have no idea if this OVA is going to be any good. The only thing I do know about it going in is that this thing is really short. It's only about 49 minutes long, so it's not going to be too painful if this thing sucks. Then again, the last time I said something like that was way back when I reviewed "Assault Girls", and that thing ended up being a fucking train wreck. I'm hoping that this OVA is not going to repeat what that film did. But the only way I'm gonna find out if this OVA is any good at all, 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 "Ninja Gaiden".

9 minutes later

Wait a second here. So, Friedman-Corporation just opened it's gate to all these reporters. And Ryu was just hanging out back when he got to the entrance, as he entered along with the other reporters. So...does Friedman-Corporation allow anybody to just enter the front gate? I ask this, because there were no security guards that were there to keep watch as the reporters went in. For all we know, one of them might actually be a fucking terrorist in disguise that's concealing some sort of a hidden weapon! I know it sounds like a very trivial thing to be bitching about, but it just seems really stupid on Friedman-Corporation's part, because they couldn't be bothered to hire actual security for this event, you know?

6 minutes later

OK, you know what? These experimental bodies that I'm seeing right now...look rather creepy. Especially that one body that has it's hands, head, and, I think, chest all in reverse, while on all fours. Again, it looks rather creepy. And if I ever saw that, that would be the last time I ever set foot in that building. Just thought I'd share that with you guys.

8 minutes later

Wait, so Ryu is actually telling Irene, his girlfriend, to not see him anymore because he doesn't want her to get hurt. I understand that what he's trying to say to her is all fine and dandy...except they could easily capture or kill her now so that they could make it easier for them to get to Ryu. I'm sorry, guys, but a moral conscience is not really gonna help this situation, you know?

1 minute later

And...I fucking called it. They just kidnapped Irene, so now it'll now be much easier for them to get to Ryu. Did I NOT just suggest that it wasn't a good idea for Ryu to break up with her? And in retrospect, it makes Ryu just a little bit stupid.

5 minutes later

Wow...so Robert and Jeff, instead of letting their friend, Sara, go with them to rescue Irene, they instead tied up and gagged her so that they don't risk her life. I will say that was actually sorta funny. But also, they actually had some bit of common sense, unlike Ryu, who just let his girlfriend get kidnapped like an idiot. Makes me question who the real heroes are in this OVA, you know?

11 minutes later

All right, well, I was wondering what the hell that creature was I saw on the thumbnail for this OVA. Now that I know where it came from, I guess I don't have to wonder anymore, now do I?

The Review

OK, that was a bit of a sappy way to end this OVA, but oh well. Well, guys, that was "Ninja Gaiden". I'm gonna shut this thing off...OK. Well...what to start with first?

I guess I should start with something that I held off on mentioning before I started watching this OVA. From what I gathered, this thing was suppose to be a sequel to the Ninja Gaiden games on the NES. Specifically, it's suppose to be a sequel to the second Ninja Gaiden game. Which, I wouldn't even know about, if I didn't do some sort of research going into this thing. Now the reason why I held off on mentioning it was because, as I had stated earlier, I had never played the Ninja Gaiden games on the NES. Now I suppose the question you might have your mind is do you have you to play the Ninja Gaiden games in order to understand what's going on in this OVA? And the answer to that is not really. Because the Ninja Gaiden games weren't really story driven games. There were some kind of stories there, mind you, but they weren't really the focus. Most people who played those games were going into it for the hard as hell gameplay. That, and you also have to understand that back in the day, when the internet wasn't even a thing yet, NES games never really had stories that were the focus, unless if you were playing something like the first Final Fantasy game. The only way that you probably would've known that there was some kind of deep-driven story for the Ninja Gaiden games was if you still owned the game manuals for them, or if you actually played through all of them. And I mean that you had to do it without rage-quitting because of those games difficulties. But I'm getting a bit off topic. Point is, you can go into this OVA without any real knowledge of the Ninja Gaiden games. Because they do kinda summarize what happened at the end of the second game. At least, I'm going to assume they're summarizing the events of the ending of the second game. Because Robert, at one point, explains that a guy named Jakyo was trying to break the seal of the Evil Gods, and was ultimately stopped by Ryu. Other than that, this OVA can be viewed without having any prior knowledge of the Ninja Gaiden games. You can go into this thing as a standalone OVA with no problems. And the way they handled explaining the events of the previous game was handled better here than how "Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children" handled it, in which that movie did a half ass job of telling an abridged version of the climax for Final Fantasy VII. Here though, it's just one event, and they move on with the story.

One thing I will give this OVA is that the pacing is rather good here. Because as some of you may or may not know, my history with OVA's for this series have been rather sketchy. Because just about everyone of them had some kind of issues that bothered me quite a bit. Two examples I want to bring up are "Black Magic M-66" and "Take The X Train". Both of those OVA's had problems with their runtimes and their writing. They really had problems with stuff that didn't make a ton of sense logically, and it would've helped better if both those OVA's didn't get stuck with such a short runtime. This thing, however, actually does make good with it's given runtime. Nothing here felt like a pace-breaker, and just about everything here moved well enough in order to advance the story. This thing is, honestly, one of the better OVA's that I've seen in a long time. Because it took advantage of it's short runtime and made use of it rather well. I'm actually rather surprised by that, because I genuinely thought that it was going to have the same problems that I've seen with the other OVA's that I've seen. But honestly, I didn't really find much of those problems here. I mean, I could probably poke holes into this story, but it's going to be minor at best. Such as, at one point, we see Sara, Jeff, and Robert exploring the Friedman-Corporation building to investigate a rumor that Ned Friedman was working on human experiments. And Sara mentions that Ned Friedman had died. Yet, somehow...Ned is actually alive. I'm kinda wondering why she even mentioned that? Was Ned, like, a villain at some point during the Ninja Gaiden games? I'm only asking this, mainly because she mentioned that Ned was dead, so I'm going to assume Ned was, like, the main villain of one of the Ninja Gaiden games. I don't know, but it was something that kinda stuck out at me. Now, I know I said that you don't have to play the Ninja Gaiden games in order to watch this OVA, but there are SOME things that they might reference from those games, and you might not understand them if you haven't played the Ninja Gaiden games, such as myself. But still, it's not something that's going to stick at you too much, but it might be noticeable to those that are not very knowledgeable about the Ninja Gaiden games.

As for our characters, I can honestly say that Jeff and Robert are instantly the best characters in this entire OVA. They're the sorta characters that you would see in a buddy cop film. They really do work off each other really well. Jeff is kinda like a discount John Rambo while Robert is a detective that got involved in this story because Sara was trying to get their help in order for Irene and Ryu to get together. As for Sara, she's OK, but she's really not that interesting when compared to Jeff and Robert. Both of those characters are definitely the most interesting from this OVA, and if they were given their own spinoff series, then I would watch the fuck out of it, because they were just that cool. What's sad, though, is that even though they were the best characters in this entire OVA, the same couldn't be said about our main character Ryu. Ryu has all the personality of burnt wood. Which is rather sad, because we're suppose to be following him as our main character, and he actually ends up being the blandest character out of this entire OVA. I didn't think that was actually possible, but this OVA certainly accomplished that. Now, I don't know, MAYBE he had some kind of character depth in the Ninja Gaiden games for the NES that I wasn't made aware of. But regardless, his personality in this OVA is just kinda nonexistent. Not only that, but he's also kind of an idiot. And I brought this up earlier, but it wasn't really a good idea to break up with his girlfriend just so that she wouldn't get hurt and get caught up in all of his battles. Now, while all of that sounds like he was trying to protect her with good intentions, it didn't help the fact that immediately AFTER they go their separate ways, she ends up getting captured by Friedman's henchman. So...yeah, great job, Ryu. You certainly know how to watch after your woman. At least with Jeff and Robert, they had the bright idea on keeping Sara out of this when they decided to go and rescue Irene. Granted, it might not have been the best choice to tie up and gag Sara, but at least it got the job done.

So overall, the writing in this OVA is pretty good. It's not amazing by any stretch of the matter, but it certainly is one of the better OVA's that I've seen in a long time. And along with the good pacing, it certainly helped this OVA very much. As for the acting, well, I have to go by what I watched from the Japanese version, since it's the only version that was available to me on YouTube. And the acting itself is OK. Like, I really couldn't spot any instances of bad acting, but I will say that, at times, some of it can be seen as being rather hammy. Such as when Jeff and Robert are storming the Friedman-Corporation building and they're going gung-ho with guns blazing while killing a bunch of mutated monsters that are after them. And one of these monsters that ends up dying gives out the most hammiest death sound I've ever heard. It's kinda hard to describe it, but I will say that it was one of the most unintentionally funniest death scenes from this entire OVA. In fact, some of this acting can be seen as just being hilarious to listen to, because it honestly sounds like the Japanese voice actors were having a blast with their given roles. And when some of them are giving these kinds of hammy acting to their roles, it actually makes this thing all the more lovable to watch. But as for the rest of the acting, it's OK, but when it wants to be hammy, it is some of the funniest shit you will ever hear, especially from an OVA such as this.

Animation in this thing is pretty good. Everything here, for the most part, moves rather fluidly. The art style is really good. Every character here has a unique look to them. So you won't have a character design that was reused for anybody else, save for some of the mutated monsters that you get to see when Jeff and Robert storm the Friedman-Corporation building. But other than that, the art style for this movie is rather good. In fact, for something that was made in the early 90's, this is a really good-looking OVA. Certainly much better-looking than "Black Magic M-66", but that's more of a personal preference to me. The color palettes are also pretty good, too. So overall, I can say that the animation for this OVA is pretty good, especially for the time that this thing came out.

Sound-mix here is mixed fine. I should also mention that the subtitles are fine for the most part, save for one word that was a miss typo, but I do have a question about something. And this is just a minor thing that caught my attention, but what's the difference between English hard subtitles and Russian soft subtitles? I ask this, because it's what's listed here in the original title on YouTube for this OVA. And I'm left wondering what's the difference? Because I honestly didn't notice ANY difference with the subtitles when I was watching this thing. And it's just kinda leaving me a little bit confused. So, if there's anybody out there who is an expert on subtitles, could anyone explain the difference between the two listed subtitles that I just mentioned? Because I honestly am not an expert on this, so any help would be of use here. Anyway, setting that aside, the music here is pretty good. It's certainly not memorable, but it's definitely serviceable here. So really, there's not much I can say about the music.

Overall, guys, when all is said and done, can I recommend "Ninja Gaiden?" Most certainly, yes. Like I said earlier, this is honestly one of the better OVA's that I've seen in quite a long time. Especially when you consider the subpar OVA's that I had to watch for this series, this one is certainly a breath of fresh air when compared to those. Mind you, it's not mind-blowingly amazing, but it's certainly rather good. And again, you don't necessarily have to play the Ninja Gaiden games for the NES games in order to get into this OVA. It pretty much stands out as it's own thing, while keeping the callbacks and references to the previous Ninja Gaiden games to a minimum. Granted, I wish Ryu's character was more fleshed out, but oh well, at least Jeff and Robert were able to make this thing worth watching. So yeah, I can definitely recommend this OVA. Plus also, it's really short. This thing is only 49 minutes long, so if you have that much time to spare, definitely check this thing out. It certainly is a pretty good OVA, and I'm quite happy that I was able to finally watch it for myself. I don't think this thing necessarily motivated me to play the Ninja Gaiden games, but I did have some fun with it overall. Now, as for myself...I'm gonna go watch something a little bit more light-hearted. I think I'm gonna go and watch my copy of "Porco Rosso". I see it on my DVD shelf next to quite a bit of Studio Ghibli films, so I'm gonna go 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.