Welcome, one and all, to an all new Reaction & Review. Tonight, ladies and gentlemen, I'm gonna be checking out a Japanese superhero movie from 2004. That movie is "Zebraman".
Now, this movie caught my interest for 2 reasons. The first being that this movie was directed by a man named Takashi Miike. And for those of you who might be familar with that name, I covered one other movie for this series, which he also directed. That movie being "Audition". And in case you never read my review for that movie, I ended up loving "Audition". So much so that I have since bought a few more of his movies that he also directed. And before you ask, yes, all of them will eventually be covered for this series at some point.
So anyway, out of the few movies I bought that were directed by Takashi Miike, this one skyrocketed to the top of my watch list from him. Which is gonna lead into the second reason why this movie caught my interest. And it has to do with the premise. You see, the premise to this movie, from what I read on the back of the DVD case, is about a guy that use to watch a superhero television show that he use to watch as a kid. Which is the title character you see on the front cover. And later on, as an adult, his life starts to grow miserable, and he decides to dress up as his favorite superhero to get away from his mundane, dull life. Well, somehow, someway, the evil creatures from the television show start to appear in real life, and that leads into our main character legitimately becoming the superhero that he saw on TV all those years ago.
I'm gonna tell you, guys, that premise sounds so fucking corny, yet awesome at the same time. This almost has to be good, right?! Well, as has this series proven to me time and again, awesome premises don't make for good movies, and this movie could easily just be a pile of shit. But I still have my hopes in this thing being pretty good. I mean, after all, it is from Takashi Miike. And even though I've only seen one film from this director, I still have hopes that he'll be able to make this premise work. But I won't know that for certain unless I actually sit down and I start watching this thing. So the only way I'm gonna find out if this movie 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 "Zebraman".
10 minutes later
OK, I have a bit of a dumb question here. This costume that our main character is putting on...was this always his intention to put on this costume whenever things aren't going well for him? I mean the time in which he made that thing isn't quite explained, so I'm going to assume he had that costume in his closet for quite some time. What exactly was he originally going to do with it? Put it on at a convention? Leave it the way it is? Or have his son wear it when he grows up? I totally understand that this is completely trivial, but it is something that I am somewhat curious about.
10 minutes later
O...K, and we're suddenly jumping into a literal TV preview for the Zebraman show. And I will say...it looks sorta cool. I mean, OK, it looks fucking cheesy as shit, but it actually has some bit of charm to it, I will say that much.
13 minutes later
Huh...so the guy that these two agents are looking for, who was also beat up by Zebraman, is also the same guy who wore that goofy-looking crab mask and is made out of green blood. Oh, and he had green eyes, too. Interesting. Admittedly, I'm a little bit lost here, but I'm still curious to see where this is going.
4 minutes later
Holy shit, I didn't think Zebraman was a fucking killer, but apparently, this guy is pretty much proof that he died from him! Especially if that little calling mark on this guy's head is anytihng to go by. OK granted, he DID kill the crab mask guy from earlier, but I gotta say, that was pretty dark. Funny, mind you. But the way that this guy died was kinda fucked up.
6 minutes later
So, let me if I understand this. Shinpei's mother explained to Shinichi that Shinpei's father committed suicide, and that, somehow, leads to Shinpei's current condition in the wheelchair. In a way...it kinda makes sense, but at the same, it honestly doesn't. I mean, I suppose...what the hell is that thing?! Well...anyway, I suppose seeing your Dad's corpse would lead into a very traumatic effect. But I'm not totally sure that it would actually lead you into being in a wheelchair. I'm not a health expert, and I'm probably reading too much into this, but it just seems kinda odd to me.
8 minutes later
OK, guys, this is weird. So this scene I'm seeing right now has these people in containment suits, and I can barely make out what they're saying. It also doesn't help that the subtitles are translating what they're saying in Japanese! Mind you, I'm watching the official English dub, and for whatever reasoning, I'm getting Japanese subtitles, randomly mind you, in an English dub! What the hell is the purpose of doing this? I'm really kinda curious here.
8 minutes later
So apparently, when you're one of these possessed aliens, you can actually give birth to a baby covered in slime. I gotta say, that's kinda nasty. But, at the same time, at least it's more natural here than the shit I watched in "Devil's Due" a couple of weeks ago.
15 minutes later
So one of these agents that we've been seeing this entire movie actually ends up becoming an alien. You know what? Given what we've known about these aliens so far, I can't say that I'm really suprised by any of this. I will say, though, that transformation was kinda nasty.
12 minutes later
And thus, Zebraman is dead after failing to fly...again. The End. Well, that was a shitty way for him to die...oh wait, no, he's still alive. Maybe at this point, the dude should probably just stop trying to fly. Just saying.
The Review
Well, guys, that was "Zebraman". And we're closing out with the same song that played from the DVD menu. It's actually a really catchy song, too. I know you guys can't hear it for obvious reasons, but I'm kinda digging this song. Well, as much as I'd like to continue listening to it, I have a movie to review. So, let me go ahead and shut that off...OK. So...how to explain this movie? Man, um...well, I guess I'll get this question out of the way. Is this movie good? Totally. Like, I really enjoyed this movie quite a bit. Now is it as good as, say, "Audition"? Not quite. I wouldn't say that it's amazing, but it definitely has a lot to stand out on it's own. And that's certainly saying something.
I should probably just stop stalling and actually start reviewing this movie. And I guess I'll start with writing. Now, you may have noticed early on that I stated that I was lost on a few things. For instance, what was the story involving the guy with the crab mask over his head? And what was the deal with the green blood that I kept seeing throughout a majority of the first half of the movie? What exactly were the two agents searching for when it came to these creatures that ended up getting killed by Zebraman? A lot of this didn't really make a ton of sense for a while. And I was sort of curious as to how exactly this movie was going to explain all of this and other things I was curious about. Well, believe it or not, the movie does explain all this...and it actually does make some sense if you stop and think about it. Now, I'm gonna try not to spoil a lot of this, because there would be a lot to unravel, and I don't want to spoil very much about this movie to you guys. But I am gonna go over a little bit of it. So, there was a UFO ship that crashed landed on a very specific spot on Earth 34 years. And the school assistant that we see for a good portion of the film was a former writer of the Zebraman TV show that Shinichi, our main character, use to watch as a kid. But the show got cancelled after 7 episodes due to low ratings. So shortly afterwards, the spot where the UFO landed got covered up by a school that was built on top of it. And the guy who wrote the Zebraman TV show ended up becoming a school assistant to find proof of some kind about the UFO. And as you might've guessed, it involves aliens, and the school assistant was, basically, trying to warn people about an alien invasion that was about to happen in the year 2010 through the Zebraman show, which is the current year in the movie, and that Zebraman was their only hope and savior. I understand it sounds like it doesn't make ANY sense, but, believe me, it really does. And most of that, like I said, ties into heavy spoilers that I'm not going to reveal, because I really don't want to spoil this movie for you guys. The movie does explain all of this, and it actually does make sense, if you're willing to accept the movie's explanation. And like I said, I left out a LOT of details that would result in me spoiling the entire movie. But the gist of is this: There's an alien invasion that's about to happen, and Zebraman is the one to prevent this from happening. That's all you need to know. And it's pretty straightforward for the most part.
That being said, there is also some stuff here that could be seen as questionable. Now again, this mostly ties into the spoilers that I'm not going to go over, but I will say that the biggest potential negative about this movie's writing is that a lot of this happens by sheer coincidence. For example, I mentioned it earlier, but the Zebraman costume that Shinichi first makes is something that he's had in his closet for an undetermined amount of time. The movie doesn't really explain WHEN he first made this, but he's had it in his closet. And when he decides to wear the costume for fun, he then suddenly becomes Zebraman for real. So, what would've happened if he never made that costume? Was the alien invasion gonna happen anyways? Was he gonna become a victim of the aliens when they eventually conquered Earth? I don't know. But honestly, it's a very trivial point in the long run. However, what I am sorta curious about is that when he does his nightly routine of becoming Zebraman, he starts to do the moves that Zebraman was able to do in the TV show with no problems. How exactly was he able to do this, despite the fact that we first see him not being very good at being stealthy, or the fact that he's not entirely surprised that he's able to perform the Zebraman moves flawlessly isn't entirely explained either. Another thing that could be seen as coincidential is something involving another character named Shinpei Asano, the kid who we see in a wheelchair throughout the entire movie. He apparently plays a part in this movie that also ties into the spoilers that I'm not gonna go too deep into, but it's mostly just him in a supporting role. He also ends up becoming friends with Shinichi, and they both have an interest in Zebraman. And I will say that our characters are very well developed. Not all of them, mind you. Most of the bland characters come from Shinichi's own family. I'm talking about his wife, teenage daughter, and young son. All of them are pretty bland and rather unlikable, but I do believe that was intentional. Most of them don't like Shinichi for reasons that I'm not totally sure why. In fact, I was trying to figure out why exactly was Shinichi considered unlikable? You could make the argument that he's just not a very good husband/father and teacher, but I never really found his personality to be unlikable. It's honestly a nitpick, but it is something that kinda bugged me a bit as I was watching the movie.
Honestly, guys, I could be here nitpicking a lot of scenes in this movie that might not make too much sense, but none of it here is gonna be a real dealbreaker. Basically, if you sit there and really think about the minor problems for too long, or how this movie likes to rely on coincidences, then it could be a seen as a bit of a problem. But again, none of this is really gonna be a major problem for you, unless you really don't like the plot twist that the movie tries to give out involving the spoilers that I keep mentioning. However, like I said, it does make sense and I really liked this twist, so it's something that you just have to take for what it's worth. I will say, though, that there are a couple of moments in which the movie's pacing is a bit slow, and it's anytime that Shinichi is interacting with kids. And by kids, I'm only talking about scenes involving Shinpei and his own son. With Shinpei, it's not AS bad, but with his son, it's pretty noticeable. Anytime that he is trying to talk to his son, there are lengthy moments where there's gonna be long pauses every time that Shinichi finishes his dialogue. The son doesn't say anything in return for about 3 or 4 sentences after his father finishes his dialogue, and these pauses are pretty damn long. The movie could've definitely trimmed these scenes down a bit, seeing as how this movie was almost pushing for 2 hours. But other than that, the pacing on this movie is pretty good, for the most part. And the writing here is not too bad, as long as, again, you're willing to accept what I just mentioned involving spoilers.
Now with that being said, let's get into the acting. I went ahead and watched the English dub, and, admittedly, I wasn't that big on this acting's dub at first, but as the movie went on, I was quickly able to get into it with no problems. The acting here is pretty good. Admittedly, it's not great, but, then again, I've seen far better AND far worst when it comes to live-action English dubs. So, the acting here is pretty good. But, of course, if you're not into English dubs, there is an option in which you can watch the Japanese version with the subtitles. Speaking of which, there is something else that kinda bothered me, and it's gonna tie into subtitles. There's only one scene in this movie where subtitles are used, and it's the scene involving our agents in containment suits. As they're talking, I could barely hear what they were trying to say. And I would've not minded that, if the subtitles that was used here was in English....but they're not. Instead, the subtitles were all in Japanese. And I STILL don't know why that is. Did Media Blasters, the company that put this movie out on DVD, fuck up and put the subtitles in by accident? Was it intentional as a joke that we couldn't hear what they were saying, so you just had to guess based on the subtitles? Or were they expecting Japanese viewers to watch this movie with the English dub and they had to throw subtitles in there for their viewing pleasure? I don't know. And I still can't figure out why there were Japanese subtitles for this official English dub. But other than that, there are no other subtitles in this movie, aside from the occasional Japanese to English writing that we did get translated for this dub. So, at least, we have that.
Special effects are actually pretty good for 2004 standards. A lot of the CG that's used here involves the aliens that you see in this movie. And there's quite a lot of them, too. Admittedly, some of the CG is a bit dated, especially by today's standards. But honestly, I didn't mind that, because I actually think that the CG still looks pretty good, especially for the time that this thing came out. Mind you, it's not, like, on the level of something from the Star Wars prequels, but it still looks good for what it is. So, I can honestly give most of the dated CG a pass here. Costuming on Zebraman looks pretty good. When you first see it, it looks pretty homely. However, it was intentional because Shinichi had made that costume. And when you get to see the final costume towards the big climax of the movie...well, I want you to imagine if Batman had more white stripes on his costume. That much I'll say about Zebraman's final costume. Overall, guys, special effects here are decent, even if some of it is a bit dated for it's time. But, like I said, I really the CG that was used here, so make of that what you will.
Camerawork here is really good. Lighting here is done very well. Sound-mix, minus the bit involving the containment suits and the mis-hap involving the Japanese subtitles, is mixed very well. The music is very good, both in our score and soundtrack. I mentioned it at the start of this review, but there's a song in this movie that, I believe, is suppose to be Zebraman's theme song. And it's a pretty catch song, too. If you're curious at any point, look up the song on YouTube. It actually is a pretty catchy song to listen to.
Ultimately, guys, am I able to recommend "Zebraman"? For the most part, yes. If you're able to look past the, somewhat, questionable coincidences that this movie tries to tie in with it's spoilers, then what you have is, essentially, a really solid superhero film. If you're looking for a different kind of superhero movie that you don't regularly see from DC or Marvel, then go ahead and check this thing out. It definitely is a rather unique movie. Now again, when it comes to the only other Takashi Miike film that I've seen, it's not as good as that one was, but it certainly is a fun cheesy movie that I really did enjoy watching. Fun fact: I actually bought this movie at a convention last year, along with a plethora of other movies that I picked up from there, and I'm quite happy to say that this one didn't disappoint me. So yeah, this sucker is definitely gonna have a spot on my DVD shelf. And as for myself, I'm gonna go watch another superhero film. Preferably a superhero comedy. I think I'm gonna go watch my copy of "Batman and Harley Quinn". That one, to me, is definitely a funny movie, and it has been a little while since I last saw it. So, I'm gonna go and do that next after I'm done putting this review together.
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.
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