Reaction & Review | Gintama

Welcome, one and all, to "Tales of the Longbox" here on Reaction & Review. Tonight, ladies and gentlemen, I'm gonna be covering a movie from 2017. That movie is "Gintama".

Now, I vaguely remember hearing about "Gintama" back in the early days when I use to read Shonen Jump. And I remember them advertising this series quite often when it was still new. I didn't really know what to think of it back when I was reading those advertisements, because they didn't really tell me a whole lot about it. And unfortunately, I never got a chance to read any of the actual books, or even seen the anime. So, I  pretty much missed out on it back during it's peak.

Fortunately, I finally have a chance to check this series out tonight. And as you may have noticed, I'm gonna be covering the live-action adaption of this movie that came out some years ago. Now normally, when it comes to live-action adaptations of movies that came from animated shows, they usually don't translate very well into live-action. Most people would cite "Dragonball Evolution" as the worst offender of this. Now I will say that, while "Dragonball Evolution" wasn't great and it's certainly not something I'd watch a second time, it really wasn't THAT bad. I mean, at the very least, the movie was watchable. At least, to me, it was.

But I'm getting way off track here by kinda defending "Dragonball Evolution". My point is that movies like "Dragonball Evolution" would be seen by a lot of people as how NOT to do a live-action movie of an anime. That being said, since the live-action "Gintama" movie was made in Japan, at the very least, there's a better chance that this thing will be more accurate to it's source material. I have no idea if that's really gonna be the case or not, since this is gonna be my first exposure to this franchise, but I will find out soon enough.

Honestly, guys, I have no idea what the hell I'm getting myself into here. I have no idea if this thing is gonna be any good at all. But if it is, then I may eventually go out and read some of the books, or track down some episodes of the anime. So the only way I'm gonna find out if this damn 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 "Gintama".

6 minutes later

So, our main characters, who currently look like Mii avatars, are complaining about the opening intro to this movie. Oh, and now they're also pointing out that fans of the manga are gonna write harsh reviews about this movie. I gotta say...it is kinda funny. Though, since this is my first exposure to this franchise, I thankfully don't have to worry about any of that. Because if this movie does indeed suck, then I'll totally be harsh to it when I eventually review it.

1 minute later

Well, guys, I just learned something else from our main characters. Apparently, I have to watch this entire movie through, otherwise I'll be on Warner Bros. blacklist. THAT is actually really funny. Although, considering how much I've complained about the CG in their animated films, I may be on that blacklist sooner rather than later. Then again, I am a nobody reviewer, so what the hell do I know?

10 minutes later

So that entire beetle hunt ended with that golden beetle being eaten by...whatever that was just a moment ago. Also, the CG on it looked a bit questionable, but I'm gonna let that slide for right now. Maybe the CG will get better as the movie goes on.

8 minutes later

OK, I need to ask this. I can get what Elizabeth, or Q-Taro as Gintoki describes her as, is, but what is up with that white dog? It's only shown up for about two scenes, and they haven't mentioned who that dog really is. Is it suppose to be their pet? If it is, then that's a huge fucking dog that they're keeping. Seriously, guys, I want to know. What the hell is up with that dog being there? I'm really curious here.

10 minutes later

They just killed off Elizabeth...which is sad, really. Because she was becoming one of my favorite characters in this entire movie so far. Granted, the way she died was a little bit odd, but still. I actually feel kinda sorry for Elizabeth now that she's gone. Shit.

20 minutes later

You know, guys, I'm actually really liking how this movie's able to balance both it's humor and the seriousness of what story it's trying to tell. I'll get more into this when I eventually review this thing, but I just wanted to let you guys know now that this movie does have a pretty good balance between the two mediums. I'm actually kinda impressed by that.

2 minutes later

OK, that was probably the weirdest way I've seen anyone read a Dragon Ball manga. I kinda get what she was trying to do while reading it, but it was still fucking weird as shit.

15 minutes later

You know, guys, I am really digging the humor in this movie, but I'm getting a little tired of these two repeating the fact that this guy has a Lolita Complex, and him replying to her that he's a feminist. It's starting to get old already, and I'm kinda hoping that this movie will dial that back some.

8 minutes later

OK, that is probably one of the funniest ways that this movie could've referenced One Piece. I really wasn't expecting that kind of reference, but still, it was pretty cool.

13 minutes later

You know, guys, just when I think that this movie couldn't top itself with it's references, that one was actually even funnier than the One Piece reference! I totally dug how and what they just referenced there. That was really cool.

The Review

Well, guys, that was "Gintama". Let me go ahead and shut the movie off...OK. Wow...what do I even start with? Well, I'll say this much. I'm definitely gonna have to track down some of the manga at some point, because this thing definitely made me interested in reading the series.

But enough about that. Let's just get into the film itself, shall we? I'm gonna start with the writing. The writing here is really solid for the most part. Now as I admitted earlier, I am not familiar with the "Gintama" series. So, I have no idea if this was attempting to adapt an arc from the manga, and or if they just decided to go with their own unique story, without it being tied into the manga. I have no idea. However, I've stated many times before that I am not here to judge whether or not this movie is loyal to the source material. I am here to judge this thing on it's entertainment factor, and whether or not I can recommend it. And I'm gonna tell you, guys, this movie definitely lives up to the entertainment factor. I wasn't really expecting much, honestly, but it definitely surprised me by how entertaining it really was. Our story here is, admittedly a little bit hard to follow, because there is a LOT going on here. You basically have stuff involving aliens taking over Japan after a war broke out between them and a band of samurais, thus leading into the aliens banning swords altogether. Then you have this evil sword known as the Benizakura, which is technically alive and that it's able to cut down ships. And the sword itself is in possession of our villain Nizo Okada. And then you have our main characters, such as Gintoki, who is looking for revenge, because Okada was the one who killed a friend of his known as Katsura. Like I said, guys, there is a LOT to unravel here. And you probably won't be able to get all of that on your first viewing. If you were to watch this movie on it's second, third, or possibly even fourth viewing, then I think everything would make a lot more sense. And what I just described to you is, more or less, an abridged version of what happens in this movie. Because while I did pick up on certain things, there were some things I kinda forgot about here and there, and I'll probably have to watch this movie again at some point in order to understand everything that's happened in this movie.

But what I do want to talk more about is the movie's humor. Because this movie has a ton of humor. And I wasn't really expecting much from it, but it really surprised me by how funny most of it was. And what makes it even better is that, for the most part, the humor is very balanced. I've mentioned this before on a couple of occasions, but one of the biggest complaints I've had with the MCU movies, what few I've watched anyway, is the fact they LOVE to shoehorn in a lot of humor, even when it's unnecessary. I hated it in "Guardians of the Galaxy", I hated it in "Iron Man 2", and unfortunately, from what I've heard, they're still doing this today with their movies. Again, I may not have seen a whole lot of the MCU movies, but from the few that I have watched, I can tell you that they don't know how to balance humor with it's seriousness. But this movie, on the other hand, knows how to do it right. Because it does have a very solid story, and at the same time, it knows when and where to have it's humor. Hell guys, right from the word go, this movie knew what it wanted to be. Which is, basically, a live-action anime. And it pulls it off really well. Now admittedly, not all of the humor is perfect. There are some jokes that kinda fall flat. Most of that is with two of our villains. One of them kept claiming that the other has a Lolita Complex, but he retorts by saying that he is a feminist. And they repeat those jokes about 3 or 4 times, to a point where it got pretty old, pretty quickly. Aside from that, the movie also relies on a lot of physical comedy, which they do quite a bit of in this movie, but thankfully, they don't completely overdo it. There's also quite a bit of sexual humor, and a little bit of toilet humor, although for the latter, they don't really do anything like fart or shit jokes. They mostly just mention piss. But aside from that, the toilet humor is kept to a minimum.

Now aside from the styles of humor that this movie was trying to work in, they also do references. Now I know a lot of people who have seen Friedberg and Seltzer's movies would be turned off by this, because when it comes to their movies, references are the one thing that they handle really poorly, such as them directly ANNOUNCING what they're referencing, and thus the humor dies. And while this movie does do that on a couple of occasions, it's slightly handled better here than with Friedberg and Seltzer. One of the reasons is because, unlike Friedberg and Selzter where they mostly just do pop culture references and shit that was relevant at the time, this movie only references manga and anime. And the other reason why the references are handled better here is because most of it is kept to a minimum. Now there a couple of obvious ones that they reference, such when Shinpachi's sister is reading a Dragon Ball manga to Gintoki. Or at one point, Gintoki also references the character of Migi from "Parasyte". Another one they reference is One Piece. Now, unlike the other two that I just mentioned, they don't tell you that it's from One Piece. You have to know that the fruit that Gintoki is given was the Gum-Gum fruit, and the hat that he briefly wears is Luffy's straw hat. One other reference that I do want to bring up is something that they kinda tell you what it's from, but the way that it's handled is fucking hilarious as shit. I won't spoil exactly what they are referencing, but I will say that they do reference a Studio Ghibli film. And to me, guys, that was one of the funniest references you could make involving it. Now I can't guarantee that you'll get the same reaction that I did when I saw that reference, but I still think it was funny as shit. So, you just have to take it for what it's worth, if you ever get the chance to watch this movie for yourself.

One other thing I want to quickly mention about the writing, that doesn't involve the movie's humor, is that most of our characters have a ton of depth to them. And as you may have noticed with the front cover, there are a LOT of characters in this movie. And you would think that, with that many characters, you wouldn't get a whole lot of depth from them. Well shockingly, this movie actually does give a lot of these characters some type of depth and personality to them. We have Gintoki, who is known as the dumbest samurai. We have Shinpachi, who is basically the timid guy with glasses, whom is also Gintoki's companion. We have Kagura, who is basically the cute red-headed monk that is also Gintoki's companion. We have the police chief, who has a boner interest for Shinpachi's sister. And we also have a couple of blacksmith's, who also play a pivotal part in this movie. Like, there is a lot of depth to these characters. Whether it's the main characters, the secondary characters, or even the villains. While not all of them have loads of depth, at least they all have some type of personality to their characters. Which is something that I don't see a whole lot of from movies nowadays, but at least this movie was trying to aim for that kind of standard. And that's something that I can definitely appreciate.

So basically, guys, the writing in this movie is mostly really good. It kinda stumbles here and there with it's humor, but it's mostly a minor stumble. And the story here, even though there's a lot to take in, what is here does work, so I can definitely say the writing here is really good. Now, before I get into the acting, I do need to make mention of something important. You see, guys, this movie does not have an English dub. So, if you're someone who is not interested in reading subtitles for over 2 hours of the movie's runtime, then this movie is probably not going to be for you. Because I know a lot of people who prefer watching an English dub over reading subtitles. Now that being said, I do think that the acting here is pretty good for the most part. There are quite a few instances where some of the actors have to shout their lines. One character in particular that does this is the character known as Tetsuya Murata. His entire gimmick in this movie is that he shouts his entire dialogue. And to some people, that could be seen as rather grating. Now admittedly, this didn't really bother me, but I could definitely see others having an issue with it. And if you do have an issue with it, well again, this movie might not be for you, especially knowing that you'd have to be reading his subtitles AND hearing his shouting at the same time. But regardless of that, the acting here is pretty good from, just about, the entire cast. Everybody here feels comfortable on camera, and everybody seemed very suited for their roles. So, I have to give the actors props on turning in a rather good showing for this movie.

Special effects are mostly really good, but there are two instances of CG that I do have to touch upon. The first has to do with the tentacles on Okada's arm whenever he's brandishing the Benizakura sword. The tentacles themselves surrounding Okada look kinda like shit. Like, every time that I see those tentacles, it looks far too much like CG, to a point where it doesn't look very believable to be around Okada's arm. However, that's mostly when viewed at certain shots. I still noticed them, though, so make of that what you will. The other bit of CG I have to make mention of, and this one is going to be rather divisive, involves Sadaharu, AKA, the huge white dog that we see with our heroes. I don't know what it is about this dog, but part of feels like, at first, I didn't mind the dog being there. However...the more that I kept seeing this dog, the CG on it just looks...incredibly off-putting to me. I don't know, maybe it has to do with either it's fur, or maybe it's face. But every time that this dog appeared on camera, part of me feels like the CG on this dog looks...kinda terrible. Now again, it's probably just me that's only bothered by this CG dog, but something about Sadaharu just didn't look right to me. But anyway...setting aside that, the CG on just about everything else looked really good. Our costuming here is done perfectly. All of the characters look like they came from the manga. Which is certainly a nice touch. Blood effects here are decent, but they're also nothing to write home about. So overall, the special effects are mostly good, save for a couple of bits of questionable CG.

Camerawork here is really good. The lighting is lit very well. The sound-mix is mixed perfectly. The soundtrack and score here are also fine. Speaking of which, there is one piece of the score that I do want to bring up. It ties back into the Studio Ghibli reference I mentioned earlier. Again, without going too much into spoilers, there's a piece of music that they play that, I swear, sounds like it came from that movie! I don't know if that's the case or not, because, admittedly, it's been a long time since I last watched that movie. But if it is, then to hear it in this movie is actually really cool. Again, I don't know if that's the case or not, but it definitely sounded like it to me. Otherwise, like I just said, the score here is fine and the soundtrack is pretty good, too.

Overall, guys, when all is said and done, am I able to recommend "Gintama"? I would say that if you were a fan of this particular franchise, then I would say most likely yes. I mean, it's very well possible that they've already seen it. But if you haven't yet, then I would definitely recommend it to that particular crowd. If you're someone like myself who hasn't seen or read the manga, and you're curious about this movie, then I would probably recommend it as a rental first. Because I can't guarantee that you'll like it enough to buy it on DVD or Blu-ray. And since this movie does not have an English dub, that might also turn off some viewers. But if you can overlook that, and if you do enjoy this movie enough, then go ahead and find it on either format. Or somewhere else online if you can find it. As for myself, I was kinda surprised by how this movie turned out. I may eventually get this thing on DVD, because I did rent this movie from my local library. So I may eventually have to track a copy for myself and add it to my DVD collection. For now, though, I'm gonna go and watch a different movie. And I'm gonna go and watch that certain Studio Ghibli film that was referenced in this movie. Again, I'm NOT gonna tell you what it is, because I would rather you go and watch the movie yourself to find out what they were referencing. But anyway, I'm gonna go and do that next.

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.