#83
Post
by cdnchris » Wed Dec 09, 2015 10:42 am
The film's... not terrible. It's not good but for those thinking it will replace Border Radio as the nadir of the collection, I don't think so. At least, if some sadistic human being forced me to watch either Border Radio or Jellyfish Eyes I would whole heartedly take the latter on an infinite loop before they even finished the sentence, probably when they got to "Jel..." Honestly, there's probably other titles I'd watch this one over any day.
I admittedly had trouble discerning what was actually going on plot wise but I think I get what he was going for, though his "targets" are all over the place, ranging from cell phone use, particularly amongst children, to organized religion to government incompetence, the latter seeming to stem from how the Fukushima disaster was handled. I'm going to go through the features first (which are pretty sparse admittedly) and then probably go back and watch it again because I know I missed some things, more because I didn't know what to expect. I'm sure I also had a disconnect because I feel the film is really tied to the tsunami and nuclear disaster and the feelings in the country after that, which I of course don't have any first hand experience with. But there's one thing which I'm having so much trouble getting around...
It's soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo sappy. The children in the movie are damaged in one way or another and these creatures are a sort of outlet for them, so the sentiment in their interactions can be overbearing at times, usually through some cornball montage with horrendous music. I hear people complain about Wes Anderson movies being too twee or cute and I never, ever got that. But if what they feel with those films is even a fraction of what I felt with this one then I think I understand now. I'm not really sure who this film was aimed at, though. I could see kids getting a kick out of it, but I'm not sure how well the film's messages will resonate. My kids liked it, even though I had to read the subtitles (again, I don't understand why an English dub wasn't included), but it's so corny I can't see many adults voluntarily sitting through it. My wife thought it looked absolutely ridiculous and said "Oh. My. God." a few times through what she saw. (Amusingly I think she thought I was watching an Arrow disc, which isn't a knock against Arrow in any way because she knows they lean more towards "cult" stuff, but when she realized I was watching a Criterion disc her response was "why!?")
The creatures looked good, though. The CGI was obvious (particularly in a sort of climactic battle between them, and then some giant slug/Godzilla hybrid that threatens to destroy everything) but they were actually interestingly designed. I guess they were a little too cute, but they had their own personalities. And the film is very colourful, looking great on Blu-ray. Some of the interactions between actors and CGI creatures is a bit rough: There are plenty of moments where the kids don't appear to be interacting correctly with the special effects.
I'm probably a bit perplexed by this one because I was expecting to hate it, but I don't. I guess I'm not entirely sure what to make of it.
I watched the trailer for the second one. It actually looks a little more interesting, and also looks to have a higher budget, so I'm guessing this did fairly well.
