fukyoecouch Reviews

Saint Seiya: Legend of Sanctuary (2014)

Not for super hardcore fan BUT a great animated film

[8/10 · 26 December 2014]

I grew up watching saint seiya and I have always been a big fan of the TV show, but I have always hated the saint seiya movies in the past. The only thing I remember from the old saint seiya movies is the long long scenes of the bronze saints getting beat up much like the fillers in Dragon Ball Z when goku and others would scream for a whole episode while transforming to the next super saiyan stage.

Back to the movie, all the designs and small details(Sceneries, Architectures, Armours and the fight moves) in the animation were beautiful and very well thought out. People were right that there weren't much character "development" since its a 90 minutes movie, but the actions and dialogues did a very effective job of showing what each character was about. It is basically the same old straight forward but effective cartoon plot which I expected going in, so I have no idea why so many reviewers are complaining about it.

Every little detail might not be true to the original TV series, but the whole movie was very entertaining and the details well well thought out if you pay attention. So, if you are not a super hardcore saint seiya fan and are very much into well done animated film then you should probably give this a watch.

Crows Explode (2014)

Terrible....wasn't able to finish it

[4/10 · 25 December 2014]

I knew that Takashi Miike wasn't involved with the title, so I kept an open mind when I started watching it. But the fact is this movie was horrible, and It felt like I have been watching this movie for 2 hours when I was only 60 minutes in.

First, the casting for this movie was horrible, none of the new actors looked like they are suited for their roles. They tried to do a more complex story but it wasn't captivating, and left out a lot of great character development that we saw in the previous 2 films. The bad storytelling also made a lot of the fights in the movie seem meaningless.

Most of the great elements in the series(not only the movies) that made Crows great are completely missing in this film. The moments in the previous movies that made you pumped up along with the great music that came on at the exactly right moments are gone. They tried to forced the issue in the movie with similar situation/music, but it just completely failed because I wasn't into the characters and the story. The fights were also extremely boring lacking the moments where they would pull off some sort of choreographed move.

There are a lot more reasons but those are some of the main reasons that I didn't like this film. I can't say that this is an unwatchable film, but all of the different things that they did very well in the franchise are all missing. So, I am guessing you might like it if you didn't like the first 2.

Beyond the Black Rainbow (2010)

10 points for style and artistic expression! BUT

[7/10 · 4 November 2012]

As you could already tell from all the other positive reviews, the movie is a visual masterpiece showcasing a unique style of cinematography. The combination of expressive visual and sound effects set the mood of the scenes very well.

BUT, the movie failed to effectively tell the story overall. The pacing and way of the storytelling in the movie seem very inconsistent , the first 70% of the movie was very slow(some parts overly slow yet ineffective). The slow/long scenes adding small hints to build the story were ineffective, leaving most of the actual story to the imagination of the audience. (I don't mind this way of story telling with information left out but this movie just left out too much and it felt like you are watching a summary of an actual movie)Then, the 30% leading up to the end was going at the speed of light, which also led up to a very unsatisfying ending in my opinion. ( would be great if the movie was going at 50mph throughout instead of 5mph and then 100mph)

Overall, I did enjoy the movie since I love visual arts and the art of cinematography. The techniques and unique direction of the movie is refreshing, with the downside of the actual storytelling. Also, I would not recommend this movie to anyone since I think the people who would be into this type of movie would probably find it themselves and the ones that won't would be bored to death by this movie.

[REC] 3: Genesis (2012)

Entertaining movie but disappointing to hardcore fan of the series.

[7/10 · 6 August 2012]

This is my first time writing a review, and I am doing so because I feel that a lot of the people who are writing reviews on IMDb do not deserve to write reviews. In no way is this movie a below average movie compared to the horror movies that are out nowadays.

But in comparison to the other two films in the series, I do understand that why this movie is somewhat disappointing. So, if you are watching Rec 3 expecting the exact same experience and intensity then I would recommend you to just watch the first two again.

Also, I see a lot of reviews complaining about the plot/story, but I do not feel that Rec3's story is particularly weak(just different/less hardcore) compared to the other two since the stories in all three of them are pretty straight forward. They do also make minor connections to the previous film, but I guess a lot of people are not satisfied because they don't further explain everything.

Overall, movie is entertaining and I didn't feel bored throughout the whole experience. So, it would be enjoyable movie as long as you watch this movie with an open mind and don't expect it to be exactly the same as the other 2 rec films.