Forum - View topicREVIEW: Afro Samurai: Resurrection Director's Cut DVD
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Shepperoni
 Posts: 110 Location: Topeka, KS |
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Well, we all know what Zac was focusing on the whole movie.
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Mistypearl
 Posts: 517 |
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Well I guess we now know Lady *insert strikeouted remark here* Sio's greatest asset was.
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TatsuGero23
 Posts: 1277 Location: Sniper Island, USA (It's in your heart!) |
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The random hentai scene caught me off guard. Even more so the fact they showed it on TV. But I enjoyed the movie.
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Unit 03.5-ish
Posts: 1540 Location: This space for rent |
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Darth Zac, awesome review. I truly wish you wrote more, your writing style is hilarious and reminiscent of one Mr. Toole, at least in my opinion.
Two things: I assume that by the down sides you mentioned, this movie won't draw in anyone who viewed the first series as a shallow and cliched mess. And dammit, man, can you be any LESS subtle about what the draw of the antagonist is in this film? I could BARELY pick up on the notion that her eyes were absolutely hypnotizing and really drew you in. EDIT: One more thing, actually...if the script is as puerile and laughable as you said, it's sad that the average jock viewing this won't bother to look into other anime, because there is so, SO much more out there than this shallow bloodfest stuff. |
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brittiney360
 Posts: 35 |
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I know I'm probably going to regret this later, but I have to see this now, it sounds way too hilariously awful.
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Lackshmana
 Posts: 34 Location: Orlando |
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I think it is worth noting that this film also throws out the epilogue scenes from the original series, and more or less fails to match the polish and fun of it's predecessor.
I was hoping for a continuation of the series, but instead they made a strange sort of semi-sequel that invents previously unmentioned relatives (one of the worst sequel tropes) and wastes its potential even as a style over substance joyride. |
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vashfanatic
 Posts: 3495 Location: Back stateside |
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And here I was hoping today's review would be of Baccano!... thanks for the heads up, I will make sure to avoid watching this one. About the only thing I got from the first one is that Samuel L. Jackson is an awfully good voice actor - which I knew from Genndy Tartakosvky's Clone Wars anyway.
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Unit 03.5-ish
Posts: 1540 Location: This space for rent |
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I love how they play up the villainess like OMG, big boobs, wow, you know animation has totally NEVER done this kind of thing before. I have a lot of much better anime that does have plenty of fan service/hot chicks/epic fight scenes, but they also have, you know, coherent stories. I'm shocked they didn't put much effort into the script, because as is evidenced by their constant rerunning of Seagal, Van-Damme, etc. movies, the Spike audience enjoys substance over style.
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Lemoncookies23
Posts: 355 |
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Aww, but it's streaming for free over at Spike.com as of writing this. The story is terrible, but the animation is damn amazing. Gonzo pulled no punches here. Though, that was my only reason for watching. That, and seeing how all these 'big stars' did with an anime (traditional anime voices of Yuri Lowenthal and Liam O'Brien more than held their own, IMO).
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TheVok
Posts: 613 Location: North York, Ontario, Canada |
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Um, Mace Windu wasn't voiced by Sam Jackson in Genndy Tartakovsky's Clone Wars series. He was voiced by Terrence C. Carson, who in fact continues to provide the voice for the current CG Clone Wars series. |
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GATSU
Posts: 15564 |
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They have billboards all over L.A. for the anime.
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vashfanatic
Posts: 3495 Location: Back stateside |
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Whoa... my bad! Then I did find out he was a good voice actor from this series. Not that this makes me want to watch the sequel even the tiniest bit.... |
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Unit 03.5-ish
Posts: 1540 Location: This space for rent |
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Is the villainous exposition as bad as you see in some TV series...or is it even worse? Something tells me it's even lamer than the awkward "here's why I did this" spiels some standard anime villains spout.
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Sam Murai
 Posts: 1051 |
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I agree with absolutely everything you said. It's really hard to say that as a big fan of the first series, but the sequel tried too hard to be so many things and accomplish so many things to the point where the film collapses on the points that are supposed to be its focal points. Much of the film is disjointed and I was having a hard time following what was going on even thirty minutes in. The plot was too weak, poorly conceived, and executed, and it shows almost every minute and with every situation that popped up. The first worked so well because it was a simple story that was told simply, yet also had a certain weight to it with its portrayal of its world and its way of life. Resurrection was too convoluted in its attempt at taking a simple concept (get back the headbands and the father's remains) and tacking on a slew of superfluous elements that bogged it down into an overly complex mess of mediocrity and ridiculousness.
Lucy Liu did reasonably well as Sio, but she overstressed on the already overstressed reasons for her actions that it becomes more of a distraction than something is supposed to define the character. The term "over" seemed to be the one thing that signified her, as she was so murderous, crazed, and overly sexy-looking you could never shake the disconnect that she was supposed to be Jinno's sister. The chest aspect wasn't terribly out-of-place considering how stylized the story is, but it was bit distracting at times (I suppose that was the point...). Ninja Ninja was used well and in moderation the first time around, but in the movie he's used ad naseum and almost as crutch since the script writers seemingly couldn't figure out what to use do with the dialogue-less scenes. I've never really found him as racist (there are quite a few black movies that are guilty of worse stereotypes), but it was really annoying hearing someone like him yell for nearly the whole film (comic relief can and should only be used but so often). The first series did a good job at handling those "quiet" moments, but it underlined how much Resurrection seemed to be both unconfident in how to handle itself and too ambitious in what it wanted to be. I think it was a mistake to make the sequel a movie if they were going to cover all of the ground it did. If they followed the TV format and the formula from its predecessor, then it would have worked more easily. I also had a problem with the way they completely disregarded the ending of the first, which could have made a good segue to the main conflict of the sequel. While the production as a whole looked sharp, there were quite a few areas weren't at the level of the rest of the film and the lip movement and sync wasn't as satisfactory as the first. The voice work was pretty good, and while Liu wavered between two spectrums of sultriness too unevenly, she did a good job considering it was her first time doing anime. Overall, I literally agreed with everything you said in your review and you nailed all of its problems. As I watched the movie when it premiere on TV, I was slowly dreading it as it rolled along, with hope that things would turn around steadily declining as the end neared. The first thing that came to my mind was how much it resembled one of those myriad of '80s OVAs, but more in a bad way than an old nostalgic sense. A lot of characters were wasted (especially Jinno), as well as a lot of potential and possibilities (ex. the self-contradictions in Afro's feelings and actions, in light of the fatherless child). I wanted to buy Resurrection, but now I'm not really sure I want to after being so disappointed with the result. The only good thing to take from it was the intriguing teaser at the end, and if that leads to another sequel, I really do hope they return to roots of the original and see what made that one work and this one didn't. The comments and ratings are about where I'd have it (perhaps a fraction lower for the story and maybe one higher for the art), but with the Overall rating, I'd say it was more a C or C-.
Rarely where you'll have chance to hear both Samuel L. Jackson and Liam O'Brien in the same scene together, much less have a fight against one another, but the awfulness of the movie pretty much nullified whatever enjoyment one could have gotten out of it. |
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Who Is This Guy!?
Posts: 183 |
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I absolutely love it how everyone here thinks that Zac was insinuating the movie was god-awful.
Retardism coupled with lack of reading comprehension = Wacky fun! (albeit, not) As for me personally...This thing IS all about the cool. And the cool I like. That said...it's tough to trump the Afro VS Jinno fight from the original series... And trump it, this did not... P.S. Sam Murai, you should copy your post into WordPad, then delete it. Afterwards, slap it onto a PM, and send it to everyone who's online right now. Cause everyone luffs walls of text. |
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