Film Rant: Zeiram 2
*WARNING: POTENTIAL SPOILERS*
It's actually been over a week since I watched this, but I still feel like ranting about it (and kind of feel weird about posting nothing but a blog review and a belated holiday greeting this week). It's just one of those films. Besides, when it comes to ranting on films I've seen recently, my only other two choices are currently the original Rollerball and Zardoz, which can be summed up as "roller disco gone wrong" and "Sean Connery's secret shame," respectively*.
First of all, I'd like to state that Zeiram 2 represented a rare occurence for me, that is, intentionally watching the sequel to a film I've never seen the original of. Usually I like to put off the sequels until I can watch the originals, just to get the full story (even if we are talking about Japanese mid-90's B-movies). But, North Campus Video doesn't carry the original, and I was nostagiac for this title, so I went ahead and rented it. See, while I've never seen the original, I did watch the 6-episode prequel anime series something like my first or second week back in freshman year.
This is another film where the special effects leave me in a sort of limbo opinion-wise. There are some moments where the film's SFX made me wonder what contemporary films are doing wrong. There are other moments where I'm wondering if they put any thought or effort into the SFX at all. When the effects were good, they were robot puppetry at it's finest; I'm not kidding when I say modern films could take a few lessons from the Zeiram puppet in this film. When the effects were bad, it was like watching an old episode of Power Rangers. Only, you know, with more blood.
What I really liked about the film was the way they portrayed the lead female character, Iria. Iria is an interplanetary bounty hunter, and is the only other character (other than the Zeiram) that I recognized from the prequel series. What I liked is the way they didn't make her character a stereotypical action-film female-lead, in several ways. First of all, they made her flawed without making her outright incompetant; there's at least one point in the film where she's in a situation it's impossible for her to get out of without help, but it isn't for lack of knowing what she's doing. Secondly, and more importantly I feel for a female bounty hunter, they made her competant without making her a femme fatale. I just never got that vibe off of her, not in the series and not in this film. It's hard to describe, but when she's in battle with someone/something, I feel like I'm watching "two people fighting," not "two people fighting, and one is a woman." They don't go out of their way to highlight her gender in fight scenes. This also plays into the third thing they did with Iria: They made her alluring without making her, for lack of a better term, a slut. There are times where she is indeed very attractive, and none of those scenes seemed contrived or cheesecake.
I'll close by saying that the music in this film was awesome as well. The opening/closing song in particular was fantastic, and I hope (in vain) to be able to find and aquire it sometime.
*I kid, of course; both were decent enough films, I just don't feel like commenting on them (although Zardoz may be what we call a "cult film").
It's actually been over a week since I watched this, but I still feel like ranting about it (and kind of feel weird about posting nothing but a blog review and a belated holiday greeting this week). It's just one of those films. Besides, when it comes to ranting on films I've seen recently, my only other two choices are currently the original Rollerball and Zardoz, which can be summed up as "roller disco gone wrong" and "Sean Connery's secret shame," respectively*.
First of all, I'd like to state that Zeiram 2 represented a rare occurence for me, that is, intentionally watching the sequel to a film I've never seen the original of. Usually I like to put off the sequels until I can watch the originals, just to get the full story (even if we are talking about Japanese mid-90's B-movies). But, North Campus Video doesn't carry the original, and I was nostagiac for this title, so I went ahead and rented it. See, while I've never seen the original, I did watch the 6-episode prequel anime series something like my first or second week back in freshman year.
This is another film where the special effects leave me in a sort of limbo opinion-wise. There are some moments where the film's SFX made me wonder what contemporary films are doing wrong. There are other moments where I'm wondering if they put any thought or effort into the SFX at all. When the effects were good, they were robot puppetry at it's finest; I'm not kidding when I say modern films could take a few lessons from the Zeiram puppet in this film. When the effects were bad, it was like watching an old episode of Power Rangers. Only, you know, with more blood.
What I really liked about the film was the way they portrayed the lead female character, Iria. Iria is an interplanetary bounty hunter, and is the only other character (other than the Zeiram) that I recognized from the prequel series. What I liked is the way they didn't make her character a stereotypical action-film female-lead, in several ways. First of all, they made her flawed without making her outright incompetant; there's at least one point in the film where she's in a situation it's impossible for her to get out of without help, but it isn't for lack of knowing what she's doing. Secondly, and more importantly I feel for a female bounty hunter, they made her competant without making her a femme fatale. I just never got that vibe off of her, not in the series and not in this film. It's hard to describe, but when she's in battle with someone/something, I feel like I'm watching "two people fighting," not "two people fighting, and one is a woman." They don't go out of their way to highlight her gender in fight scenes. This also plays into the third thing they did with Iria: They made her alluring without making her, for lack of a better term, a slut. There are times where she is indeed very attractive, and none of those scenes seemed contrived or cheesecake.
I'll close by saying that the music in this film was awesome as well. The opening/closing song in particular was fantastic, and I hope (in vain) to be able to find and aquire it sometime.
*I kid, of course; both were decent enough films, I just don't feel like commenting on them (although Zardoz may be what we call a "cult film").
Labels: film rant, foreign films
posted by Mithrandalf at 9:18 PM
1 Comments:
Thanks for another detailed, thoughtful film rant. I am making a list to keep the troops entertained at Grandma's over Thanksgiving. Hah!
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