Movie Reviews for Spriggan

Spriggan

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Movie Reviews of Spriggan

Movie Review: Pretty Good
Summary: 4 Stars

Movie Review: Bloody
Summary: 4 Stars

Movie Review: Terrific!
Summary: 4 Stars

Movie Review: Visually stunning, yet lacking in a variety of ways.
Summary: 3 Stars

First of all, I'll play fair and go through the pros of the movie -- the stuff I liked. Being a person who is avidly interested in cinematography and the sorts, one can really appreciate the fine technique used in bringing such determined and bold realism into this anime. Yes, it has been done before, but Spriggan pulled it off rather successfully, and to an eye-pleasing extent. Careful measures were taken to illustrate countries and their cultural identities, changing character physical features and even background music to give a feeling of the culture of Turkey, which a few scenes take place in. It immediately gives the film a very international feel to it, barely keeping any storyline ties with its Japanese heritage. As mentioned many times before, the fight scenes ARE in every way stunning, and are usually hold-your-breath-suspense type things. Movement is illustrated incredibly well, giving off a fluid and realistic sense, especially in a certain fight scene in the Turkish markets and alleyways. Backgrounds were done with exceptional detail, and the violence wasn't necessarily overdone at all. The amount of blood that spewed about actually seemed plausible in account of the human body, which in most animes tend to be rather exagerrated. The plotline is intense, in-your-face type work which makes you think quickly, either that, or consider rewatching the anime. It's most impressive components lie visually, and in the directing of action sequences.

Now to the cons... that storyline, the anime in itself, doesn't seem to have a clear POINT to it. The BIGGEST problem is a very LARGE LACK in character developement, as pointed out by many. Yu Ominae is such a broad clichéd hero and Jean being his run-of-the-mill sidekick you simply become accustomed to having them succeed in everything! I was hopeful when there was a moment entering into Yu's past, that they would really come to illustrate his emotional value, but it just wasn't there. There was potential that was simply overlooked. One never really gets to KNOW Yu, the main character, at all. He's vague. You just expect him to save the day. As for the other protaganists, you don't even get to KNOW them. The doctor and his crew remain as subordinate as possible, and Jean, trustworthy sidekick, gets himself a few awesome action scenes but no worthy characteristics either than that. The "bad" guys are so incredibly blurred as to their point that you can't really get a feel of just WHAT they want. The colonel kid, the main adversary, seems to be a bit off his rocker and a little too over-confident, and that seems to be all his character is limited to, as if a puppet. As for the men who control him, being the Pentagon and what not, they are even MORE limited as to what their goals are. They just seem to be there because the Ark has power and they want that power. A reasonable explanation, yes, but one that has barely been fleshed out to anything unique or outstanding amongst the others that have gone the very same way. As for the relevance of the Ark and the whole environmental concept, that is BEYOND me. The ending seems to obliterate the whole POINT of the Ark in the first place, and there are a LOT of unresolved issues.. such as, didn't the polar ice caps just melt? Why isn't anyone doing anything about it? It's very unclear on a lot of important issues, which is it's downfall.

Overall, If you're like me and absolutely love watching animation and brilliant techniques, then by far, go rent Spriggan and buy it if need be. But don't expect all too much more than incredible cinematography and captivating fight scenes, which aren't all too high in calibur compared to many other animes out there who's plotlines shine a little brighter than Spriggan's did.

Movie Review: Spriggan Delivers but.......
Summary: 3 Stars

Animation: The Animation here is superb. The fight scenes were so well choreographed they almost seemed real. There were many nice camera techniques used here to keep pace with the explosive filled action sequences that worked very well. But as for anything ground breaking, Spriggan offered little to new innovation. You'd find all that you seen here in many other anime series.

Characters: I think you'd have to read the manga to get a feel for the characters because there is really no character development here. It simply follows the Good guy versus bad guy motif throughout the whole movie. Yeah there were some solemn parts of Yui's past, but other than that, there seems to have been nothing more offered. What you see is what ya got. As for interesting Characters? Well, we've seen these types all before. There seemed not to have been anything really unique. But boy did the action sequences make up for all of it.

Story (Don't worry, no real spoilers): The story revolves around the discovery of Noah's ark deep in the Antarctic. A power struggle ensues between two organizations; one fighting to keep the Ark's secrets secret and another wanting to unleash the power of it's true use. Special agents known as Spriggans are dispatched to fight for the Ark and prevent it from being opened. The story is verrry good. I would say above all criticism, the story makes up for it all. But after watching it you will get the feeling that so much more could have been done with this. More could have been added to the story that would have made it more unique. But alas, it fell short, not offering anything further. The movie seemed too rushed. You'd be left scratching your head about 5 minutes into it cause things just happen too fast.

Conclusion: There seemed to have been one problem with this movie... There were some points in the film were the characters voices would go from normal to faint for no reason at all. And no, it wasn't a DVD malfunction. This was actually found in the final product. This aspect was what really turned me off. There were times I could swear the characters mouths were moving but nothing would come up. Sometimes you'd kinda have to put your ear to the TV to get the line. Don't think about putting on the Subtitles to get those missed lines. They're translation is so far off from what is really being said you'd think your viewing another movie. But fortunately, these audio mishaps don't occur throughout the whole film. I would say you'd encounter this about five times. It's just that these five times are at the heart of the movie. But overall, Spriggan is a good movie to maybe rent and check out. I predict you'll have a good experience with this film. Just make sure to put your volume up.