"The Search for Vengeance" is made of equal parts: present-story and back-story, with sudden, unexpected transitions between the present and the past. The story is about Colin MacLeod, once a Scottish ruler, now a merciless immortal looking for vengeance. During a battle against the Roman Empire, he is left for dead by the emperor, Octavius, the man that killed his wife, but is given the power of immortality. The only bad thing is that although he is immortal, he can still feel the pain, and also, he will lose the immortality once his head is cut off.
Now in a post-apocalyptic New York City, our hero arrives on the scene and joins rebel Dahlia and an underground band of freedom fighters in a desperate battle against Octavius, who is now a dictator and rules the city with his army of robotic sentinels and scientists working on some top-secret project that are meant to wipe out the underground resistance once and for all. In these battles, we also get flashbacks to Colin's past, the battles he's fought with Octavius, and his undying love for his wife, Moya. The one thing I actually liked about this movie was the visual production. I rarely was pulled out of the visuals to question or second guess what was done. The vocals and soundtrack were good, but not stunning. It was clear, and the emotions came through at the right times. Considering the great visuals, the sound was a crap in comparison. The plot was decent. It started well. The potential for interesting characters was there at every turn. But they didn't integrate into the Highlander mythology well at all. We have Colin as the Protagonist, and Marcus as the Antagonist, are both just cardboard cutouts. Worse, Marcus is cut from better cardboard than Colin. He at least has a Darth Vader imperial feel that doesn't need much explaining. He is also this typical bad boy sexy dude that will have you falling for him, although he will be cutting kitties while punching babies in the face. Colin is a young goof at the beginning, and has grown into an old, angry, and bitter goof by the time the action of the film picks up. Even his guardian angel that gave him the immortality points this out. I just was not impressed by his story, or the general arc of this film.
I haven’t posted a review in a while, and I’m sure you’re all waiting for a crappy-ass anime review, but it will have to wait cause the crappy ones are sometimes those you probably haven’t heard of, so at first I figured to write some reviews on some popular anime, or at least those you have heard of. So, I present to you…. Claymore. Claymore is a nice, medieval setting action that keeps your heart pumping and your blood flowing. It is entertaining, and always leaves you begging for more ( if you’re a fan of such things of course ). The story focuses on the adventures of a young Claymore named Clare. whose own parents were murdered by Yoma at a young age. On an assignment in a remote town, Clare meets a young boy named Raki whose parents were murdered by a Yoma. Raki took an interest in Clare and was the only one in town who was not afraid to talk to her. Clare eventually killed the Yoma plaguing the town, who was disguised as Raki’s own brother. The townspeople feared Raki would turn into a Yoma and banished him to the wilderness. Although unusual for a Claymore, Clare sympathized with Raki and allowed him to travel with her. While Clare fights the yoma plaguing the land, can Raki help her in her struggle to retain her humanity? Well… yes, of course he can, otherwise he would have no purpose and this would be a really short anime. In time, these two get close to each other ( to the point she does a French kiss with him ), and they’re relationship plays a good role in the plot. The opening is a nice song, and it shows a good character rooster. Some of the characters shown in the opening have much less appearances than others, but they all play an important role in the plot. And that is what is important. Sometimes in the opening they show you a cast with many characters that are just there. I mean they don’t play an important role, they are just… there. This is not a bad thing, but sometimes it gets confusing when you see so many characters, but most of them don’t do Jack Shit for the plot ( e.g. Paranoia Agent ). What I like most about this anime is that it really nail the mood and feel of a medieval world. The characters are all dressed appropriately, and are designed and drawn appropriately. I mean in most anime, when the action takes place, like let’s say 19th century Europe ( D.Gray-man ), you don't get that feel because sometimes they use modern things like robots, computers and roller-skates,and most places feel like they are in the same country, I mean you don’t get the feeling that this is Great Britain, this is Spain and this is Germany, instead you get the feeling that it is the same country. Even worse is when in the same anime, they travel around the world, and the cities and it’s populace all look and feel the same, for example in D.Gray-man they went from Europe to some Otoman city, and if it weren’t for a mosque, I would have thought they never left Europe, cause there was no costume or skin color distinction. In most anime you see the same thing, and the only countries you see CLEARLY the distinctions is Japan ( of course ) and China ( I don’t know why ). It’s like ALL those who are NOT Japanese or Chinese are European. But in Claymore you don’t get the same feeling, even though the anime takes place in the same country, there are some episodes that take place in a different Nordic country, and it sure feels like it. Plus you always get the feel that this is a medieval setting, I mean you don’t see any anachronistic events or objects, and like I said, every character, every peasant, soldier or priest look and feel like they are from a medieval setting. There is only one character that wears sunglasses and kind of looks like Fredy Kruger, but that is the only anachronistic thing you’ll see. Also there is a lot of sex-appeal in this anime. Remember, the only characters capable of fighting yoma are Claymores witch are exclusively women ( kind of feminist, but why not ). And all the women here are beautiful. They aren’t big breasted but are slender and have angelic faces ( when they don’t unleash they’re power that is ). They all look like the ideal woman by medieval standards. Also you get the desperate feeling that all that stands between you and a gruesome death at the hands of a yoma are the Claymores. Yet they are feared by society. If any of you read the polish stories of Gerard the Witcher or played the game The Witcher, than know it’s the same thing here. Only differences is that in the Withcer, the monster hunters are exclusively male and there are a variety of monsters that can also be defeated by human warriors, while in Claymore the monster hunters are women, there is no variety, just yoma, but they yoma can only be killed by Claymores. So every time you see a Claymore die, or turn into an Awakened ( a very powerful yoma ) the feeling of despair grows because they are limited in numbers, and it is even worse when some of the stronger Claymores die, cause the are a lot of yoma. So the anime really nails this desperate mood of medieval times when the world is plagued by darkness and the only ones who can stop it are half yoma themselves. Like I said before, the characters are important, but there isn’t much variety, cause the only non-Claymore character that plays and important part is Raki, a human. But even though most of the cast are Claymores, every Claymore has here own personality. One is a calm leader, another is a hot-tempered warrior, another is a sadist, and so on. There are no two of a kind here. Although in term of design, some may look the same, and it can get a bit confusing at first. My favorite character is Raki, cause even though he can’t fight the yoma, he plays an important part in Clare’s life, and helps keep her humanity. So he has more of a support role in the series, but the fact that even if he is so fragile, he always tries to help Clare, even to the point of sword-fighting with another Claymore ( the sadist one ), and that’s what makes him so important. Later he trains with the sword so that he can fight alongside Clare, and not be a burden. Animation-wise, Claymore has some nice visuals. Character design gives the feel that they are in a medieval setting, and the Claymore designs are all beautiful, background is sharp and detailed and feels interactive, and the color tone is more dark and gray so that it gives you a desperate mood. Sound effects are nice, realistic, and voice-work is good… no complaints here. Overall this is one medieval action you don’t want to miss, cause it has nice visuals, realistic setting, and some hot action.
This time I decided to torture myself some more with shitty anime. Today’s masterpiece is Paranoia Agent. Unlike s-CRY-ed ( which, I think, I will never stop making references to it ), I watched this one to the end. I realize that I should have dropped this anal waste after the 7th episode, but I wanted to give it a chance. Why ? Well I will tell you all about it. If you read the information given on anime-planet you might think it is original. DON’T GET SUCKERED IN. For starters, let’s talk about the plot. At first it seems like a mystery, a little kid with a baseball cap, roller skates, and a golden, bent bat hits people in the head, and runs away. It’s a chaotic pattern, but to policemen try to find a connection. As the series progress, this fucker actually kills people, so yeah, it has a lot of violence. But lets talk about the other tags. It is a thriller until the 7th episode, then it becomes a mindf*ck, but only because it doesn’t make any sense. Now what’s the most important part of a mystery, thriller, psychological anime ? TO MAKE SOME SENSE AT SOME POINT IN THE SERIES, OR AT LEAST AT THE ENDING. But first thing is first. The opening. While the theme is really nice, the video already shows how much illogic the series will contain. I mean what other opening have you seen a guy laughing in the air, among the clouds, with his head upside down ? They just show a cast of the characters with some fucked up background, like the top of mount Fuji or Nagasaki when the atomic bomb blows. It throws away all logic. The cast is diverse, but you don’t see many of them often, and most don’t have any connection between them. Each represents a social issue, so I guess that’s one of the few reasons why I gave it a two star rating ( see my anime-planet list ). So yeah, it talks about social problems, but those are more like sub plots, and we don’t want them. We want to know all about the main mystery, the little slugger. Well the anime says ,,Fuck you! Just watch all the shit you have met or will meet in your lives.” And if I already talk about the characters, let’s talk about the graphics. While the background is done right, with details, sharpness, full color and all, the character animation SUCKS. It’s a certain style, which may be good for some, or at least unimportant, for me it’s just DISGUSTING. The more slender or average shaped people are Ok, but the fat characters, or old are just fucked up. It’s hard to explain it, but trust me, when I say it’s REALLY fucked up, then you know it’s crap. Also there some close up views that you just want to skip. Sound effects and voice work are good. They’re not top grade, but they sound realistic, and that’s enough for me. So I guess that’s also a plus for the two star rating. But now let’s go in depth on why I hate it so much. First of all, for the first 5 or 6 episodes, you might think that there is a logic that you will discover later on. But that is just like thinking that your shit is made of gold. In episode 7, everything just goes ape shit. The idea is that they captured little slugger, and put him in jail. But when the two policemen go there, they find him dead. The fucked up part... HE WAS KILLED BY HIMSELF!!!! Not suicide! Literally, a second him was standing on his feet next to his dead body. Is he a clone ? Is this Star Wars ? So when the police try to capture the second one, he disappears through a wall. At that point, I should have dropped watching the series. But some kind of hope kept me going. Beyond this there are a lot of mind numbing, retarded moments. But not like a small sequence. No. ENTIRE EPISODES ARE RETARDED, AND DON’T PROGRESS THE PLOT. For example, there is an episode about three people ( a teenager, a 8 year old girl and an old man ) who met on the internet, and try, the entire episode to kill themselves. When they realize they can’t do it they go to a hotel depressed. There they see the little slugger kill a random guy nobody gives a shit about, and they beg him to kill them, but he runs away. Then they decide NOT to kill themselves, and go to a bar and eat. Fucking genius. Or how about an episode, where the slugger transforms into a monster, but can’t kill a woman because she tells him that she is happy that her life is full of shit ( or something like that ). So, whatever, I can go on and on with this. The main idea is that you see all these sub plots that don’t progress the main story, and don’t forget…. THE SERIES HAS ONLY 13 EPISODES. The last part I want to comment on is the ending. It says that the little slugger appeared in this world when a little girl lied about her being hit in the head by the little slugger, because she didn’t want to tell her parent’s that her lack of attention at one moment led to the dog’s demise ( got hit by a car, the poor little dumb shit ). So when the girl ( now grown up ) makes peace with the past, the little slugger disappears. WOW. They were on drugs when they thought this shit up. FOR REAL. He was created by a little girl ? What is she, a super mental powered freak ? She can create the things she sees in her mind? What ever, if I want I can talk for days on this mess. Bottom line… Stay away! Stay away as fucking possible! Spare yourselves. Spare yourselves from this waste of time. I sacrificed myself for you, and even bothered writing a review about it to spare you the trouble of watching it. And those who watch till the end, without asking for mental counseling, should receive a reward. PARANOIA AGENT… YOU SUCK.
