Fantasy Filmfest Munich 2008
Here are the reviews of the movies I watched at the
Fantasy Film Festival 2008.
Since many of the movies have not launched at the time of this writing, I decided to write the reviews in English for once.
Enjoy the reading!
From a fanboy's point of view
Evangelion: 1.0 You Are (Not) Alone
Directed By Hideaki Anno
Voice Acting: Megumi Ogata, Megumi Hayashibara, Kotono Mitsuishi, Yuriko Yamaguchi
Evangelion 1.0 at the IMDb
Original Shin Seiki Evangelion at the IMDb
It has been more than ten years since Hideaki Anno revolutionized the world of shonen anime with his uncompromising masterpiece "Shin Seiki Evangelion". At a first glimpse nothing more than the usual scifi-mecha-potpourri tv-series, Evangelion rewards the considerate viewer with a deep and philosophical story about fear, doubts and loneliness. The ridiculously gargantuan success of the series all over the world, paired with the growing frustration of fans feeling overstrained with the original ending, eventually lead to a feature-length sequel produced for the big screen. While obviously being a fantastic spectacle and grade-A fanservice, "End of Evangelion" lacked the depth of the original series' ending and eventually rose more questions than it answered.
In 2007, ten years after "End of Evangelion", Anno returned to the big screen with his from-scratch remake of the original series. "Evangelion: 1.0 You Are (Not) Alone" is the first of four planned movies that will retell the story once again.
A franchise as popular as Evangelion inevitably suffers from symptoms of dilution. After several video re-releases, countless relaunches in manga, video game and movie-form, one is quickly tempted to ask: Do we really need another Evangelion movie? Probably not - but that does not mean Evangelion: 1.0 is a bad movie.
Since all scenes were redrawn from scratch, frequently augmented by the massive use of CGI, the new Evangelion offers a more convincing visual experience than its tv predecessor. However, the plot still can not hide its serial roots. The villain-of-the-day scheme caused by the succession of angels and the shifting focus on the different protagonists do not fit too well in the context of a movie. Since some of the minor sub-plots were cut, several fragments feel unnecesseraly rushed and not all plot transitions go along smoothly.
Fortunately, most of the major plot lines still work out well, while others even benefit from the reduced format (like the whole Adam/Lilith-plotline which was unbearably cryptic in the tv series). Paired with the unavoidable notion for spectacle, the new Evangelion is - if nothing else - yet again a fantastic piece of fanservice. We have all the original voice actors, all the characteristic scenes and lines that we came to love over the years... If it was not for the tiny voice in the back of the head, declaring that this might not be more than the final beating of a dead horse, Evangelion 1.0 would be perfect entertainment.
Conclusion: Evangelion 1.0 is a good movie. Probably not as good as the original series, but a respectable introduction for people who were not familiar with the franchise before. As for the long-term fanboys such as myself: Lots of eyecandy, lots of fanservice, but little substance. Enjoy the ride and be amused - just don't expect any major gain of insight.
Evangelion 1.0 will presumably be released in Germany at the end of October 2008 as a direct-to-DVD release.
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A rare occassion
Let The Right One In/Låt Den Rätte Komma In
Directed By Tomas Alfredson
Starring Kåre Hedebrant, Lina Leandersson, Per Ragnar
Let The Right One In at the IMDb
It happens to be one of those rare occasions. One of those scarce moments, when you find yourself in a cinema chair staring at the rolling credits, flattened and speechless. It is one of those instants when you realize, with a trembling sense of excitement crawling up your spine, that you have just seen one of those movies, not just the best movie of the season, but probably one of the best movies you will ever see in your whole life.
It does not happen that frequently, but "Let The Right One In" managed to cause that special sensation for me.
If you happen to trust this author's opinion, you may stop reading right now. In fact, you should not read
anything about the movie before you have seen it (and there is definitely no way you can justify
not watching it...
).
Trust me, the experience will be more than worth the wait. However, if you dare to read on and do not fear the spoilers ahead, let me explain just what makes this movie so special.
.
.
.
First of all: "Let The Right One In" is a vampire movie. Well, not what you're thinking - it's more of a vampire love story. No, not that kind of love story... You see, the protagonists are only twelve years old. Now what? Confused? Well then, let me start at the beginning...
It all sets off kind of reminiscent of "Fargo" - After the opening credits (which are accompanied by nothing but a completely silent soundtrack and the vague indication of falling snow in the background) we follow the steps of Håkan, a man in his sixties who spends his evenings killing pedestrians at the town's park. In what seems to be nothing more than a needless act of cruelty, he cuts the carotid artery of his victim and collects the blood in a can, when he is suddenly disturbed by the dog of a passing woman. What follows is a scene of such preposterous and bizarre quality, that it could have arosen right from the Coen's movie. For this scene alone it may be worth watching the movie. And be ensured that you have seen nothing yet...
As we learn later on, Håkan tries to collect the blood for his companion Eli, who is in fact a vampire girl that has been "twelve years old for a very long time". Håkan soon realizes, that he is about to lose Eli to Oskar, a twelve year old boy from the neighboorhood the two just moved in.
It is on the playground before their flat where Eli and Oskar meet for the first time. With the grace of an angel she descends from the monkey bars, telling him unmistakably that they can not be friends. A futile warning in the face of approaching events.
When Håkan is eventually captured on one of his nightly errands, Eli is suddenly confronted with the bitter freedom of loneliness. It is Oskar she turns to at this moment, supporting him with the strength and wisdom of an immortal wanderer, combined with a deep sense of intimate understanding that only a person of the same age can give. In return Oskar offers the vampire his innocent and undefiled love...
How do you spawn sympathy for a monster? Movies like "Frankenstein" let us pity their monsters, but do we truly like them? "Let The Right One In" achieves the remarkable effect, that the audience truly identifies with the monster. Although by the fate of Håkan we already know that the relationship between Eli and Oskar is doomed to failure, we want them to come together at all costs. In doing so, the movie manages something which so few are able to achieve nowadays: The audience truly cares for the characters, suffers with them in times of great difficulty and smiles with relieved satisfaction when they eventually realize their bond.
There really is not much to complain about "Let The Right One In". The sub-plot about a woman from the neighboorhood who transforms into a vampire after surviving Eli's attack seeems somewhat dispensable, but apart from that the script by John Lindqvist is absolutely fantastic. The main actors Kåre Hedebrant and Lina Leandersson perform remarkably for their age and leave absolutely no room for criticism. Captured by the stunning cinematography of Hoyte Van Hoytema, who chose a distant, unagitated style of shooting, the movie develops a drawing fascination that remains long after the credits have rolled on the screen.
Conclusion: "Let The Right One In" rigorously exceeded my expectations in every way. A great movie with a story so fresh and unique that it blows the bounds of any genre, paired with awesome cinematography and some great acting. A definite must-see for anyone even remotely connected to fantasy.
The film will presumably be released in Germany on December 23rd 2008 under the title of "So finster die Nacht".
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An exhaustive trip
Tale 52/Istoria 52
Directed By Alexis Alexiou
Starring Yorgos Kakanakis, Serafita Grigoriadou
Tale 52 at the IMDb
Tale 52 is the debut of greek director Alexis Alexiou and a true psycho thriller, although it seems to have lost the thriller part somewhere along the way. The story revolves around Iasonas, a young man unable to distinguish between reality and imagination, who falls in love with Penelope. However, a few weeks into their romance, strange things start to happen. Iasonas seems to be halucinating, experiences blackouts and flashbacks in which he attempts to change the past. As we come to learn eventually, Iasonas is able to control his dreams, but soon loses track of what is actually a dream and what is real.
Tale 52 is an interesting experiment which eventually doesn't work out well. The main reason for this is probably the lack of catchy visuals, those horrific pictures that directors like Lynch use to haunt you weeks after you have seen the movie for the first time and make you eventually want to see it again, even though you might not have liked it the first time. Tale 52 has only very few memorable scenes and none of them will come back and haunt you. As a consequence, what is expected to be shocking and horrifying becomes close to boring.
Since the movie is almost entirely staged at Iasonas apartment and most dialog between Penelope and Iasonas is quite pointless, one can get easily frustrated during the ~100 minutes of playtime.
Which is quite a shame, because the movie indeed does a lot of things right. The original idea of reshaping reality in dreams has a lot of potential and allows for many class-A mindfuck moments without the urge for crude plot-twists à la
Donnie time-travel-la-di-da-parallel-universe Darko. Unfortunately, most of this potential is given away for more blurry shaky visuals and slight variations of already spoken dialog. The true dilemma of Iasonas, the fact that he eventually becomes so detached that he is unable to awake from his dreams, the terror when he realizes that he is trapped in his own nightmare, never actually reaches the audience. Which is quite a shame, because as we have seen in earlier works (e.g. the
first issue of
Neil Gaiman's Sandman), this is arguably one of the most potent motives in the horror genre...
Conclusion:
Tale 52 is work. The dificult theme paired with the subtle style of storytelling and lack of action make it quite tedious to watch. However, fans of the genre might still want to check it out for its psychic quality. Everyone else will probably want to avoid this effort.
There is currently no known release date for Tale 52
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Breaking context
Sasori ( 2008 )
Directed By Joe Ma
Starring Miki Mizuno, Ryo Ishibashi, Simon Yam
Sasori at the IMDb
First of all,
Sasori is a spiritual sequel to the infamous
Sasori Scorpion movies of the seventies, which belong to the genre of women in prison exploitation. Since this genre is somewhat... special, I am not going to kick off any discussion about the genre itself. You either like this kind of movies or you don't, and no one can blame you for either
Ever since the original Scorpion movies recent popularization by Quentin Tarantino's
Kill Bill, it was only a matter of time until someone would try to revive the franchise. Unfortunately, it failed miserably...
It starts out quite well: Nami Matsushima's live changes forever, when a group of four gangsters raids her home, forcing her to kill her sister-in-law right before the eyes of her husband. Charged for multiple murder, she is taken to prison where she becomes the victim of brutal prison gangs and the ever horny warden. Actually, the prison scenes are done quite well and provided that you are a fan of the genre, you will probably enjoy the first half of the movie a lot.
Then however, the film switches its mood from old-school exploitation to new-school revenge drama. Nami is rescued by a kung fu master who introduces her to the martial arts and provides her with a samurai sword. Yes, a samurai sword.
That is the moment when one realizes that the movie just became a big load of crap. What follows is a succession badly choreographed, awfully cut and horribly cheap fighting sequences, paired with Namis attempts to win back her former husband, who had any memory of her being erased through hypnotherapy. What a mess...
Conclusion: Sasori is fun to watch as long as it stays inside the bounds of the exploitation genre. However, as soon as it throws in the crude revenge story and the wire-supported sword fighting that every action movie today must have by law, what was once enjoyable becomes unbearable. If you want to see a good exploitation movie, dig out to the original trilogy with Miki Mizuno, as this one is just plain awful, no matter how drunk you are.
There is currently no known release date for Sasori in Germany.
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A living legend
My Name Is Bruce
Directed By Bruce Campbell
Starring Bruce Campbell
Bruce Campbell at the IMDb
A movie about Bruce Campbell, directed by Bruce Campbell, starring Bruce Campbell. Obviously, if you do not like the B-movie icon, you are not going to enjoy this movie...
My Name is Bruce is just what you would expect: An endless parade of flat jokes, mindless splattering and references to earlier Bruce Campbell movies. After accidentally reviving an evil chinese demon from his grave, the citizens of jerkwater town Gold Lick have only one hope: Bruce Campbell, master of zombie squishing! Unfortunately, Bruce Campbell turns out to be nothing more than a faint-hearted and overly arrogant B-movie actor, who does only resort to violence when it comes to ditch annoyingly devoted fans.
The idea of movie actors that get confused with their roles is not new, but in this particular instance the story is negligible anyway. Instead
My Name Is Bruce celebrates the myth of Bruce Campbell in all its glory, unwilling to omit any possibility for irony or movie references. Which turns out to be, given you are familiar with the Campbell-cosmos, a whole lot of fun.
Conclusion: Well, pretty much what one would expect. A gory funny feast of splatter action, movie quotes and hilariously silly singing, which every Bruce Campbell fan will enjoy to the fullest.
Everyone else will probably just be bored. But then again, if you are not a fan of Bruce Campbell, you probably do not deserve any better.
There is currently no known release date in Germany.
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A Third Kind of teacher
The Substitute/Vikaren
Directed By Ole Bornedal
Starring Paprika Steen, Jonas Wandschneider, Ulrich Thomsen
The Substitute at the IMDb
Ole Bornedal, acclaimed director of 1994's top thriller Nattevagten/Nightwatch wrote a comedy. Which can not be such a bad thing, since the danish used to write the best comedies on the planet. This one is no exception.
Paprika Steen plays Ulla Harm, the new substitute teacher at a small school in Denmark. Very soon the pupils begin to realize, that there is something strange about Ulla. Carl, who recently lost his mother in a car accident, eventually discovers the truth, that Ulla is an alien in disguise. Unfortunately, the new teacher knows exactly which strings to pull to get the adults on her side, and so any attempts by the kids warning their parents about the intruder from outer space are in vain. When Ulla announces that she will take the whole class to a one week trip to Paris, the kids realize that they have to fight back...
The Substitute brilliantly points out the various stereotypes determining everyday life in school. We have the smugly school psychiatrist, the careerist model student, the anxious principal and, of course, the new kid. From this well known ingredients, Bornedal manages to mix a refreshing light-hearted comedy that leaves the audience hilariously laughing.
Paired with some nice special effects and various side blows to the educational system, The Substitute is the perfect choice for an enjoyable and rewarding evening at the movies. Due to its school theme, also suitable for younger audiences.
Conclusion: The Substitute is danish humour at its best. Weird characters around every corner, a captivating main plot and actors that visibly enjoy playing, guarantee for an enjoyable movie experience.
Highly recommended for an evening at the movies with friends.
The film will be released in Germany under the name of "Alien Teacher". The DVD launch is scheduled for November 20th.
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