Stuck in that limbo between a being decent popcorn movie and a pile of nonsensical rubbish, Chris Nahon's enjoyable but disappointing tale basically conforms to type; it's as exactly as you would expect. This is film-making of the tick-box style. Young, attractive, impetuous and imperilled heroines? Check. Mysterious secret organisations controlling everything? Check. Secret, ancient war between man and beasts? Check. Special powers? Check. Imposing, super-powered female monster who's pretty on the outside? Check? Lots of running and leaping around? Definitely a check.
Actually, the film is a touch better than my sarcastic analysis might suggest, but it's over-familiarity proves to be its Achilles heel. Based from Hiroyuki Kitakubo's short animated feature made in 2000, it's basically a more frenetic adaptation, and though it inherits the earlier film's poor narrative, it lacks the anime's beguiling, sinister atmosphere. This would be forgivable if the new film's other virtues were more to the fore. Chris Nahon has a great technical team and all credit to the designer Nathan Amondson DoP Poon Hang-Sang who create a garish but claustrophobic world, and composer Clint Mansell whose thunderous soundtrack is mostly good fun. There's also a fantastic, old-school, stand-out ruck in a forest-set flashback when Blood's loyal retainer Kato takes on a fistful of sword-brandishing ninja, hopelessly outnumbered but (almost) unstoppable. It's a terrific conflagration, and lays the film's inspiration bare, harking back to the Lone Wolf and Cub movies in it's slightly grubby, grainy camera-work, occasional lapses in focus and in-your-face close ups. Watching the old, wounded man face his foes down with implacable courage is thrilling, and the choreography is imaginative.
Sadly, nothing in the film can quite match it. The rest of the fights are too rapidly staged and edited to be truly engrossing and become messy. Worse, the film's reliance of over-familiar tropes becomes stultifying. It lifts brazenly from The Matrix, Blade, Underworld, Twilight, Push and (unbelievably, in the finale) Star Wars. So much of its plot is recycled it's never very compelling. Worse, the film's 'narrative' logic disappears as it rumbles on. The basic plot centres around Blood's unending search for Onigen, the ultimate demon in 1960s Japan. She gains an ally in Allison Miller's tearaway air force brat, the tale beginning in an American base. A boring but serviceable plot, with an interesting military angle, you might think. Wrong: Nahon and screenwriter Chris Chow just throw incidents onto the screen, the non-existent story a framework for fight scenes. There's plenty of potential: Blood's tortured soul, her dependence on Blood, the references to America's dirty war in Vietnam and the military-industrial complex, Blood's convoluted family history, the allusions to alternate realities, racism. The list goes on, but Nahon has no interest in these themes or the vampire myth, and thunders (put less kindly, blunders) along from set-piece to set-piece. Given the lack of character, there's no real suspense.
The later fights are also run-of-the-mill, one on, in and around a stricken truck and the actual climax suffer from too many special effects: the earlier fights were more down-and-dirty. The demons are also pretty limp villains. One reason the Alien and Predator films remain exciting is because their monsters were make-up, rather that CGI, creations and they just LOOK more authentic. The demons here are just bundles of pixels, and the total failure to sketch the war between them and mankind means we never believe they're dangerous at all. Onigen herself is a terribly bland nemesis, another tall, placid, pale demoness you saw portrayed better in any number of 1960s horror movies. The ending, too, is opaque to the point of being impenetrable. It helps a bit if you've seen the anime, but otherwise is as confusing as the end of Silent Hill: Nahon either wants to leave the ground clear for a sequel, or is just an incompetent storyteller. I got the impression a good deal of footage had been cut out, hence the slightly disjointed construction, to hasten the pace.
However, the film remains a serviceable action yarn, and the first act (on the American air-force base) has a healthy sense of humour. Lower your expectations and you'll have a fun but forgettable time. A group of friends watching the film behind me called it the 'ultimate date-kill' when they were getting up to go at the end. I wouldn't go that far, but I don't think it'll inspire any company to throw themselves into your arms.
Actually, the film is a touch better than my sarcastic analysis might suggest, but it's over-familiarity proves to be its Achilles heel. Based from Hiroyuki Kitakubo's short animated feature made in 2000, it's basically a more frenetic adaptation, and though it inherits the earlier film's poor narrative, it lacks the anime's beguiling, sinister atmosphere. This would be forgivable if the new film's other virtues were more to the fore. Chris Nahon has a great technical team and all credit to the designer Nathan Amondson DoP Poon Hang-Sang who create a garish but claustrophobic world, and composer Clint Mansell whose thunderous soundtrack is mostly good fun. There's also a fantastic, old-school, stand-out ruck in a forest-set flashback when Blood's loyal retainer Kato takes on a fistful of sword-brandishing ninja, hopelessly outnumbered but (almost) unstoppable. It's a terrific conflagration, and lays the film's inspiration bare, harking back to the Lone Wolf and Cub movies in it's slightly grubby, grainy camera-work, occasional lapses in focus and in-your-face close ups. Watching the old, wounded man face his foes down with implacable courage is thrilling, and the choreography is imaginative.
Sadly, nothing in the film can quite match it. The rest of the fights are too rapidly staged and edited to be truly engrossing and become messy. Worse, the film's reliance of over-familiar tropes becomes stultifying. It lifts brazenly from The Matrix, Blade, Underworld, Twilight, Push and (unbelievably, in the finale) Star Wars. So much of its plot is recycled it's never very compelling. Worse, the film's 'narrative' logic disappears as it rumbles on. The basic plot centres around Blood's unending search for Onigen, the ultimate demon in 1960s Japan. She gains an ally in Allison Miller's tearaway air force brat, the tale beginning in an American base. A boring but serviceable plot, with an interesting military angle, you might think. Wrong: Nahon and screenwriter Chris Chow just throw incidents onto the screen, the non-existent story a framework for fight scenes. There's plenty of potential: Blood's tortured soul, her dependence on Blood, the references to America's dirty war in Vietnam and the military-industrial complex, Blood's convoluted family history, the allusions to alternate realities, racism. The list goes on, but Nahon has no interest in these themes or the vampire myth, and thunders (put less kindly, blunders) along from set-piece to set-piece. Given the lack of character, there's no real suspense.
The later fights are also run-of-the-mill, one on, in and around a stricken truck and the actual climax suffer from too many special effects: the earlier fights were more down-and-dirty. The demons are also pretty limp villains. One reason the Alien and Predator films remain exciting is because their monsters were make-up, rather that CGI, creations and they just LOOK more authentic. The demons here are just bundles of pixels, and the total failure to sketch the war between them and mankind means we never believe they're dangerous at all. Onigen herself is a terribly bland nemesis, another tall, placid, pale demoness you saw portrayed better in any number of 1960s horror movies. The ending, too, is opaque to the point of being impenetrable. It helps a bit if you've seen the anime, but otherwise is as confusing as the end of Silent Hill: Nahon either wants to leave the ground clear for a sequel, or is just an incompetent storyteller. I got the impression a good deal of footage had been cut out, hence the slightly disjointed construction, to hasten the pace.
However, the film remains a serviceable action yarn, and the first act (on the American air-force base) has a healthy sense of humour. Lower your expectations and you'll have a fun but forgettable time. A group of friends watching the film behind me called it the 'ultimate date-kill' when they were getting up to go at the end. I wouldn't go that far, but I don't think it'll inspire any company to throw themselves into your arms.