Monday, February 21, 2011

Alien vs Ninja review


Unfortunately this promising title fails to deliver. When I started
watching this I didn't expect so much goofy and campy humor.

Im a great fan of Keita Amemia's work, especially the ZEIRAM series and
MIRAI NINJA. So when I saw the poster and the trailer for this film I
expected something similar - cool Asian sci-fi action, with great
atmosphere, created by the blend of genres. Aliens and ninjas - looked
like this can't go wrong! But it did. There are a lot of boring
dialogs. The movie's pace is messed up. Even for its 80 minutes it is
still slow. It starts with a great opening shot that leaves you thirsty
for adrenaline and you don't get it for the next 25 minutes. The real
problem is the poor comedy attempts. The parody elements are annoying
and they just ruin it all, which is a shame. It has a production value
high enough to make it a modern B-classic.

It's obviously a B-movie and no one expects state of the art effects
from it. Actually I prefer the practical effects - puppets, costumes
and animatronics are a breath of fresh air in this CGI era.

What I like the most about it is the work of the art department. The
character and creature designs are cool and the costumes are really
neat. Some look like live cation versions of manga drawings. I guess
that Ninja Gaiden fans would appreciate the looks of the main
character.

The martial art scenes are decent, but nothing really remarkable.
Directing, camera-work and acting are mediocre at best.

Alien vs Ninja is a great concept and I regret to see it wasted like
that.

Spare yourself time and watch all the coolness synthesized down to a trailer:

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