PussyGalore
Meow
Yeah, I thought it's related to a video game and/or an anime series. (I seem to recall Johansson getting criticism because she is white and the character is supposed to be Asian.)
Movies that SHOULD have stunk but you wound up liking
- Thread starter Joelist
- Start date
Yeah, I thought it's related to a video game and/or an anime series. (I seem to recall Johansson getting criticism because she is white and the character is supposed to be Asian.)
It got flamed by anime geeks because they pictured the character as looking Asian. The thing is, the only thing left from her original body was her brain and in the original story the cyber body was not described in ethnic terms. Plus in the movie she does reclaim her original Japanese name at the end.
They must feel like some of us do when our favorite stuff gets wrecked by commercialization. But, you make the best point in showing that she does reclaim her Asian name, and she meets her Asian mother. In the case of this movie, it was important to have white Americans in it for marketing purposes. A fully Asian movie is not a recipe for success in the US, even on the B-movie level. Not racist, just deferring to America's diversity agenda. Asia is NOT diverse.
Last edited:
Meh. I think the anime crowd needs to take a good look at why there have been no faithful translations of anime to live action or for that matter successful anime to live action crossovers. I think it has to do with the nature of anime as animation and how a lot of things you do in a cartoon don't look or feel right in live action. As such, they need to stop being over-purists and accept that while live action can be based on anime it really cannot be a completely faithful imitation.
In the case of this film, just take it on its own merits and stop trying to shoehorn it into the anime. When doing that it is pretty good. It gives you a cyberpunk feeling setting and tells us enough about the characters so we can relate to the main ones (Major, Batu and Chief Aramaki - by the way I loved Aramaki's line "don't send a rabbit to hunt a fox"). And we get drawn into what starts as a murder investigation and turns into Major realizing her past is not what she thought it was.
In the case of this film, just take it on its own merits and stop trying to shoehorn it into the anime. When doing that it is pretty good. It gives you a cyberpunk feeling setting and tells us enough about the characters so we can relate to the main ones (Major, Batu and Chief Aramaki - by the way I loved Aramaki's line "don't send a rabbit to hunt a fox"). And we get drawn into what starts as a murder investigation and turns into Major realizing her past is not what she thought it was.
Anime fans do not seem to think that anime is cartoons. But that is 100% what it is. No, it isn't special because its anime, its just foreign cartoons. But if you tell an adult anime fan that his anime (I do not see this phenomenon with any females) is "cartoons", he will get indignant and go on about how it is art. Whatever the case, you can't take cartoons and turn them into real people very easily. If they spoke and moved and looked like their anime characters, they would look like this:
I am just not a fan of anime at all.
The only Japanese anime I liked was Speed Racer, Kimba, Gigantor and Neon Genesis Evangelion. All but Evangelion were faves only when I was a kid.
Neon Genesis Evangelion was great to watch stoned, otherwise no.
And in the world of "Movies that should stink but I wound up liking", I offer you "Cyber Wars". Yes it has a weird plot and some of the visual effects are frankly laughable. But on the other hand Genevieve Reilly, Joan Chen and David Warner all turned in good work and the directing was actually not bad. It's no Oscar winner but it is also a lot better than it seems at first glance.
Jim of WVa
Well Known GateFan
And again Necroing an old thread....
I actually wound up watching Charlie's Angels (the one with Drew Barrymore, Lucy Liu and Cameron Diaz) a few days ago and it was actually entertaining!
It is definitely CHEESY camp. And yes you need to put your brain in sleep mode but it does give goofy fun. Also the cast obviously like each other and play well off of each other.
It's actually interesting to compare this one to the awful 2019 movie with Kristen Stewart and Elizabeth Banks. The 2019 one takes itself WAY too seriously, the actresses have zero chemistry (and acting ability) and it is so agenda infused it is stupefying to watch - especially as the Angels are all Mary Sue's that rival Michael Burnham in OP-ness.
In the older (and far superior) film, the Angels are powerful but not OP and have flaws. Also their opponents are done nicely. Crispin Glover as Creepy Thin Man fights all three of them to a standstill in a well choreographed martial arts scene. Is it goofy? Yep! And don't try too hard to analyze it - but it is fun.
I actually wound up watching Charlie's Angels (the one with Drew Barrymore, Lucy Liu and Cameron Diaz) a few days ago and it was actually entertaining!
It is definitely CHEESY camp. And yes you need to put your brain in sleep mode but it does give goofy fun. Also the cast obviously like each other and play well off of each other.
It's actually interesting to compare this one to the awful 2019 movie with Kristen Stewart and Elizabeth Banks. The 2019 one takes itself WAY too seriously, the actresses have zero chemistry (and acting ability) and it is so agenda infused it is stupefying to watch - especially as the Angels are all Mary Sue's that rival Michael Burnham in OP-ness.
In the older (and far superior) film, the Angels are powerful but not OP and have flaws. Also their opponents are done nicely. Crispin Glover as Creepy Thin Man fights all three of them to a standstill in a well choreographed martial arts scene. Is it goofy? Yep! And don't try too hard to analyze it - but it is fun.
