Critical Thinking: "Versus"

Miyamoto's Bacon Number is 2

Hooray! Liquidation sale at the local Blockbuster! What does this mean? Well, it means several sorry individuals have lost their jobs and that the economy has claimed yet another video rental location... but it also means RIDICULOUSLY CHEAP DVD'S AND MOVIE POSTERS!!

Although disappointed that the Cowboy Bebop movie was nowhere to be found (damn... I was too late), I did stumble across a few interesting treasures: Neon Genesis Evangelion Death & Rebirth (the movie), season one of 30 Rock, and a rare Japanese movie called "Versus."

Of course, I was curious. Is "Versus" going to be any good? It looks like it has potential. For $3.99, why not? So, I took a risk, and here are the results. (Warning: spoilers.)

The movie, at first glance, seemed fairly typical. The director's choice not to name any of the characters or develop an overarching backstory beyond the protagonist's role as a prisoner serve to establish the characters as ideas rather than actual human beings. This significantly weakened the emotional impact of the plot for me right off the bat; however, the choice makes sense, especially considering the genre. Action movies are based heavily off of adrenaline and emotions easily triggered through camerawork and pacing rather than creating pathos for the characters or enveloping the audience in a complex plot. However, a plot progression and evolution of sorts is generally preferred by directors so that the tempest of emotions peaks during the climactic, awesome super-battle at the end. And that is exactly what Ryuhei Kitamura did here. The protagonist apparently evolves as he gets to know the female lead, who seems shockingly devoid of any kind of history. She acts as more of an object than a character, helping the protagonist to move along and giving the story some kind of direction. The characters (and the interplay between the characters) don't seem to matter that much, since many of them die in the first quarter of the movie anyway. The plot branches at times as characters come and go, join forces or separate (or simply die), but the branches go nowhere and, unfortunately, lead to death for all of the minor characters. Although much, if not all, of the humor in the film is derived from these tangents, they remain for the most part useless. The movie is also riddled with moments of incredibly cheesy acting and lame sound effects (i.e. the fight towards the end between the crazy Yakuza knife guy and the hero).

As typical action movies go, however, this one had some surprisingly well done fight sequences. Think "The Matrix" except with zombies. Oh yeah, and there are zombies. The makeup work is excellent throughout, kudos to the gore and special effects teams as well! The lighting and camerawork in other scenes made up for a lot of the disappointment elsewhere (the entire movie is filmed outdoors, so it must have been really difficult to set up the shots just right depending on the time of day), especially in some of the more intense fight scenes... and they start to get pretty crazy. Really, the only parts that disappointed were whenever the actors opened their mouths to do anything but spit blood. I feel like a more formalistic approach would have been much more effective in this sort of situation, and clearly the director is capable of pulling it off. This sieve-like, porous plot is often the result of an action movie wandering too close to drama. Also, it seemed like some of the fights took a little too much inspiration from anime... while a certain level of "that's impossible" is acceptable, I can only suspend reality for so long... especially when the cartoon physics are enough to make me groan.

I was enjoying the movie, and was ready to give it a B-/C+ when the hero and his gal defeated the evil dude (I think he was the protagonist's brother?) rode off into the tunnel on a motorcycle and the screen washed to white... and then the real ending happened. For those of you following along at home, I beg you to hit the "stop" button right now and pretend that the movie is just over, because what you're about to see dropped the movie a full letter grade.

The screen faded to black, and the words "99 Years Later" appeared on the screen. "Oh shit," I cried, realizing that the movie was now ruined. This gigantic jump, an entire century into the future, led into the first indoor shot in the entire film. The protagonist had his girlfriend hostage, and she was begging for the assistance of the bad guy. The hero declares that he has destroyed the world, and that he now wishes to possess the power that the bad guys had been seeking from the other side. The two dudes clash swords, and movie ends. I sob a little, dry my tears, and crack the DVD in half.

Okay, it's not that bad, but let's face it, the conclusion is a bit of a bust (I hear there's a sequel in the making... let us pray that the budget is higher). What really shocked me about this film is that apparently Hideo Kojima was an extra at some point... Kitamura and Kojima are friends, and Kojima later invited him to direct MGS: The Twin Snakes... WOAH. Talk about six fuckin' degrees of separation! I wonder if Kitamura ever met Kevin Bacon? By now, I wouldn't be shocked.

All in all, I would say that the film is a fun action flick with some intense, well-choreographed fight scenes and zombie action. The plot remains unintrusive for the most part. Don't walk in expecting a masterpiece of a script: if you're looking for a high-octane, hella fuckin' balls-to-the-walls awesome gun-toting, sword-swinging action adventure flick, then you've come to the right place. C+

Now get out of here before I change my mind. (I want to go watch Neon Genesis Evangelion now, while I'm still in the mood for Japanese.)