blog好き

Aug 22 2011

Categories: cinema, general review
Tagged: redline

16 Comments »

“Crashing at over 400km/hr, he was unhurt.”

(Was so tempted to troll everyone with a post about this movie instead. Actually, that Redline wasn’t bad. A poor man’s Fast and Furious.)

Why do people compare this movie to Gurren Lagann?

Because they don’t know better or haven’t been an anime fan for more than five years. Or both. I dunno. Sure, there’s over-the-topness. Sure, there’s a guy (not the main character) exclaiming, “Who the fuck do you think I am?” Sure, there’s a lot of well-placed confidence. Sure, there’s a lot of transforming mecha going on. Except, well, Redline‘s isn’t Gurren Lagann. It’s Utena.

First off, the mecha in Gurren Lagann get bigger and more bad-ass as the battle rages on. The opposite is true for Redline. More importantly, not only does the mecha shrink as the race progresses, it starts to resemble Utena‘s penismobile. Look! It’s similar! Also, Redline‘s penismobile pulls off a lot of moves similar to Utena‘s, including going under a bigger car (no sexual symbolism here) as well as flying and jumping a larger car (again, no sexual symbolism here either). More importantly, you had lovers going at it in Utena‘s penismobile during that race’s climax… just like Redline. Katsuhito Ishii totally ripped off Kunihiko Ikuhara’s car race scene.

(Sonoshee and JP weren’t nakkid like Anthy and Utena, though. I felt like Sonoshee and JP should have been… come on, only brief flashes of Sonoshee topless? Go big or go home.)

Second, the art style mimics the eye catches of Gurren Lagann but not really the main body of the show. Colors for Redline are a lot more vibrant and contrasty, and the heavy pen lines is a really good stylized look. But each character in Redline “owns” their own color scheme, much like how characters in Utena can be color sorted. With Gurren Lagann, not so much… with just blues and reds and whites (or as TMQ calls it, “the most successful color scheme in history”) gracing Simon, Kamina, and Yoko. Also, Utena is chock full of interesting geometric shapes a la Redline.

(Redline is very, very pretty. Blows Summer Wars out of the water and edges Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya. The animation sequences for Redline are superior to Haruhi, but Haruhi‘s backgrounds are better than Redline‘s. Like there’s a lot of background scenes on the moon where Production IG or Kyoto would have crushed out of the park, and Madhouse “settles” for just a few planets in the background.)

(Yes, I would have ranked Disappearance higher had we had some brief flashes of Mikuru topless. Either original flavored or prime… or both!)

What’s JP’s hairstyle?

Pompadour. Goddamn, it’s a pompadour and not a ducktail. JP has the best pompadour since Ben Wallance sported one briefly back in 2005. I think.

How’s the ending? Is it worth it?

Let me put it to you this way: you should be able to guess the remainder of the movie by the time Sonoshee shows off her necklace. Like almost everything except the giant amoebas that start attacking each other like Bonta-kun and crazy police lady and are quickly forgotten. The movie unfolds exactly how you expect it to, and it keeps your attention by how ridiculously it can take you there. There’s just one over the top scene after another. But the ending is lame and ends a bit too abruptly for the amount of build-up that proceeds it. It’s like going to a game and seeing LeBron put up 38 points but miss the game-winning jumper. Or I’m just hating on the giant “LOVE!” text that concludes this otherwise fine movie.

(I also don’t understand how Sonoshee and JP start the race as rivals yet the TV crew suddenly call them a team at the end… is this even allowed? Wouldn’t Sonoshee bewbs be the winner of the epic footrace if not for JP’s pompadour? Gah, little dangling plot details like these drive me nuts. As you can tell.)

My favorite part of the movie?

The ridiculous promos for each racer. Not only is it a lazy way to provide narrative for other racers and kill time (you really don’t need to know more than JP and Machine Head), they are totally hilarious and over-the-top with each promo fitting its racer. I also liked when JP left Sonoshee’s earring with some flowers… a real man who knows how to romance the ladies? Is this anime? Are we sure?

(I also like that one mecha that transformed into a mecha with melonpan cockpits and started kicking ass while hip hopping. That was special. I was hoping Star Driver would do this, but, alas.)

Gimme NOZ! You have to have da NOZ!

Just like in Fast and Furious franchise, when JP engages his nitro, you get to see the stuff flow down through tubes until it creates a huge spark in the piston and ignites some space-time bending warp speed. Let’s just say I would be disappointed if they got anyone other than Vin Diesel to voice JP.

How should you pilot a Gundam?

Like this. Pay attention, Sunrise!!!

(This is also the correct way to watch Redline.)

Is Redline this generation’s Ghost in the Shell?

No. Ghost in the Shell had a plot and advanced cyberpunk. Redline is just pretty and fun… kinda like the cute blonde in your chemistry class that you never talk to.

Most underrated part of the movie?

This Roboworld is supposed to be an awesome military power. They get completely embarrassed by a bunch of race cars. Seriously, badly, totally, ridiculously embarrassed. Their elite commandos have about the same accuracy as Imperial Stormtroopers… not, wait… worse. This supposed bad ass military looks like Zapp Brannigan leading his men into battle. It’s that comically bad. (For them.)

(Also underrated were the Japanese mole team that somehow digged as fast as cars drove… I was really hoping it would be Simon and Kamina in this car. Also, they had a cool new Area Eleven flag.)

What part of this movie would you change?

While I thought that a lot of the scenes pertaining to the filler racers were extraneous, they were extraneous at worst and comedic at best. The movie could do with or without them. Focusing more on JP’s racing and Sonoshee’s melonpan is a good thing. For plotlike substance, can we get an explanation for Frisbee’s decent into darkness and his redemption? I felt like that was just too straightforward and not enough time was devoted to it. For a movie that spent seven years in development, I expected at least a fleshed-out plot. I also would have more of the crazy multi-armed junk dealer. He was awesome.

(Other than that, more penismobile.)

What is the most ridiculous part of the movie?

There’s a lot of ridiculous stuff in this movie: furries, the racing, the over the top gesturing, the premise… in a movie filled with ridiculousness, I have to single this out: the singing of the title. And the director’s name. What. The. Fuck. It’s one thing for a character to speak the name of the title in the movie (something I always enjoy), but for both the title and the director’s name to be sung as part of the soundtrack? Ridiculous. I can imagine David Lynch or Takashi Miike going, “I’ll pass. I rather not have my name sung.” Kiri kiri kiri~

(Second most ridiculous part of this movie? They keep saying how ridiculous fast these cars are and how it’s amazing a hovercar like Sonoshee’s can keep up… except there’s like a billion camera hovercars that not only keep up but somehow outrace the race cars. Maybe they said that hovercars are faster, but then why would they allow Sonoshee’s hovercrab if it has such a huge advantage?)

(Third most ridiculous? The lack of helmets. I guess JP’s pompadour would offer some head protection, but just ridiculous everyone can surprise those crashes without helmets or seat beats or possibly roll cages. A few drivers had helmets, but they seemed decorative at best.)

Why should I go see this movie?

It’s super ridiculous. Leave common sense at the door and enjoy this movie. Everything is so over-the-top, it’s enjoyable. It’s hard not to be giddy when JP uses his nitro, when yet another car pulls off yet another ridiculous maneuver, or when the Roboworld army fails again. To top it off, the movie is gorgeous, and the soundtrack fits the racing very well. Watching it on anything less than a huge TV with a nice sound system is just not doing it justice– like enjoying a $120 cut of Kobe beef with a Bud Light. Redline is a showcase of what Madhouse can do if they put in some effort and what anime, in general, can accomplish. Go see this movie. And enjoy.

Is crab delicious?

Yes.