Without exaggeration, one of the worst movies I have ever seen and one of the only to earn the distinction of being shut-off half way through. I live in Japan and watched this with my Japanese wife, who warned me that the plot might be "complex." Complex is not the word, saying that this movie has a plot at all is a huge stretch. It is simply one poorly introduced scene after another of ultra stylized coolness after another—a dead-pan, humorless mess that manages to somehow be as predictable as it is incoherent.
The highlight of the nonsense comes when the narrative inexplicably leaps from the main character and his crew receiving a message from a villainous-second-in-command ordering them to fly to a foreign country and to bring the mentally disabled girl they are protecting as ransom for another insular character's kidnapped daughter—to the these same characters already being in aforementioned foreign country in the middle of trying desperately to get the mentally disabled girl back from a gang of human traffickers who are totally unrelated to the main antagonists. When did the heroes arrive and how did they lose custody of the girl? Why did we lose this necessary scene for the sake of a completely unnecessary one? Well never mind that because its time for another plot twist and more narrative leaps.
This movie may appeal to some in the "so bad its good" sort of respect, but to my sensibilities the extraordinarily lavish sets and ultra expensive action sequences just make it into some sort of big budget train wreck rarely seen by viewers outside of Japan. The bottom line is that there are quite literally dozens of video games on the market right now with more enjoyable and better written story lines.
The highlight of the nonsense comes when the narrative inexplicably leaps from the main character and his crew receiving a message from a villainous-second-in-command ordering them to fly to a foreign country and to bring the mentally disabled girl they are protecting as ransom for another insular character's kidnapped daughter—to the these same characters already being in aforementioned foreign country in the middle of trying desperately to get the mentally disabled girl back from a gang of human traffickers who are totally unrelated to the main antagonists. When did the heroes arrive and how did they lose custody of the girl? Why did we lose this necessary scene for the sake of a completely unnecessary one? Well never mind that because its time for another plot twist and more narrative leaps.
This movie may appeal to some in the "so bad its good" sort of respect, but to my sensibilities the extraordinarily lavish sets and ultra expensive action sequences just make it into some sort of big budget train wreck rarely seen by viewers outside of Japan. The bottom line is that there are quite literally dozens of video games on the market right now with more enjoyable and better written story lines.
