I bought the CASSHERN DVD after reading the plot description and positive reviews on this site. I was sorely disappointed and angered by this film. This is a masterful mistake and a narrow minded attempt at bringing the anime and manga experience to film.
WARNING: THIS NEGATIVE REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS Firstly this film is directed by a person who makes music videos. Already there is a conflict from the beginning due to the inherent contradictions of both visual genres. My impression is that this is a surrealistic narrative. I understand that given such a structure there are bound to be elements of the story that will be lost or left up to the viewer to define and gain meaning from. But this film is incomplete in its execution. In the first thirty minutes it fails in establishing both setting and character development. The few scenes portraying the different conflicts are not enough for the audience to gain a moderate understanding of the story and appreciation for the individuals involved. Yet towards the final hour of the film the main characters begin to partake in long winded monologues of why war and hate are bad. The lack of story and character development in the beginning of the film leads to an oversimplified exposition on the central concepts at the end.
Then there are the standard action flick clichés. Moments after his awakening the villain decides to escape to the mountains and miraculously finds a castle with a seemingly inexhaustible army of robots. When Casshern and the villain first meet in battle the villain conveniently leaves Casshern bruised but alive. Each main member of the NeoSapiens is eventually killed with the main villain saved for the bitter end. Many sequences are telegraphed, every time the music builds up the viewer knows something "grand" is going to happen (i.e. a battle, a last minute comeback, or a moment of revelation).
All in all this film is meant to be a visual feast. But it fails in this aspect as well. Many of the scenes look as if they were given to a Japanese Chef for editing. There isn't enough time to soak in the details because of the incessant quick-cuts from one scene to the next. This hurts not only the action sequences but the emotional melodramatic scenes as well. The eye is not given enough time to relax and appreciate the costume design, the set design, and even the CGI sequences. There are only two instances when this type of quick- cutting makes cinematic sense: The initial battle between Casshern and the robot army and The montage of the robot army attacking the humans.
The incessant music does not help matters either. This is a clear indicator that the film cannot stand on dialogue and visuals alone. It needs to "pump up" the audience in order to keep them interested in what's happening on screen. Frankly, throughout the entire film I cared not for the fates of any of the characters. They were all one dimensional in my view again for the reasons I stated above.
In conclusion the film CASSHERN is an attempt at bringing to life the vision of anime and manga. And for me it remains merely an "attempt". As for teenage and younger audiences I think it has succeeded. But to more mature viewers of cinema CASSHERN suffers from over-saturation of popular culture and having a music video director at the helm is also a sure sign of that. Mind you director David Fincher who directed ALIEN 3 and FIGHT CLUB brought his music video eye to film and succeeded in creating visual works of art that had stellar narratives so I am not biased against music video directors. There are those that say that narrative isn't everything, that film is primarily a visual art form and I would agree. But let us be aware that if we let works become too abstract then we risk being saddled with meaningless art.
WARNING: THIS NEGATIVE REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS Firstly this film is directed by a person who makes music videos. Already there is a conflict from the beginning due to the inherent contradictions of both visual genres. My impression is that this is a surrealistic narrative. I understand that given such a structure there are bound to be elements of the story that will be lost or left up to the viewer to define and gain meaning from. But this film is incomplete in its execution. In the first thirty minutes it fails in establishing both setting and character development. The few scenes portraying the different conflicts are not enough for the audience to gain a moderate understanding of the story and appreciation for the individuals involved. Yet towards the final hour of the film the main characters begin to partake in long winded monologues of why war and hate are bad. The lack of story and character development in the beginning of the film leads to an oversimplified exposition on the central concepts at the end.
Then there are the standard action flick clichés. Moments after his awakening the villain decides to escape to the mountains and miraculously finds a castle with a seemingly inexhaustible army of robots. When Casshern and the villain first meet in battle the villain conveniently leaves Casshern bruised but alive. Each main member of the NeoSapiens is eventually killed with the main villain saved for the bitter end. Many sequences are telegraphed, every time the music builds up the viewer knows something "grand" is going to happen (i.e. a battle, a last minute comeback, or a moment of revelation).
All in all this film is meant to be a visual feast. But it fails in this aspect as well. Many of the scenes look as if they were given to a Japanese Chef for editing. There isn't enough time to soak in the details because of the incessant quick-cuts from one scene to the next. This hurts not only the action sequences but the emotional melodramatic scenes as well. The eye is not given enough time to relax and appreciate the costume design, the set design, and even the CGI sequences. There are only two instances when this type of quick- cutting makes cinematic sense: The initial battle between Casshern and the robot army and The montage of the robot army attacking the humans.
The incessant music does not help matters either. This is a clear indicator that the film cannot stand on dialogue and visuals alone. It needs to "pump up" the audience in order to keep them interested in what's happening on screen. Frankly, throughout the entire film I cared not for the fates of any of the characters. They were all one dimensional in my view again for the reasons I stated above.
In conclusion the film CASSHERN is an attempt at bringing to life the vision of anime and manga. And for me it remains merely an "attempt". As for teenage and younger audiences I think it has succeeded. But to more mature viewers of cinema CASSHERN suffers from over-saturation of popular culture and having a music video director at the helm is also a sure sign of that. Mind you director David Fincher who directed ALIEN 3 and FIGHT CLUB brought his music video eye to film and succeeded in creating visual works of art that had stellar narratives so I am not biased against music video directors. There are those that say that narrative isn't everything, that film is primarily a visual art form and I would agree. But let us be aware that if we let works become too abstract then we risk being saddled with meaningless art.