What was the last movie you've seen?

[Ack]

I watched two films over the weekend, Pixar's Up! and the live action Death Note 2.

First, Up! was great, much better than some of Pixar's recent work, though in general their quality stays pretty consistent. I don't know why, but the main character reminded me of Spencer Tracy a lot. I'd say it's good for both kids and adults, as there's enough going on for both parties to enjoy, though some of the jokes with the dogs get a little...well, old.

Death Note 2 was...meh. My girlfriend got me to watch the first and the second, since she was a fan of the manga. Personally, I'm not. I've never read any of it. So the movies were ok I suppose. The acting isn't the best, and there were a few places where I started wondering about plot holes, but it certainly wasn't the worst live-action thing I've ever seen. That award falls to the Kekko Kamen films.

[jfrost]

Death Note 2 was...meh. My girlfriend got me to watch the first and the second, since she was a fan of the manga. Personally, I'm not. I've never read any of it. So the movies were ok I suppose. The acting isn't the best, and there were a few places where I started wondering about plot holes, but it certainly wasn't the worst live-action thing I've ever seen. That award falls to the Kekko Kamen films.

I'm a fan of Death Note. I thought about watching the live-action movies, but read somewhere that they depart significantly from the manga, so I just forgot about it.

As expected, the manga is the best rendition of the series plot (probably in part because the intricate story requires heavy reading, for a manga at least). The first part of the anime is pretty good, while the second is average at best; the producers seemed to "help" Near (the second antagonist) reach his conclusions, which are better explained in the manga.

Well, I read somewhere that in the live-action films, they even scrapped the motivation behind Light's actions, which was the fact that he was bored. So, from the outset, they erase one of the most interesting parts of the main character...

But if you thought the plot was remotely interesting, you should try and read the manga. Not so much for the conclusion, which you might know already, but for the suspense and twists of the story.

[Mozgus]

Death Note bores the shit out of me and it's a perfect example of whats wrong with modern anime. Ninja Scroll (movie) is a true classic however. I'm surprised you didn't see it until now. It's true, the characters don't stand out. The star of the show is essentially the atmosphere.

[Mod_Man_Extreme]

Why can't Anime be all cool shows with witty humor, fast paced action, engrossing storylines, and the occasional Evangelion-esque mindfuck thrown in for good measure amnymore?

I mean come on! We used to have Tenchi, Rurouni Kenshin, Outlaw Star, Cowboy Bebop, Big O (Batman with robots!), Ghost in The Shell (Although the recent series was quite good.), YuYu Hakusho, Lupin, Old-School style Gundam, Gun Smith Cats etc...

That having been said there have been some great shows in the past few years like Air Gear (Practically Jet Grind Radio Anime!), Eureka Seven, Code Geass, Gurren Lagann, Tactics, IGPX, Black Lagoon, Fullmetal Alchemist and a few more come to mind; but the majority of Animes are suffering from a dumbing down to achieve greater sales due to the drop in revenue from declining retail profitability caused by idiots who pirate and torrent any anime they can get their hands on, and the battered economy.

[Reverend]

Why can't Anime be all cool shows with witty humor, fast paced action, engrossing storylines, and the occasional Evangelion-esque mindfuck thrown in for good measure amnymore?

I mean come on! We used to have Tenchi, Rurouni Kenshin, Outlaw Star, Cowboy Bebop, Big O (Batman with robots!), Ghost in The Shell (Although the recent series was quite good.), YuYu Hakusho, Lupin, Old-School style Gundam, Gun Smith Cats etc...

That having been said there have been some great shows in the past few years like Air Gear (Practically Jet Grind Radio Anime!), Eureka Seven, Code Geass, Gurren Lagann, Tactics, IGPX, Black Lagoon, Fullmetal Alchemist and a few more come to mind; but the majority of Animes are suffering from a dumbing down to achieve greater sales due to the drop in revenue from declining retail profitability caused by idiots who pirate and torrent any anime they can get their hands on, and the battered economy.

YuYu Hakusho is easily my favorite action anime. And your right about the dumbing down of anime. K-ON is is pretty much pure moé, and it's not even that good, but Code Geass was great; witty, hilarious, and even with plot holes the size of minivans remained amazing.

[jfrost]

Death Note bores the shit out of me and it's a perfect example of whats wrong with modern anime.

What exactly is wrong with modern anime? (Make this a separate thread if you like.)

Ninja Scroll (movie) is a true classic however. I'm surprised you didn't see it until now. It's true, the characters don't stand out. The star of the show is essentially the atmosphere.

Yeah, movies are not really my thing. I don't watch as many as I should or even want. My movie culture is quite limited and, for the record, Ninja Scroll was the first heavier movie I watched in months. I just have been watching a lot of light comedies and left at that.

Regarding the movie, yes, the atmosphere is really good. I can even trace back a lot of stuff that goes on on animes today to Ninja Scroll. Really cool.

[jfrost]

Why can't Anime be all cool shows with witty humor, fast paced action, engrossing storylines, and the occasional Evangelion-esque mindfuck thrown in for good measure amnymore?

I mean come on! We used to have Tenchi, Rurouni Kenshin, Outlaw Star, Cowboy Bebop, Big O (Batman with robots!), Ghost in The Shell (Although the recent series was quite good.), YuYu Hakusho, Lupin, Old-School style Gundam, Gun Smith Cats etc...

Nah, I guess you think this because you haven't watched those anime recently, your perception is tinted with nostalgia.

Seriously, pick up an episode of Rurouni Kenshin and try to tell me that's fast-paced action. It's so slow it hurts (the OVAs are quite action-packed, however). I remember that even when I first watched it, Kenshin was slow, and I compared it with the filler-ridden DBZ.

I watched the entire run of YuYu Hakusho not more than a year ago. If you went back to it, you would see how the action is lame-ass most of the time. Don't get me wrong, I love it, but it's certainly not what I see most people saying.

As for the story, I have to say, I'll never forgive YuYu anime for butchering the end of the manga, which is fucking awesome.

[Ack]

Yeah, my girlfriend was raging a bit about the departures from the Death Note series. Apparently this "Near" character was written out completely, so the ending is horribly marred. Oh well.

Truthfully...I agree with Mozgus about atmosphere, but character design in Ninja Scroll was something else that struck me. I liked the throwaway bad guys simply because their powers were so bizarre, it made me wonder about them. I'm not really into any of this newfangled anime stuff that's coming out now, and I really haven't been for a while.

But jfrost, if you want some suggestions about older stuff, I'd highly recommend the film Roujin Z. I'm gonna assume you've already seen Akira and Ghost in the Shell since they're classics.

As for series, check out Iria: Zeiram the Animation and Record of Lodoss War. And not that Chronicles of the Heroic Knight crap, I'm talking about the original Record of Lodoss War anime.

[Mod_Man_Extreme]

Why can't Anime be all cool shows with witty humor, fast paced action, engrossing storylines, and the occasional Evangelion-esque mindfuck thrown in for good measure amnymore?

I mean come on! We used to have Tenchi, Rurouni Kenshin, Outlaw Star, Cowboy Bebop, Big O (Batman with robots!), Ghost in The Shell (Although the recent series was quite good.), YuYu Hakusho, Lupin, Old-School style Gundam, Gun Smith Cats etc...

Nah, I guess you think this because you haven't watched those anime recently, your perception is tinted with nostalgia.

Seriously, pick up an episode of Rurouni Kenshin and try to tell me that's fast-paced action. It's so slow it hurts (the OVAs are quite action-packed, however). I remember that even when I first watched it, Kenshin was slow, and I compared it with the filler-ridden DBZ.

I watched the entire run of YuYu Hakusho not more than a year ago. If you went back to it, you would see how the action is lame-ass most of the time. Don't get me wrong, I love it, but it's certainly not what I see most people saying.

As for the story, I have to say, I'll never forgive YuYu anime for butchering the end of the manga, which is fucking awesome.

I ironically actually watched through all of Rurouni Kenshin in the last two weeks, and plan on going through all of YUYU Hakusho in the upcoming two.

Everything listed has been seen at least once in the last six months, I bought my DVD's to be watched after all.

Oh, and I don't give a crap if the anime deviates slightly or completely from the manga as long as both are good in an equal but different way, just look at Fullmetal Alchemist for example.

[Anayo]

I watched Star Wars Episode II. I'm trying to watch all the Star Wars movies in episodic order over the summer. The scenes with Anakin Skywalker and Padme were hilarious in the worst way possible, but the special effects payoff at the end was pretty spectacular.