Kingsglaive
So I watched Kingsglaive yesterday and I think it could've done better;
The first, and probably the worst thing about the movie is the choppy pacing. From the very start of the movie, every scene is presented to you in cutscene-sized bites, which felt really disjointed and awkward.. I guess its because the people making (and/or editing) this movie are probably more accustomed to making cutscenes for games, where a lot of connective tissue for story moments are peppered into the gameplay.
Kingsglaive, at least the first half of the movie, felt like a fan-edit movie that stiched all the trailers in a game :S What really made it uncomfortable for me was the fade-in, fade-out to black in between each scene, amplifying the disjointed feeling >_< I really tried to follow the story, but never got to because it was like trying to follow a swordfish zig-zagging in a river @_@ and swordfishes are saltwater fish! really felt out of place :S
Then there is the most jarring thing about the movie - the uncanny valley effect for the main characters. CGI has come a long way since Advent Children, but I swear the characters 10+ years ago had more emotion than the ones in Kingsglaive @_@ While there is a lot of detail and animation (or perhaps because of it), all the main characters in the movie seem to be having this expression in their eyes O___O all the time. Angry O_O sad O__O disappointed O_O shocked O_O ITS LIKE THEY DON'T BLINK O__O it is most pronounced in the good king's character (voiced by Sean Bean, which, you guessed it, dies in this movie too :D) because he's supposed to be this aged guy but he has anime-boy big eyes all the time lol *shivers*
and since they were the first few characters introduced and focused on in the beginning, I also noticed that the lipsync was quite off @_@ compounding on the jarring feeling I got +_+ basically I was trying really hard to like the movie in the first 30 minutes but my mind was like.. nope :( Its probably because, unlike in Advent Children, I actually *understand* what the characters are saying (so I can lipread and notice that it is very off), OR--- Because the main character's are voiced by movie stars, that didn't have time to do the mo-cap for their characters (you know, with the dots on the face an all), and the disconnect there made it look like a bad overdub that was very noticable because the CGI was really detailed.. I guess
But when you look at the kelefe characters - like the guard in the trailer saying "we don't like you immigrants bla bla bla... CLICK" (btw the dialogue was ultra cringeworthy sometimes but yea, japanese production and maybe not the best localization team so they get a pass from me - this is a video game movie anyway) and the fat sidekick guy (which I forgot his name!! SORRY >_<), or the bad king, their character's emotions were a lot more noticable and believable. If only the main characters were the same... I could've felt a lot more for them and the movie would've meant more to me and I can follow it better!
Speaking of the fat sidekick guy, though, there was one scene where he was crying.. or at least I think he was crying.. well he should have been crying. But I couldn't see any tears! Or emotion on his face! (because he was looking down the whole time lol) I guess its still really difficult to animate or mocap such strong emotions? So the scene was framed that way? Please tell me, if you know anything about facial capture or animation or.. etc *shrug* Also, a lot of the intense emotional actions in the movie (like when said fat sidekick guy threw his crutches in disappointment) lacked the emotinal punch and intensity to them.. fighting moves were good though, so I don't understand the lack of intensity and physics in non-battle scenes @_@
And the battle scenes, hooboy. I'd love to say they were great - if I could've actually seen what was happening! LOL +_+ I don't know if it was because I was in a cinema, or because I'm getting old, or if I should rewatch it on a computer monitor, but all the actions scenes looked really blurry and.. gave me the feeling that they were motion blurring or zooming in a lot a-la michael bay's transformers to 'save' on having to animate or choreograph actual fight scenes... but that doesn't make sense in this movie because EVERYTHING is animated and looks insanely good! @O@
The final battle where the big statues were animated and kaiju battle ensued, for example, was extremely awesome *O* and the way the main character defeats the bad guy with the help of his buddy's knife glaive that was impaled in the bad guy as a callback was surprisingly a nice and not cheesy, weak way to end an epic fight (also, when he defeats the bad guy and the giant monster daemon was defeated by the good statue in the background at the same time too - looked super cool XD)
You know what else was cool? EVERYTHING ELSE - from the scenery, to inanimate objects, to sparkly particle effects - all looked spectacular *___* I really want to watch more CGI movies like this! I know I sound like I've been bashing the whole movie this whole post, and you might think that I hate it, but I'm only this harsh about it because I was disappointed! --not because I had high expectations for this movie, I mean, it is a Final Fantasy movie by Square Enix, I expected a long cutscene instead of a "movie" anyways.
I was disappointed because everything looked so NICE! so BEAUTIFUL!!! (not the princess tho, I was looking forward to a new waifu but.. not my type, for some reason :\) and when I realized how much less the uncanny valley effect was for non-main characters, I couldn't help feeling that this movie could've been a lot better. Its such a waste! When I came to that realization, I felt like.. aw man.. but yeah.. in two or three years this wouldn't be a problem anymore... and then there will be tons of movies like this.. hopefully.. I hope this movie doesn't bomb and discourage people from making more... yeah, so sayang T^T9
And I dunno about you, but the main character - Nyx Ulric looks like david beckham to me.. and whenever I hear his last name I think of Ulfric Stormcloak LOL but yeah, very dashing :x why no cute girls for me to fawn over tho D: aiyaa
TL;DR - this is a video game movie, and a fully CGI one at that. It is not the best movie of its type, but it didn't set out to be. It set out to be a movie that introduced the world and story for the game FFXV - and for me, it failed in terms of story and character investment, but suceeded in spades in the looks and graphics department *o* It looks great amazing - definitely a step in the right direction and I would love to see more!
So if you have the money and the time to watch it in cinemas, you should, because I want to tell the people making and investing in this movie that it is worth it and to please make more ^o^ also, if you're a girl attracted to good looking men, this is a movie for you ;D most girls I know are over the moon about this movie~
5/9
The first, and probably the worst thing about the movie is the choppy pacing. From the very start of the movie, every scene is presented to you in cutscene-sized bites, which felt really disjointed and awkward.. I guess its because the people making (and/or editing) this movie are probably more accustomed to making cutscenes for games, where a lot of connective tissue for story moments are peppered into the gameplay.
Kingsglaive, at least the first half of the movie, felt like a fan-edit movie that stiched all the trailers in a game :S What really made it uncomfortable for me was the fade-in, fade-out to black in between each scene, amplifying the disjointed feeling >_< I really tried to follow the story, but never got to because it was like trying to follow a swordfish zig-zagging in a river @_@ and swordfishes are saltwater fish! really felt out of place :S
Then there is the most jarring thing about the movie - the uncanny valley effect for the main characters. CGI has come a long way since Advent Children, but I swear the characters 10+ years ago had more emotion than the ones in Kingsglaive @_@ While there is a lot of detail and animation (or perhaps because of it), all the main characters in the movie seem to be having this expression in their eyes O___O all the time. Angry O_O sad O__O disappointed O_O shocked O_O ITS LIKE THEY DON'T BLINK O__O it is most pronounced in the good king's character (voiced by Sean Bean, which, you guessed it, dies in this movie too :D) because he's supposed to be this aged guy but he has anime-boy big eyes all the time lol *shivers*
and since they were the first few characters introduced and focused on in the beginning, I also noticed that the lipsync was quite off @_@ compounding on the jarring feeling I got +_+ basically I was trying really hard to like the movie in the first 30 minutes but my mind was like.. nope :( Its probably because, unlike in Advent Children, I actually *understand* what the characters are saying (so I can lipread and notice that it is very off), OR--- Because the main character's are voiced by movie stars, that didn't have time to do the mo-cap for their characters (you know, with the dots on the face an all), and the disconnect there made it look like a bad overdub that was very noticable because the CGI was really detailed.. I guess
But when you look at the kelefe characters - like the guard in the trailer saying "we don't like you immigrants bla bla bla... CLICK" (btw the dialogue was ultra cringeworthy sometimes but yea, japanese production and maybe not the best localization team so they get a pass from me - this is a video game movie anyway) and the fat sidekick guy (which I forgot his name!! SORRY >_<), or the bad king, their character's emotions were a lot more noticable and believable. If only the main characters were the same... I could've felt a lot more for them and the movie would've meant more to me and I can follow it better!
Speaking of the fat sidekick guy, though, there was one scene where he was crying.. or at least I think he was crying.. well he should have been crying. But I couldn't see any tears! Or emotion on his face! (because he was looking down the whole time lol) I guess its still really difficult to animate or mocap such strong emotions? So the scene was framed that way? Please tell me, if you know anything about facial capture or animation or.. etc *shrug* Also, a lot of the intense emotional actions in the movie (like when said fat sidekick guy threw his crutches in disappointment) lacked the emotinal punch and intensity to them.. fighting moves were good though, so I don't understand the lack of intensity and physics in non-battle scenes @_@
And the battle scenes, hooboy. I'd love to say they were great - if I could've actually seen what was happening! LOL +_+ I don't know if it was because I was in a cinema, or because I'm getting old, or if I should rewatch it on a computer monitor, but all the actions scenes looked really blurry and.. gave me the feeling that they were motion blurring or zooming in a lot a-la michael bay's transformers to 'save' on having to animate or choreograph actual fight scenes... but that doesn't make sense in this movie because EVERYTHING is animated and looks insanely good! @O@
The final battle where the big statues were animated and kaiju battle ensued, for example, was extremely awesome *O* and the way the main character defeats the bad guy with the help of his buddy's knife glaive that was impaled in the bad guy as a callback was surprisingly a nice and not cheesy, weak way to end an epic fight (also, when he defeats the bad guy and the giant monster daemon was defeated by the good statue in the background at the same time too - looked super cool XD)
You know what else was cool? EVERYTHING ELSE - from the scenery, to inanimate objects, to sparkly particle effects - all looked spectacular *___* I really want to watch more CGI movies like this! I know I sound like I've been bashing the whole movie this whole post, and you might think that I hate it, but I'm only this harsh about it because I was disappointed! --not because I had high expectations for this movie, I mean, it is a Final Fantasy movie by Square Enix, I expected a long cutscene instead of a "movie" anyways.
I was disappointed because everything looked so NICE! so BEAUTIFUL!!! (not the princess tho, I was looking forward to a new waifu but.. not my type, for some reason :\) and when I realized how much less the uncanny valley effect was for non-main characters, I couldn't help feeling that this movie could've been a lot better. Its such a waste! When I came to that realization, I felt like.. aw man.. but yeah.. in two or three years this wouldn't be a problem anymore... and then there will be tons of movies like this.. hopefully.. I hope this movie doesn't bomb and discourage people from making more... yeah, so sayang T^T9
And I dunno about you, but the main character - Nyx Ulric looks like david beckham to me.. and whenever I hear his last name I think of Ulfric Stormcloak LOL but yeah, very dashing :x why no cute girls for me to fawn over tho D: aiyaa
TL;DR - this is a video game movie, and a fully CGI one at that. It is not the best movie of its type, but it didn't set out to be. It set out to be a movie that introduced the world and story for the game FFXV - and for me, it failed in terms of story and character investment, but suceeded in spades in the looks and graphics department *o* It looks great amazing - definitely a step in the right direction and I would love to see more!
So if you have the money and the time to watch it in cinemas, you should, because I want to tell the people making and investing in this movie that it is worth it and to please make more ^o^ also, if you're a girl attracted to good looking men, this is a movie for you ;D most girls I know are over the moon about this movie~
5/9