Greetings Programs, Harry here and this is the first wave of reviews from AVALON that I've been pouring through. Mamoru Oshii and the producers and folks at Bandai have been setting up a whole series of screenings at American distributors in the hopes that the film will be picked up. These have commenced at DREAMWORKS, SONY and MIRAMAX that I've heard of... and so far it seems that Miramax is looking to pick this one up. Well, here's to praying they don't slap one of their typical terrible dubs and scores on to it if they do get it. Ya don't see SONY treating Ang Lee like Miramax treats Jackie Chan or Hayao Miyazaki do ya? Well.... lay off of Oshii then! Here we go.... sounds fantabulous... though of the 40 some odd reviews that have poured in... there have been only 5 negatives... so, below you will find two of the 'typical' positives and the negative review that best represented the problems that those that didn't care for the film... had. Here ya go....
ok, here you go...My name on your web site is ILL DOTTORE.
I was able to get into the screening of AVALON, Mamoru Oshii's anticipated follow up to "Ghost in the Shell". The screening was on the Sony lot in the small Backstage theater.
The majority of those in attendance were Asian, and didn't speak English. The ones that did were quite broken, so it took some time to get going, as the producer and Director both had introductions. They also put together a promotional piece for a video game. It was an ultra violent, kill everything you see on the screen type game. Impressive graphics. It was like 10 min. long, though and I think everyone was just ready for the movie.
First off, this movie is not a very conventional one. Mamoru Oshii spoke briefly to the audience before the movie, and said he wanted to be unconventional, and to use the film as a canvass with CGI as a paint brush, creating a look and feel that you are sure you have seen somewhere, but not exactly. The result is a unique world, one that is both dark and bright at the same time. The layers separate the time with which background, character and setting differ. For example the clouds in the sky may move in a fast time lapse mode, while the people on the street are at a slow motion speed and the central character is in normal time. The focus was also off, intentionally, giving the look that a thin layer of Vaseline was spread on the lens.
Another thing, the movie was shot in Poland, and is entirely in Polish. This is odd but as Mr. Oshii stated after the movie when asked why, he said that he wanted to again do something unconventional and there was no reason why he shouldn't go with Poland. He added that it also gives the film the look he wanted. This is true, as I doubt he would be able to create a setting like this anywhere else in the world. The use of all the great old Eastern European Architecture is taken full advantage of, creating an advanced, yet rustic appeal that I can say looks like "Blade Runner", in its old dilapidated vision of the future, rather than a clean, high tech version you might have see in movies like "Gattaca".
I am not one for spoilers, so I won't go into too much detail. The opening action sequence is quite incredible. It takes place computer generated world like our own, in the near future, where a game has become an obsession to a large number of the population. I want to compare it to the Matrix but a)everyone knows they are playing a game and b) the persons playing the game aren't able to jump or fight or fly or do anything extraordinary with their bodies. They are given conventional weapons, and in the upper levels of the game, must rely on teams of players (which are the formed in the real world) to clear the more complex missions.
ASH, the beautiful star of this movie, is trying to clear the game to a level called AVALON, the equivalent to enlightenment, or Heaven, or whatever you believe to be Bliss. In order to do this, she must team with other talented players who have attained different ranks. Everyone has their reasons for the playing the game, the good ones can get paid very well, but the best ones are obsessed and risk their lives to attain AVALON. The problem, if you get killed in the game, your mind thinks you're really dead, and you turn into a coma patient.
She moves through the real world with considerable silence, we follow her around as she shops, cooks (for her pet Basset Hound) and researches the game. This takes up quite a bit of the movie. I was reminded of how James Stewart follows around Kim Novak in Vertigo, except we are the ones following around ASH.
One problem with the movie is the pacing. The opening scene packs a wallop, but then it slows considerably. The movie does a lot of following ASH around in the real world, and much of the footage you just saw in the opening scene is replayed in a series of vignettes set over a long opera piece. The movie is visually stunning enough to keep you there, but then you follow her around some more, saved only by a few short scenes where she is back in the game. Also,(quick spoiler) The end presents a great visual twist as well.
They said they made the movie for $6 mill. It looks like it cost much more. Thanks in obvious part to a crafty production team, and Mr. Oshii's virtuosity of special effects. couple that with Lucassound and ILM doing the post, and you have a quality production. The film is artsy fartsy, in the sense that it is a foreign film, and the influence of so many cultures sometimes makes it seem like it is trying to say and do too much, but it is a fresh look at a virtual world set in the future, and the story is solid. I think Miramax purchased it so it will be around at least in select cities. CHECK IT OUT. If anything, to see what else is out there.
ILL DOTTORE out
The next review is another praising one... that doesn't spoil too that much of the film. BUT DAMN DOES THIS SOUND LIKE MY TYPE OF MOVIE!!! Here ya go
You might remember me, I just caught a screening of the newest film by (GHOST IN THE SHELL's) Mamoru Oshii entitled AVALON. I don't have much information on the film itselfbut I can only tell you that this movie is what EXISTENZ should have been and makes for a very cool follow up to SHELL, exploring a lot of the same themes, etc.
If you already know about the film (like any good geek would), skip the next section while I give you the jist:
Near-future Poland--a new virtual reality game entitled AVALON (named for the legendary resting place of the greatest heroes of mythology) is the new drug of the future, providing a means of income and escapism for a depressed society. Within the game, those who would prefer the virtual lives of their game personas to their drab and worthless 'real' lives can make a name for themselves and pursue glory on the battlefield (rendered very stylistically). One of these warriors, a girl named Ash (no, not Bruce Campbell, god bless 'im!), was once a member of one of the greatest 'parties' ever assembled, considered unstoppable until a mysterious incident fragmented the group, leaving Ash to keep playing as a 'solo'. When Ash learns that one of her old teammates has been lost in the game (he has become a vegitable in the real world) while pursuing a legendary 'ghost' that supposedly leads to the secret 'Class Real' level of Avalon, her compassion for him and her own desire to unlock the game's secrets leads her to chase the ghost herself, ultimately discovering that there is much more to the 'game' than she could ever have imagined.
END OF SUMMARY--I won't blow the ending for you, but if you press me for details I'll give you the skinny on the whole film. Though the virtual reality thing has been done recently with only moderate success (EXISTENZ and THE THIRTEENTH FLOOR, for example), this film is easily on par with THE MATRIX in terms of quality of story and deployment of special effects. The director was in attendance at the screening and he expained (via translator) that nearly every frame of film was digitally rendered in some way--this sounded to me like the old Ralph Bakshi LORD OF THE RINGS method of animating over footage of live actors (an effect I feel is extremely lame), but what Oshii has done here is brilliant. Instead of going the rather obvious route of having the 'real world' look one way while the 'game world' is done in a different, stylized fashion, the film depicts both worlds in much the same way, dark and sepia-toned, lots of shadows and oppressive atmosphere. When the characters eventually reach 'Class Real', the visual effect of this secret level is no less shocking than the unprecidented switch to color must have been when audiences first saw THE WIZARD OF OZ.
The film is paced much like GHOST IN THE SHELL, slow and methodical without a lot of exposition. This is good for those of us who are fans of anime and can appreciate different sensibilities than American audiences are used to. Unfortunately, the film relies heavily on the audience's ability to follow game mechanics that seem to be modelled on Dungeons and Dragons (the characters' game stats are listed in terms of Dexterity, Constitution, and Armor Class, which is a real tip of the hat to D&D geeks), so those members of the audience who don't bring this knowledge to the table might be at a bit of a disadvantage. My girlfriend has never played D&D (thank god) and she seemed to follow the story just fine, though.
The screening went over very well and Oshii even answered some questions at the end of the film--when asked about why he chose to shoot the film in Poland with Polish actors speaking in their native tongue, he expressed his desire to break the mold of the Japanese director being forced to make films in Japanese. Oshii really pulls this off well and hopefully AVALON will attract a more mainstream audience than GHOST IN THE SHELL was able to draw.
I can't recommend this film highly enough--I don't even know if the film is going to be released in the States (Chris Lee Productions hosted this screening but I don't know if they are planning on working with Oshii to see it released domestically) but if you can check it out somehow, you definitely should. Hopefully, the Wachowski Bros. don't see this before they finish MATRIX 2 and 3!
Call me.....SOUNDWAVE!!
Alright... next we have a viewer who has never seen an Oshii film and is completely unfamiliar with the stylistic flourishes that Mamoru paints his films with... or the pacing and style of storytelling for which Oshii is known to be a master for... HOWEVER, this is completely valid. In the group of about 40 reviews I got over the last couple of days... there were 5 negatives all about like the one you see below. The rest were praises along the same lines as the ones above. I chose these reviews as being the most 'typical' of their angles. Here ya go... beware of spoilers.... lots of them....
A long ramble on how much I hated Avalon...
Harry, in an article last month you asked if Avalon might end up being the second coolest movie of 2001. If that ends up being so, lord help us, because we are in for the cinematic apocalypse. I saw Avalon this week, and it really and truly sucked.
Now I should say that I have never seen Ghost in the Shell, nor any of the other films this director did. But I went in with no leanings good or bad. I just knew he had a great reputation, and that this film was in live action. I figured it was gonna be cool. I was so very wrong. Well here's a bit more on what Avalon actually is. Oddly/interestingly enough this is a film from Japanese filmmakers that was filmed in Poland, and is entirely in Polish (the print I saw had english subtitles on the bottom of the screen, japanese subtitles on the right side). It takes place in the near future, where an opening text informs us, young people participate in super realistic VR war games, gaining points and in some cases money along the way.
The main character is a girl named Ash who is one of the best at the games. She used to be part of a "Party" (an assembled group of gamers) called Wizard, who were the best of the best. One day, Stunner, one of her former teammates, comes to her to tell her their old leader Murphy is now in a mental institution. It turns out Murphy found a way into the mythical "Special A" hidden section of the game. All those who have attempted to get into that area have similarly ended up "Unreturned" (mental vegtables). But Ash begins to investigate how to get in, and a mysterious pro at the game by the name of Bishop just might be able to help... and this movie sucks. But there's the plot for those who are curious.
Now on to the suckage, and why this is. Well, this movie is just boring, ugly, confusing and never interesting. The real world is portrayed as almost completely grey (almost no real color is on display). Okay, fine. I get it. It's a sad, desolate future. But what's even worse is the game itself looks so uninteresting. It's all a muddy gold color (I mean the look of the entire world of the game). And the game itself is simply running around and shooting things (people/tanks/helicoptors). Fine, but the action scenes are not in the least bit exciting. The one interesting visual is when people are shot and killed in the game, and they come apart in a sort of digital break down. Well, that gets old really fast. The game sequences are few and far between, and are barely any more interesting then the rest of the movie, which is achingly dull. I have no problems with slow paced film. Hell, I've argued with plenty just recently over Unbreakable, which I found worked at it's slow pace. But in Avalon I was just bored. There are long shots of Ash standing on a train, or in her apartment that just go on and on... There is nothing interesting about Ash. She is stoic and unemotional the entire film. We get no sense of her as this super bad ass fighter. We don't get a sense that she cares about anything, including the game.
There are incredibly random moments that are never explained. Just strange surreal moments that one would hope would have some meaning, or lead to some revelation, but are never explained. The film itself is just confusing. If there is suppossed to be some greater meaning conveyed, it completely fails to get the point across. Is the message how we are losing ourselves in computers or games? Or showing how the real world is so oppressive, that sometimes it's better in a fantasy world? I kept searching for some theme to grasp on to, but nothing is conveyed. And no, I don't need everything spelled out for me. I have a soft spot for strangeness and ambigious, figure it out for yourself, filmmaking. I'm a sucker for David Lynch, and his random weirdness. The problem with Avalon is that none of it is entertaining, and any search for meaning is a dead end, since the movie is so vague and contradictory...
and now I gotta get a bit spoilerish for my wrap up... so here's your warning space.
SPOILERS!
DIVE!
DIVE!
DIVE!
Okay... what the HELL is the deal with the dog in the movie? Ash has a pet dog. The only real affection she shows is for the dog. So she comes home about half way through the film and makes this huge meal... There's a long sequence of her cutting steak, peeling potatos, cooking... (It's like The Matrix meets Big Night!). And then she puts the food in the dog's bowl. Wow, she made that whole elaborate meal for her dog. Except she turns around and... the dog is gone! Just... gone! She looks under the bed. It's not there. Looks outside, and it's not there. Just a dog who has disapeared.
Then in the conclusion of the film she actually gets into Special A. It's "Real Class" we're told. And see, the catch is, suddenly everything is in bright, true to life color, after all the drab grey and gold the whole film. The movie is so ugly and dull that I was like "Oooh! Color!" like I was seeing an amazing visual, rather then the film finally looking, well, normal. Anyway, back to the dog. So in the game, she sees a poster that says "Avalon" on it, and there's a picture of her dog on it! And Bishop tells her "You'll find him here." So she walks around town (in the game) and at one point a car drives by and her dog is in the passenger seat... but she doesn't see him. Then she sees more posters of the dog. But that's it... She never finds the dog... Oh god, the horror of the movie is coming back. I can't even continue, and I never talked about the ghost girl who Ash shoots for some reason, and the freaking song about Avalon, that goes on and on, with it's lyrics about the apple groves and the faeries and the mists...
Bad movie hurt brain.
-Norman Osborn
