Recent Movie Watching.
Kill Bill vol. 1 & 2
So Sunday night I sat down and watched Kill Bill vol. 1, as I realized that my brother had copies of both volumes on DVD, and I'd never seen them before.
I wasn't that impressed by the first one. The fight scenes seemed overdone -- too much blood at times, and then people getting back up after spurting out said blood. The first movie also didn't seem like a full movie on it's own (I know, it's labeled "Vol. 1" - but it should still be decent on it's own), it seemed to me that it lacked much in the way of interesting plot. It kinda went from one fight to another, with short bits explaining the past and why she's going around trying to kill these people. As I told Simon afterwards, I wasn't that impressed by it, but I'd watch the second one just to finish the story.
Vol. 2 was much better IMO. The fight scenes didn't have the "No way" aspect to them that I found in the first one, and there was a fair bit more plot and more character development. I guess that's what I disliked about the first one -- lack of any real character development. They kinda introduced someone, and if they were important, had a blurb (the more important, the longer the blurb) about how they were, and perhaps why they were like that. In the second one, you learned about Bill, a bit about his master and some of the training he did, his penchant for telling stories, and you learned some similar things about the main character as well. It made it much more of a complete movie IMO, and made the two movies as a whole much better.
Still not one I'd go out and buy for myself however.
Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children
I managed to DL this, then hook my computer up to the big TV we have in the basement and watch it there. It was worth the trouble to figure out how to do it ^_^
Awesome movie. I watched it with my brother, as I knew he'd be interested in watching it, and as an added bonus, I could get him to explain things that I either didn't understand or had forgotten about the game, as he's probably played it all the way through half a dozen times. Simon was surprised at some of the things I remembered, even though I'd only really played it through once -- specifically he was surprised that I'd remembered who Zack was.
The full title of the movie is "Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children" -- the 'Final Fantasy VII' part is rather important, as it is assumed you have played the game of said name before watching this movie. Characters often just appear, with no background information, because they are in the game, and you should know them already.
The fight scenes were awesome. Cloud's new sword is really cool. And the one fight where they have a deus ex machina, I couldn't think of a better person to use for it ^_^
The music was also quite good -- probably a good half of the music was just from the game, but they allowed for those who know the music to connect with the movie better -- such as using Tifa's Theme when you see her and Marlene in "Aeris'" church looking for Cloud. The voice acting of the characters fit them all really well. I really liked Rude, even though you barely see him in the game (and he's got barely any character in the game -- in the movie, he ends up with lots of character, even if he is constantly paired up with Reno.)
Simon only really saw one potential plot-hole. He thinks that one minor character (you *barely* see him in the movie) might have died at a certain point in the game. Everything else makes sense, or they explain well.
Overall, awesome movie, and I'm certainly getting this on DVD when it comes out here. Hopefully there will be the option for japanese language and english subtitles. ^_^