With Shinkai's last two movies (Weathering with You, and this one), I got this uncomfortable feeling that there was some intention to recreate the Your Name success formula. In this case, the main character, Suzume, feels like a little plain character from the very beginning, falling in love with some strange guy on the street (?) and making weird decisions like following him to a ruins outside the town (???). In my country, at most, this plot could end very, very badly, and doesn't make sense to include this kind of dangerous situation in a movie that could influence teenagers to put themselves in such danger.
Also, we have this weird cliché of the director to make relationships between underage teenagers and a mature partner.
Having said that, the love (and the drama) that develops between the two characters feels a bit forced, not natural, as it flows in the Miyazaki's movies (in general). Don't get me wrong, it's a good movie (in general) with impressive scenes and with interesting lore, but it could be more if the director got away from repeating himself.
Oh men, this was disappointing. The only character I cared about dies in the first episode.
After watching the 2nd episode I knew this was a completely waste of time, but we continued because my girlfriend has more expectations on it. Finally, she desisted at 7th, and we finished it just because I didn't want to have it on Trakt's dashboard.
The good (unexplored) things: The Aliens are a new thing, this design of life form (or are they bots? We have to wait until 2nd season, if there's any) is the most interesting thing in the show.
The bad? I think the writing and the general rhythm becomes boring (if you're generous)...
There's complete parts we skip to not fell asleep and there's some actions that feels a little fool of the characters.
Mitsuki is a Mary Sue, she can do anything, fix anything, resolve anything, just because who is she.
Cole (the military one) feels like he's the world's chief just because he's American. The attitude of "Hey I'm an American soldier, let me in, let me pass, there's nothing prohibited to me, there's no place I respect" is really annoying. Nothing else to say that he apparently doesn't have to eat or even drink water, and had the power to make international calls during a world crisis from a public phone.
Caspar and Yamila becomes the most interesting characters, even when we don't have some explanation about how and why Caspar had the ability to "see" the alien's minds...
Oh! And there's the thing about the "darkness" in the show. I dont know how can explain if having all the technology available for content creating the producers decided to make this show so dark. There's scenes more undistinguishable than "The Dark Night" on Game of Thrones, or the dark scenes of House of the Dragon. And the worst part is that they are not even at night!
Conclusion: there's more interesting ways you can spend your free time.
All the plot around Scully's baby is just insufferable... And even the episodes about Alien Myth becomes absolutely boring.
Oh! Don't forget the "super soldier", another writing mistake since season 8 that apparently erases everything about the alien invasion.
Pros: returning characters, cohesive acting, and a greater scenario. I think this sequel had a quite more budget than first one. I don't think creatures had a different behavior in this movie.
Cons: the finale. I can totally forgot the "twist" at the end and would be a good movie. Instead, with the actual one, is just a 2 o 3/10. Sadly bad executed.
I think this was the worst episode yet.
Annoying and unnecessarily gross.
OMG What are you just about to do Jerry!!! :scream::scream::scream:
It was well played... Instead to say it was similar to Dark I'll say it was (in some kind) similar to Zone Blanche... That's maybe I was expecting more than I got on this show. I think the monster and the mysticism arround him could be developed in a better way, and finally "the case" of dissapareance of the students looks poorly investigated (Astrid can easily find clues the detectives couldn't find in 20 years?). . In short words, I was dissapointed.
This is how you ruin a movie that (originally) talks about the boundaries of ethics and human life, what the soul is and the meaning of been alive, politics and how corporations influence over governments, tecnology and its impact over society and how humanity defines itself, evolution and trascendency of the being.
We front a fuzzy mess between I ROBOT with action scenes of Matrix and boring transitions, closed with phrases taken of a cheap self motivation books.
Not mentioning that the whole plot meaning is explained at the opening scene, it looks like its assuming the audience is some kind stupid and can't figure it out along the movie (or even resolving it at the end, as the original movie was, a discovering travel).
Some tribute scenes make it worth but, in a whole, results in a very dissapointing movie.
Really dissapointed. Is just like a bad trip.
You may find yourself waiting over 2 hours to something to happen... And that something, indeed, will never happen.
It's questionable the whole plot, when the aliens do not do anything over the whole movie, and at the finale when you're expecting for a "massive" attack ends on nothing, so the overhelming suspense has no reason to be...
