I’m in the middle of watching the anime and decided to check this movie out. I will say I thought the racing scenes were really fun, but the rest of it was not so much. It starts off with a good sense of humor and there are some funny scenes throughout, but there’s a lot of focus on the romance subplot (which is something that happens in the anime too) but I just don’t care. I really couldn’t care less that the protagonist’s girlfriend is [spoiler here]. I wish it wasn’t in the anime either because I came here for car racing, not unrelated angsty manpain. Any focus on women racers would’ve been great in the anime or here, but without every woman being followed by those annoying romantic subplots, for god’s sake. (End rant.) I love how excited the crowds are for the racing in this movie, and we even get to see Bunta and Nakazato get excited sometimes, which makes them seem more down to Earth here. I really wish Ryousuke got more hype though, he’s supposed to be the best racer around and he got the absolute least hype here, which is kind of sad. He got no background story at all either, but at least seeing him going around looking for Akina’s best racer made him also more down to Earth in this movie. Keisuke doesn’t make any appearance, as it would probably be too many characters for the movie. Personally, I think they should’ve gotten rid of Natsuki entirely and used the time to hype up Ryousuke more or add Keisuke. One last thing to mention, I don’t follow actors but Nakazato and Ryousuke’s actors are really cute. I wouldn’t rewatch this movie except to see the racing scenes again and would only recommend it to anyone very interested in Initial D.
I think this movie could work for anyone who wants something campy, comedic, and kind of light that slowly descends into horror and disturbing elements. Especially for anyone who enjoys demonic possession/exorcism/catholic horror, regardless of how played out and tired it is (like myself). The movie's use of certain horror tropes is classic to the point of being a bit cliched, as other commenters have mentioned. I really liked the lead actor's performance as Jack Delroy, he really makes the film. I know literally everyone says that, but he portrays a very charismatic talk show host. For some people, it might not be enough; perhaps they wanted something more over the top or sleazy, but the protagonist seems more like a normal guy who bit off way more than he can chew and that will either appeal or not. The actress who plays Lilly was also very impressive. She gives a really creepy and authentic performance here.
I don't understand the complaint of the film 'not living up the hype' though - sounds like a you problem. I feel that we should be enjoying art experiences for what they are, not what we expect them to be or what other people pitch them as. In that regard, I enjoyed the movie for what it is while still acknowledging that it could have been better in a lot of ways. I really like the premise and I think that sold a lot of other people too, but it could have been fleshed out more and the pacing could use some work (while keeping in mind that it's only 1.5 hours long). I wouldn't recommend this to anyone because it seems very hit or miss.
I also don't understand how some people disliked the cinematography; it's a talk show for goodness sake. What were you expecting? Talk shows don't tend to have mindbending camera work because everything is just taking place in the studio. This film was, to me, like if the Eric Andre Show was crossed with the WNUF Halloween Special. I like both of those things and I'm easy to please so I had fun.
In regard to the AI usage: I was aware that the film makes use of AI and I'm not a fan of that, but it was used for few elements and was disclosed, where other larger productions would use it to an even greater extent and not mention anything (like Disney, etc.). If people are going to boycott and punish a smaller production like this, then they should also not watch Spider-verse movies or Dune, which were much more commercially significant. I don't like the usage of AI but ultimately if something like that exists, people who are either desperate enough or not principled enough absolutely will use it and the problem is only going to get worse in the future. If anyone should be responsible for its regulation, it isn't these studios making commercial projects - but the law itself. That's as much as I'll say on my opinion since it's an extremely controversial subject. I'm certain many who watched this specific film can agree that the quality of its performance had little to do with this matter.
The first episode was superbly slow to me, but it does show all the important characters on the island to keep track of for later. After episode one, every subsequent episode gets better and better. Throughout the show, I would say there are a lot of slow parts and long, verbose monologues and religious tirades - enough that I could just scroll Tw*tter mindlessly while listening to the dialogue and hop back in when something started happening. If they could have cut those parts down and just kept the parts where important things were happening, I think the show would have been a lot more enjoyable overall. But when something interesting does happen, it hits hard.
The ending was pretty touching, left open enough that you can speculate on what happened next. I also thought the mythology was intriguing (again, wish they'd expanded more on this and cut out some of the boring stuff), especially the 'angel'. Maybe I would have liked some speculation from the characters about why the fuck God made his servants so fucking ugly and monstrous??? Honestly, maybe that thing was a demon. How would we know? It never spoke or said "be not afraid" or anything... Maybe it would have been even more interesting for it to have spoken and been more of a ~character~ in the story, though its role is already useful in its own way. There's a lot to speculate about, lore-wise, which is cool.
Overall, I think this is a decent show that needs some real patience to get into. You need to be drawn into it for one reason or another to get through that first episode. Personally, I went in blind and thought this was just a drama or something but once I saw scary events happening, I stayed for the horror (which it does deliver on). I think anyone who wants to watch this also needs a decent mental constitution for death, blood, animal death, cannibalism, vampirism, and those kinds of things. Just lots of death and talk of it - it's a huge theme. Also religion. If you don't have some interest in religion or if you dislike the topic, I think this show would be very off-putting. It's worth it if you can handle all of that.
