Sorry 'bout that folks. Still haven't shaken off the excitement. Must have been one helluva after movie fever kinda thing. Finally got to watch Samurai X after the train wreck yesterday. We were at the cinema yesterday but was horribly late to make it to the first show and the ticket sales for the next slot ain't open yet, so we had to wait for like two hours. When we got back we were then informed that the reel wasn't working. Epic fail moment. So the opening got bumped to today. Got there early enough to catch the first screening.
The rest of the movie experience is pretty much the most peaceful one I have gone to. Everybody got into the zone, not much talking goin' around which is something that I'm quite thankful for. Perhaps its a good thing that the language is foreign and majority were too focused on the subs lol. Luckily I can understand a little bit of japanese and rarely had to rely on the subs so I still got to watch the movie at its finest.
Do excuse this meager excuse for a review since this might contain more fangirl flail moments than an actual constructive content. But I'll try to be as critical with this as I possibly could.
Well then I'll start with the flow of the story. The opening scene of the war was a good way to stimulate the senses of the audience and make them anticipate what happens next. . Moving over to the more light hearted then heavier stuff again. Thanks for not hacking the story into nothing but pure blood bath because seriously Rurouni Kenshin isn't anything like that. No out of the blue timeskips and confusing backtracks that could be so out of place you'd end up wondering "Wtf is happening?".
This movie is a breath of fresh air foregoing the excessive CG usage. Some of the wirewoks looked a little awkward in some parts, but overall effective in providing speed and agility in movements especially during the sword fighting, which looked quite genuine and not some meager you slash here and I'd poke you there excessively choreoed fight scene. Awesome metal to metal action. As one of my friends oh so kindly pointed out, when you see some of the bizarre occurences in an anime/manga which looked quite normal in that aspect might appear tacky and cheesy when done in real life so it does take a lot of getting used to. I believe that the leaps and tumbles in here were done as the scene calls for and made with class and style and not just some silly acrobatics to draw any kind of reaction from the audience. Altough the reception may still vary. As for me, I actually enjoyed those stunts.
I was pleasantly surprised by the musical score. I was expecting more show of the traditional japanese instruments, but there was something more hollywoodi-sh feel on the scores. The track I loved the most is Track 13: 飛天 (Hiten). Really gave me the goosebumps.
And lastly, the casting. . . Well I believe that each one them really did a stellar job with their respective roles. Some people I know voiced out their skepticism over Takeru's capacity to hold such a big role, but after seeing the movie I believe that he did a spectacular job. His boyishly good looks provided charm and charisma to the role and his acting effectively delivered. Thank goodness that the scar was made in the kind thats there but barely there. It was noticeable but not too obvious. Even Teruyuki Kagawa who portrayed Kanryuu Takeda is annoyingly effective in his role, made me want to pull off all those teeth. Gyargh! Hearing the "de gozaru" lines were kinda awkward moments though lol. . .The rest did well but Kenshin and Kanryu were the obvious standouts.
Overall, this movie wasn't just some out of the blue mediocre crap with an attempt to cash in on fans but a movie that is made with respect to the original material. Good as a stand alone movie.
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