by Amrith » Tue Feb 06, 2007 1:34 am
For me it's simply the worst Black Jack anime ever.
Without any doubt.
First of all, it's technically rudimentary, sometimes ugly. It's not the major point of the movie, but it's difficult to forgive bottom-of-the-range graphics when you remember that the superb work of Osamu Dezaki and Akio Sugino on the OAV has been produced in 1993 with less budget. It's not what an anime-fan, and a Tezuka-fan which has watched some things like Astro Boy 2003 TV series for example, wait of a theater release.
Plus, even if the music is right, it simply does not suit with the movie.
About the story, quickly because I am vague in english.
The first half is a poor compilation, made with famous stories taken from the manga and stuck together despite the fact it has no sense. The stories were exciting individually in their manga version, but the lazy and school melting-pot the movie builds with the original material is deformed. No true interest, however more than the awful second part.
The second half is a heap of idiocies where the script finds excuses to explain the actions of a terrorist group and Black Jack almost sympathizes with the criminal leader Rock. This killer Rock is finally described as a romantic hero with a pink heart in the bust. The feelings of all the characters are superficial and we do not care about their sentimental issues. It's not moving. The businessman's plot is unbelievable, all the fighting scenes are involuntarily comic. The message is stereotyped and features unclear elements about terrorism, and I'm not sure it is the Osamu Tezuka's thought we have here. I don't recognize well his philosophy. Characters like Inspector Lamp and Biwamaru appear and disappear without a reason, except they fill the 1H30 time in which the team behind the movie does not know what to tell. Kiriko has given up his charismatic style to become a guy evil at the beginning and a good boy at the end, in a traditionnal series Z's turn. The pseudo-comic sequences featuring Shunsaku Ban and all the gang never manage to be funny. Vacuum scenes for kids which are not sleeping yet.
There are multiple things. Never Black Jack seems to be what he is during the movie, the better surgeon on this planet. He does not impress. The Star-System is poor with no surprises. I searched what really cool things the movie got in its story, but I didn't find despite the fact I like almost all the Mushi and Tezuka Production's anime.
The simple-minded scientific content of the movie is totally puerile. Absurd. The mutant animals on the island, the ridiculous resolution of the disease that five year old children could have found themselves and all the silly and approximative medical considerations are redundant. What a disappointment, it's empty and there is no tension.
It's not a movie, it's a weak compilation for neophytes or courageous kids.