[Rating: 7.5/10]

The village of Daggerhorn is being terrorized by a killer wolf on a rampage. After it claims the life of an innocent maiden, the villagers decide to organize a hunt to stop the monster once and for all. However, the arrival of an infamous witch hunter brings even more alarming revelations about their supposed foe, who may be closer than they think…

As children we’ve been brought up by many versions of retold fairy tales and here is not only ‘yet another one’, but the trailer might make one think of that teenage series with the sparkly vampires, aka Twilight. I must admit that the trailer while looking interesting for it’s mystery/suspense element, put me off a little because of the obvious similarities (young people in a paranormal romance) but I ended up watching it because I am a fan of story retellings.

The story is set in a medievalesque looking village in the middle of a forest, setting up the dark and foreboding atmosphere for the show. One of the first scenes we encounter if of our main heroine as a child with her friend, trapping a cute rabbit for the purpose of making it into a fur coat. You may say that this is animal cruelty, but given the period setting of the story, this is what people would have done, even children. It was this scene which made me think that this movie was going to be different from the usual fairytale retellings. The essence of Red Riding Hood is kept, yet filled with enough new twists and turns to make it more than what I was expecting from the show. Yes there is a village plagued by wolf attacks, yes, there is a girl who will come into possession of a red cape at some point, but everything is played out in the form of a mystery. The appearance of Father Solomon, played by Gary Oldman brings us a step back in time to a Europe (presumably) plagued by the aftereffects of the Witch Trials, the villagers of Daggerhorn have to face a threat larger and more human than they imagined, and from this revelation we are plunged into a tale that could have happened during that period of history. Of course, this is no historical film neither does it claim to be, the village is fictitious, but if you’ve read any material about that period of persecution, you can imagine a similar story in source material. People who did not want to be incriminated and pointing fingers are others, spinning strange rumours of friends, family and neighbours they have known for ages due to this fear, creating a mass-havoc induced belief of devilry and supernatural craft from where there used to be none. This really happened, and this is what made this adaptation stand out from the rest.

This story is told from the view of Valerie, our main heroine whose family becomes the center of unwanted attention because the girl murdered by the wolf was her sister, who died whilst supposedly going to a secret rendezvous with the young man our heroine is pledged to marry. I do admit that I did like the tension between the two men interested in Valerie, even had their own strengths and weaknesses and honestly either would have made a good match for her. I liked that both guys weren’t totally cardboard cutouts, especially with Henry, the betrothed, who started out a bit flat and eventually proved he was a worthy candidate. The entire mystery atmosphere worked well in that I kept trying to figure out who the ‘wolf’ was. Even old grandmother wasn’t spared from being cast as a possible suspect herself. In the end, the answer was painfully obvious when I looked back at all the clues, but the slow revelations of each character constantly cast room for the slightest bit of doubt.

Is this film for everyone? Well, I think this would be a lukewarm hit or miss for most cases, while I enjoyed it, there is no denying this is Red Riding Hood with that teenage romance element that  other viewers might find unnecessary, especially for those wanting a purer adaptation of the tale. As I said before, after watching the trailer I did have my reservations as I’m not exactly into the current teenage paranormal romance craze, but I did like the unique twist to the story and turning it into a  mystery.

Kemono no Souja Erin

[Rating 8.5/10]

Genre: Fantasy, Slice of Life

Erin is a girl who lives in a village that rears war-lizards called Touda. Her mother Soyon is the village’s beastarian and also of the secret Mist People clan, which not everyone is happy about. A terrible event occurs that wrenches Erin and Soyon apart… and thus sets in motion Erin’s fate.Kemono no Souja Erin is an rare gem of anime, and is rewarding is one is able to sit through all 50 episodes. I did find the start of the series slow and it was and almost dropped it, but I read somewhere that the turning point came around episodes 5-7 so I skipped to that point, and I wasn’t disappointed, the pace and story development picked up nicely from that point.

Despite being a fantasy series, Kemono no Souja Erin would suit fans of the slice-of-life series, as you can tell by the length of the series. It is essentially about a girl growing up and we are taken along the journey of Erin from childhood to adulthood. It is not particularly adventure or action packed, most of the series consists of Erin and her studies to become a beastarian like her mother. There is also a fair bit of ethical questioning of how captured beasts should be raised, especially when Erin comes into contact with the Ouju. Animal lovers will be able to sympathize with the issues presented and the Ouju are cute in a strange way yet frightening when they attack the Touda, their natural enemies. Many things that happen in Erin’s earlier life subtly foreshadows what is to come in the later half of the series, as the kingdom falls into turmoil. The show also has a rather calming OST although I have to say after hearing that harp theme for X number of episodes I was kinda tired of it, I never tired of the rousing opening song though, and loved how it changed in towards the end of the series.

Kemono no Souja Erin is is very easy anime to watch and is also something fans of different ages can enjoy, the tone sometimes reminding me of the more family oriented Ghibli movies turned into a series. It would appeal to fans of lighter fantasy and slice of life anime, and be a good start for new anime viewers, as well as fans who want something a little different and those looking to try a longer series.

[Rating: 6.5/10]

Throw in and mix a messianic prophecy, an age old war between light and dark, and a bunch of people in a diner in the middle of nowhere and you get Legion.

The main reason I went to watch this movie is because I have an interest in angel/demon lore. I had read extremely mixed reviews on it, most of them were not very good I must admit, but I’m not one for turning down a movie just based on reviews so I decided to give it a go. After watching it, I have to say the premise actually had a lot of potential and there were some memorable bits, some good and not so (the old woman in the trailer was the creepiest thing in the whole film, do not like…). Okay, so let’s start with the positive: I liked the character of Michael, who was probably the saving grace of them film, that and his epic battle with Gabriel, who in contrast was rather disappointingly portrayed. I also like the image of archangels being war hardened soldiers who are still beautiful at the same time but in the chiseled, powerful way. I mean, while pretty boys are not a bad thing, in reality I think god’s army would be pretty well-formed from constantly fighting over the centuries. The bullet proof wings were very awesome. So in that aspect I think the producers were on track.

However, the main thing that griped me about the angelic host… why are only the archangels human-like and the rest of the army like some demonic spawn with no form of their own, not to mention horribly ugly and shrieky. They more reminded me of one of those zombie hoardes more than anything else, especially how they attacked their victims and their vacant walk and expressions. Also what was with the expandable limbs… I guess the people who made this film wanted a somewhat shock-and-awe-bending-convention thing going on but it just did not work for me at all. Also with regards to Gabriel and Michael, it would make more sense if their positions had been reversed. Another this that irked me was the overuse of the story of Jesus and the portrayal of God… While I consider myself a fairly religious person, poorly adapted plotlines of religious stories that don’t show any research are what make people get the wrong impressions of the religion, no matter what religion it may be. I quote this review that sums up how I feel about this aspect
Here’s the thing about God. He either needs to be treated with reverence or lampooned without mercy. Either he’s entirely responsible for all we hold dear or a goofy figment of fairy tale bamboozlement. There’s no middle ground. There can‘t be a middle ground. Legion‘s attempts to be both a goofy, foul-mouthed, cliché-ridden horror film and a judgmental, humanity-has-ruined-itself-with-free-will epic. Legion’s portrayal of a God who has totally given up hope and wants to destroy everything he has created is rather unbelievable. I also don’t like portrayals where God is all angry and wrathful. The show seemed confused as to whether it was horror or fantasy as the trailer made it look more horror.

Another reeding feature would have to be the secondary cast, as to tell the truth, Jeep had totally no personality, even his father, Bob was more developed, as well as the other patrons of the diner. Charlie, the heroine was a little better a but she didn’t do much as everyone was more or less just protecting her. I also quite liked the relationship between the Anderson family, in particular between the mother and daughter. They gave the show some psychological depth at least. I was sad at Audrey’s death. I don’t believe that they needed to kill off everyone just to get the obvious story’s point across.

Anyway, this show had quite a bit of potential but too bad it didn’t deliver as I hoped. Still, it wasn’t as bad as to sink into my list of movies I wish I didn’t spend my time on. My wallet just cries a little at paying full movie admission as I would not have minded watching this on rental dvd or as flight entertainment.

[Rating: 7/10]

Dastan is an orphan whose courageousness leads the king of the Persian Empire to adopt him into the royal family, raising him as a prince. Fifteen years later, Dastan and his brothers attack the holy city of Alamut, believed to be arms dealing with Persia’s enemies. This sets of a series of disastrous events, all seemingly linked to a mysterious dagger said to have magical powers.

This movie is one that has had quite a bit of hype to it from when it was announced. Not only because it was a film adaptation of a popular console game, but also that the cast was not ethnically authentic. The latter is an issue surrounding most movies that have ethnic groups, such as Memoirs of a Geisha, Dragonball and The Last Airbender. Admittedly in many to most cases, the cast chosen for the movie tends to fail rather spectacularly, but for Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, I felt it was one of the better attempts. One area this movie really delivered in for me were the stunning backdrops and sets. The music score was also fairly decent and costumes were appropriate for the theme. The characters were actually likeable and had bits of personality in them that kept them from being cookie cutter hollywood fantasy characters. I was also plesantly surprised the script did not suffer from annoyingly cheesy lines as with the Dragonball movie. Gemma Arterton put up a good and spunky performance as Princess Tamina, and there are all these little elements that made the show more interesting and quirky, like the epic ostrich race – Alfred Molina’s character, Amar brought some nice comedy into the story and Amar’s bodyguard/friend, Seso was rather intriguing, being an assassin/knife thrower with a conscience. While I have not actually played the original games, I rather enjoyed this film and thought it was a good piece of family fun, certainly not as terrific as Pirates of the Caribbean but probably one of the better fantasy films I’ve seen since that trilogy.

Genre: fantasy, historical

Satomi Hakkenden SP is a two part drama based on The Legend of the Eight Dog Warriors, a classic Japanese text. A wicked enchantress (Tamazusa) curses the land of Awa and the future children of Fusehime, the princess of the Satomi clan. Fusehime kills herself to relieve the land of the curse and the eight glass beads she wears disappear… to be found years later by eight men all whose sirname contain the kanji for ‘inu’ (dog). The pieces fall into motion as the hero of the story, Shino, is searching for his beloved Hamaji, who has gone missing with his family heirloom, Muramasa, a sword which is gushes out water out when it is used by the right owner.

I’m probably one of the few people who enjoy watching book-to-film adaptations. Granted many of them aren’t that good but it’s always nice to see someone’s intepretation and for a story that has alot of things happening and lots of action, I prefer to watch the action. If you actually look up the novel of Nansou Satomi Hakkenden I can tell you that it is very long… 106 volumes anyone? So parts were obviously changed and cut for this drama, but it did look alot better than screencaps I’ve seen of the adaptations produced in the 50s and 80s. In the cast you’ve got some pretty big drama-screen names – Kanno Miho (Tamazusa), Nakama Yuki (Fusehime) Ayase Haruka  (Hamaji) who has been appearing in quite a few historical-ish productions lately (Ichi, JIN etc), and of course Takizawa Hideaki who plays our hero, Shino. I find it interesting how this was his role right after his success in the historical epic, Yoshitsune. The cast was pretty alright, though their characters’ bonds felt rather rushed (well, they did only have 2 episodes). While I don’t normally go for the villans, I must say Kanno Miho gave a stellar performance as Tamazusa. All along I’ve only seen her in the lead heroine roles and she was downright creepy as the vengeful enchantress. She also probably had the most character depth, especially at the end. As for the other things, the graphic effects were pretty cheesy, I swear the monster in the woods can’t compete with killer rabbit in Monty Python look. After hearing the talk about the feared beast what you get is an oversized black cat that looked really fake. I was hoping it’d be a spider considering Tamazusa and the black widow imageries thrown about in the earlier part of the show. Another thing was Inusaka’s real identity… I was hoping there’d finally be at least some girl power on the good side but… But despite those two letdowns I think the show was pretty good on the whole, hence my rating. Historical epics have always been a favourite of mine (even though this was more of a mythic legend type story than actually based on true historical events). I think it’s good for people who don’t want to sit through 40-50 episodes of NHK drama (NHK being where they show the big historicals, Hakkenden is a TBS production).

Summary:
There is foul play running amok in the court of Sessalie and the Princess suddenly goes missing. Mykkael, the Captain of the Garrison, a war-hardened foreigner held in contempt by the court for the little understood shamanic practices of his desert tribe origins, gets begrudgingly caught up in the investigations as he finds himself a suspect. He works together with the uptight and nobel Commander of the Royal Guard, Taskin, who cannot deny the Garrison Captain’s skills. However, Taskin is hardpressed to believe Mykkael’s theory that the Princess was not actually kidnapped but was actually fleeing from an evil power, the same dark force that is slowly taking over the court members one by one.

Thoughts:
A very action-packed book from the start, things are always happening, though I wouldn’t say it was particularly fast paced because the book just shy of 700 pages. I haven’t read alot of fantasy and this is part of my efforts to read more of the genre, although I can probably say that it’s not going to be at the top of my list, but nice to dip into now and again. I enjoyed the book overall as I get bored with lengthy descriptions of world building and history (I like learning about the world as the characters interact with it) and also huge chunks dialogues and internal monologues. The writing style was fluid and descriptions vivid (very heart pumping action scenes). It had alot of character focus, which is something I love in stories. The three main characters, Mykkael, Taskin and Anja were quite likeable despite their little quirks and attitudes, and different from the usual cookie cutter fantasy characters. Mykkael I felt was a bit of the unconventional hero/anti-hero because he’s not really attractive in looks but you can’t help but feel for his suffering, which he takes into stride well. I enjoyed the scenes where he interacted with other characters because there was so much depth to him. Jussoud the healer is one of the best secondary characters I’ve come across. It was also interesting to see Mykkael working by himself and Taskin from inside the palace. It’d be too cliche if both of them journeyed out together because nearly every fantasy story has a trio/group on a quest. And Anja who I thought would be a little annoying to bear with at first became very sympathetic especially her relationship with the horses, you just want cry with her each time. She’s a strong girl but not overbearingly promoting modern female ideas, she understands her position as princess and the ways in which she can help her kingdom. I wouldn’t really classify this as a fantasy adventure but more as a fantasy mystery, because the focus was on finding out what was going on in the court. The only thing was that Myakkael’s ending was rather random, I was hoping he’d go back to his Garrison post because he’s perfect for it, and thought he’d be pretty upset when he woke up to find himself back in a place he had believed all his life outcasted him. But overall, this book is a good example of how a fantasy can be a standalone with meet without having to resort to a series with xx number of books (thick ones too).

Neo Angelique Abyss: The Second Age

[Rating: 6/10]

Genre: Shoujo, Fantasy

The land of Arcadia is plagued by the Thanatos, demons which suck the life out of all living things. They are led by Erebos, who plans to destroy Arcadia can only be stopped by the power of the entity known as The Queen. Enter Angelique, an innocent schoolgirl who has a unique healing gift. She catches the eye of a mysterious aristocrat who claims she has the power to stop Erebos and the Thanatos for good.

Well, while this is meant to be a ’6 month later’ continuation from the first season (which I have yet to see), it was easy enough to understand without any prior knowledge. It was pretty straightforward and predictable. The best thing about it were probably the art and the voice acting. The character designs were very pretty, the best I’ve seen in a shoujo series, and the guys didn’t look too girly. And the voice acting was good in the sense that the characters all had rather pleasant sounding voices, so watching the anime was quite relaxing. I was quite glad the heroine, Angelique was not whiny, because whiny damsel-in-distress heroines are annoying. While she was pretty cliche, at least she took initiative and had some backbone despite not being a great fighter. The final battle was rather anti-climatic though given the kind of show they can’t really have much violence or a more mature atmosphere. My favourite of the guardians was Nyx, although I’d say he’s more of the solitary leader rather than part of the group. Loved his character design and his voice. I’m tempted to follow his seiyuu (voice actor), Touru Okawa except he’s not really in any shows I really want to watch lol. It was a decent effort, and I wonder if I should just watch the first season to understand the context.

[Rating: 4.5/10]

Genre: Action, Fantasy

For his eighteenth birday, Goku’s grandfather gives him a mystical object known as a dragon ball. When Piccolo, an evil alien from outerspace invades the earth, Goku finds himself on a quest to reunite all seven dragon balls in existance, for it is only their combined power that can defeat Piccolo and save humanity.

Yeah, it’s pretty straightforward, nothing to burst a braincell for, and I can here the fans of the original anime and manga series crying out injustice! However, we must keep in mind that it is a Hollywood re-make of a Japanese anime, placed in a futuristic sort of American setting, not some bygone era of Japan, and it was condensed for the early teen crowd, possibly for viewers even younger, so looking at it from that point of view, it was actually pretty decent. Not fantabulous but alright for something that is targeted to a certain group of people. And before anyone starts bashing me for even daring to call it decent, my decent means borderline, or close to just passing. It is not meant to be an adaptation for a more mature audience, such as The Ring or Ju-On: The Grudge. This is like Americanizing Power Rangers (which if you didn’t know, was actually a Japanese series), except Power Rangers got the airtime for a whole series and more, whereas Dragon Ball Evolution got a movie of a little more than an hour and a half. The storyline of DBE is simple and straightforward, alot of the ‘awe’ factor is reliant on fast happening action sequences and special effects. I do have to admit Emmy Rossum did much better as Bulma than her wide-eyed doey role in The Phantom of the Opera. Her bike was very spiffy. How convienient would it be to have automobiles that could fit into your pocket? No need to worry about parking and exorbidant fees that come with parking. One of my main gripe was that they could have extended the movie a little longer. The final battlescene was extremely anticlimatic, lasting too short to take in, after all that build-up you’d expected the showdown to be a few minutes longer, and more specular. And the cut-scene at the end? Does that mean there’s a sequel? I doubt I’d be willing to pay another $10 (thank god for discounts) to watch the next show. I wish they’d understand that one show by itself is good enough, but they want the money so it can’t be helped. No point complaining about it. Just don’t watch it if you don’t want to, that’s all. Next grip is the script. The script is one of the most cliche and uninteresting scripts I’ve ever come across. Even though I’ve never seen the actual Dragon Ball anime, I’m sure it would be wittier than that (but it is a kid’s anime, so…)… but this just redefined overused, with a capital ‘O’. It could be a script for ‘Superhero movie’ for all I know (like Date Movie and Scary Movie). Honestly, even if I was a kid I’d not have thought much of it. Sure it was at least somewhat entertaining and it had some nice effects but that was about it. And Chi Chi? Pretty girl but Extra much?