As the end of the movie was drawing near, the feeling was getting stronger. I was a bit disappointed (warning: spoiler alert). This is an opinion. So here's why:
1. Movie did not follow the Anime - just like most film adaptations of books, this was a bit of a let down. When you have followed the anime series much like when you have read a book, and see the film adaptation of that story, unconsciously perhaps, we set expectations - especially on the "highlights"(like the big fights of the protagonists and the antagonists, the small fights leading to the big fights, important dialogues between characters, etc.) and expect that to be seen in the movie. Now why is this a big deal for fans a book or an anime series? Because this is the selling point of the movie - getting the chance to see real people tell the story of your favorite book or anime. And that's why fans expect. We pretty much already know the story, but why do you think we still want to see the movie? With that being said, if you're expecting to see Kenshin, Saito, and Sanosuke fight off the Juppongatana members one by one like the anime series...go home. I laughed on how they were "eliminated" in the movie. The fight with Aoishi? It was in a different venue. The reunion with the master and the teaching of the ultimate technique? Done differently in the movie. The big fight with Shishio? Done in a ship. And I do not consider myself as a hardcore fan at all. No kidding.
2. The lack of slow-mo and the emphasis on Kenshin's sword - I have always told my friends about this: Rurouni Kenshin movies should have slow motion, especially in the fight scenes. Why? Because the thought of a reversed edged sword (or back-blade if you prefer) actually being able to do damage to an enemy, is a tough sell. Add to that the lack of blood in Kenshin's fight scenes...felt a bit weird for me. I have seen 13 Assassins, The Last Samurai, and I feel that blood, along with cuts and slashes, are essential in any Samurai movie to make it feel believable - that the sword is deadly. These are the reasons why I really thought that slow motion would really make a big difference in emphasizing the idea of the sword, and the damage that it could have done, the moves of Kenshin, etc. In all fairness, there were slow motioned scenes in the third installment - but it did not feel slow enough for the purposes that I would have wanted it for. Could you imagine a slow-mo like that of a pay per view boxing fight applied to the movie? Where you could actually see how the slash was delivered, the area it's going to hit, the impact it's going to make, and the damage it will do after? The fight scenes were overall good, but could have been better with slow motion.
3. Overall pace of movie felt fast and compressed - of course we know why. The whole Shishio thing in the anime series were spread out to quite a number of episodes. This could have been one of the biggest challanges that the movie crew faced - how to fit all of that into roughly for hours plus divided into two movies. Should it have been extended to another installment to slow down the pace? I vote yes, purely on the standpoint of a fan, without thinking of the movie related production constraints.
4. No powers or techniques - I understand that the the crew perhaps wanted to make it as realistic as possible by eliminating the fancy "powers", but really? These made the anime more interesting, and needless to say, this could have made the movie really really blow - in a good way.
5. Sanosuke was portrayed as a joke - we already knew that he had this tendency in the anime series, but in the movie, he was on a stupidly different level. It's like you won't respect him at all as a fighter, and that is pathetic. There were times during the Shishio fight that he could have easily been killed, considering the number of times that Shishio was able to hold him down. His fight win Anji could have highlighted his techniques and power, but in the movie, this fight was cut short and took a comedic route, alternating between other fights during the raid on Shishio's ship.
I will still see another Kenshin movie in the future. I hope that they make it better.
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