As the Gods Will Review

Disclaimer: Contains spoilers!

Plot Summary: Teenagers around the world are seemingly abducted and forced to participate in bizarre games of death.

Review: Two words: wasted potential. You have all the right elements in place--large scale, creative ideas, and an intriguing premise--but the story is boggled down by cliched characters, unnecessary moments of pure idiocy, and unexplained, sequel-bait plot tangents. While I would still consider this a cool movie that can be thoroughly entertaining, there was a chance to make this the next "Battle Royale;" which, by the way, was clearly an inspiration for this film and the manga it's based upon. At this point, however, Japan has amassed a shit ton of movies in this "death game" sub-genre that they're not really doing enough to differentiate themselves. "As the Gods Will" manages to come out swinging in a way to appear unique to this sub-genre, but it falters too quickly and never recovers.

The story focuses on a character named Shun as he is forced to suddenly participate in a game to the death against his classmates. These games are Japanese-centric, but I'd say most countries should have some equivalent; for me, the first game is similar to "red light, green light." If you fail in this game your head explodes which establishes an amazing opening sequence to pull viewers in. The only way to win is to press the button on the back of this talking idol...I don't know how else to explain it. More so, all the games are administered by these living dolls or toys that I suppose act on behalf of "the gods." It is unclear whether or not it's supposed to be aliens or actual gods or maybe some other supernatural entity. I didn't like this ambiguity given the nature of the scenario; meaning, holographic screens and floating cubes felt like aliens, but too many things had a feeling of omnipotence only a supernatural being could manifest. What I'm trying to say is the two forces wouldn't necessarily act this way, and it feels contrived simply to keep the audience guessing. Like, would a god use technological items? And would an alien really be so advanced it could pretty much materialize anything out of thin air?

Moving along...Shun manages to survive the first game, but this kills his friend since there can only be one winner (which is a bullshit contradiction shown in the very next game). Shun meets up with his love interest...I guess...and the two move into a game where a giant cat is trying to eat everyone. The only way to win is to shoot a bell through a basketball hoop around the cat's neck. Magically, Shun, his love interest, and the most annoying character in the movie survive this. This is the point when the film loses most of its steam due to this character, Amaya. He is tough because they say so, and he's cartoonishly psychotic because they thought it would be edgy or something. I've addressed this cliche before in other Japanese films, but the creator of this story decided we needed yet another version of this same, "watch the world burn" because it would be fun, type of guy. If they at least gave a reason for why he's like this besides the "I'm bored" cliche, I might have overlooked it.

Confounding the character cliche issue further is the addition of a love triangle when the third game begins. Oh good lord. And trust me, none of the characters are handled properly or given the time and depth necessary for you to care about them. Shun and his second love interest survive the third game whereby you have to guess who's standing behind you by the way they sing. But the real point was to guess who was holding a key? I don't know. The next game conveniently brings all the remaining characters together as they must guess who is the liar of their group. They nearly handled this game perfectly, but they ruined it by emphasizing Amaya being crazy and wanting everyone to die, putting annoying emphasis on Shun and the love triangle, and, worst of all, showing us how emo the story wants to be with Shun saying he doesn't like himself. Really...going with that, are we? Not that any of this even matters since one of the chicks in the love triangle dies regardless! Wow...how pointless. The liar of the game turns out to be the "god" issuing the game of course.

The final game is kick the can except they annoyingly make Amaya "it." If Amaya catches everyone, he presumably lives and the rest die which, surprise, he likes. Shun manages to outsmart Amaya in some impossible scheme where he magically takes off armor without taking off the individual pieces? What? It doesn't matter since the "gods" seemingly don't kill anyone. This is a ruse as they still kill everyone except Shun and Amaya so they can be the only survivors of the completed series of games. That could have been a good place to end it, but they try to give us a little more with this homeless guy implied to be "god" and a weird dude claiming he will save the world. Riiight. And what was the point of any of this? Just to teach whiny, emo bitches a lesson about being grateful? The whole world was implied to have experienced this phenomenon so the global youth population should be devastated...right? Yet the adults are like cheering them on and shit like it's a TV show? Whaaat? Coming from Japan that is extra retarded given their elderly retirement problem! The fuck? Plus, no one is crying or screaming about their dead kid(s)? Sure.

In one respect you have this fast-paced series of crazy death games that work quite well at establishing suspense. You are intrigued by the mystery and what will be the final destination. The effects are commendable, and the scope was presented significantly better than I thought it would be. On the other hand, the characters are cardboard cutouts of tired tropes, the momentum is lost in order to focus on these characters, and many predictable twists occur. The conclusion also leaves a lot to be desired as we never have closure or clarity toward the point of anything. I did enjoy myself while watching this movie, and it is pretty good, but they squandered the setup and gave no reason to care about the characters' fates. Overall, I think this is worth checking out, but definitely do not expect it be of the same caliber as "Battle Royale." If anything, it's much closer, in terms of quality, to that film, "Tag," I reviewed.

Notable Moment: When Shun's friend is killed and manages to give the finger despite having his head exploded. That is the perfect example of the cornball tone that was bringing down the whole film.

Final Rating: 6/10