Dark Skies Review

Disclaimer: Contains spoilers!

Plot Summary: After many strange occurrences around their home, a family believes they may be receiving visits from aliens.

Review: I have to give this film some credit, it's extremely hard to make an effective horror movie using aliens, and they almost pulled it off. If you think about it, aliens should be a much scarier plot device than they are, but because we imagine how advanced a race would have to be to come to this planet, we simply assume they would want to take over so it always drifts into the sci-fi/action realm. Likewise, the look of an alien has to be a certain degree of intimidating, while unnerving at the same time, or it will appear as a monster-movie which is technically horror but instills a different impression on the audience. Balancing these factors is not an easy task by any means. This film decided to take a slightly different approach implying that the aliens are so advanced they do with humans as they please much in the way humans experiment on lab rats (and with the same lack of concern or consideration); I don't support such shit by the way! Furthermore, the aliens interact with the characters in such a way that it is more reminiscent of ghosts and demons with a focus on the dread the characters feel to create more of the scary scenes. Unfortunately, the main thing that holds this film down is ridiculous contrivances, illogical decisions by the characters, and stupid, unnecessary cliches. We are introduced to the typical Hollywood, suburban American family consisting of two arguing parents and two sons with one being the pain in the ass, as always, and the seemingly "different" one. Well, it shouldn't come as much of a shock that the family has lame drama with money issues and the one son being a teenager; I should probably note how annoyingly distracting this son's, named Jesse, stupid Beiber hairdo is! Apparently the aliens like to fuck with people a bit before abducting them as the family witnesses all manners of shenanigans. I get that they wanted there to be a gradual buildup to the scares, but let's face it, this was too similar to a haunting; in fact, why didn't the family ever suspect ghosts? I think this may have been a big problem for other viewers because of shit like the father setting up cameras around the house to record any (paranormal) activity. It just felt copied when they should have been setting themselves apart to show a differentiation between aliens. This isn't to say there weren't plenty of decent and even good scares. As you know, I'm a major fan of subtle scares which there are a few scattered about with the aliens lurking briefly in the background of a scenes. When a film can add little details like that, it at least offers an incentive in going back for a second viewing which is more successful than the many pieces of shit who fail to understand these tricks to movie-making. Eventually the mom, named Lacy, believes that whatever strange events are happening are due to aliens and wants to meet with some "expert." I'll give you one guess what the father's reaction was? Yup, you guessed it, deny anything is wrong and make up stupid excuses! Could his reaction have been any more stock?! At one point the dad, named Daniel, finally catches the aliens on camera after a night they visited the family. Overwhelmed by how the aliens could be doing this, Daniel finally agrees to meet with this so-called expert. For the sheer sake of exposition purposes, the wannabe expert lays out everything you need to know about what's going on except the "why" yet he contributes even more contrivances to the plot. Basically, the historic "Grays" that people have claimed to have encountered are the ones behind this, and they plan to abduct the member of the family they first made contact with. The family believes this to be the youngest son, Sammy, since throughout the film he has been shown to talk to the aliens, had been drawing them, and appears to be the one most affected. Well if you know jack shit about horror films, it is painfully obvious that Sammy is not the one they want, but it's in reality our beloved little Beiber bitch boy, Jesse! Come to think of it, the film mostly drops the ball in the last 20 minutes or so. You have a predictable twist followed by the huge contrivance that the aliens immediately abduct bitch boy right after they talk to the crazy expert further exasperated by the idiocy of how the family tries to combat the aliens with a shotgun and some plywood! So, the aliens show up, easily bypass the pathetic defenses as the family acts like imbeciles, takes Beiber bitch boy (probably to study his hair), and the film ends with Sammy hearing Jesse screaming on a walkie-talkie which apparently the aliens helped boost the signal to Earth at the convenient moment that Sammy picked up his battery powered radio 3 months after leaving it "on." Yeah, they didn't think that one through too well. But come on, you HAVE to end on a fucking zinger! Everyone knows that! You know, it's funny because I actually thought for a second that they might end the film with one of the ballsiest endings I had ever seen. Because when the aliens come they, for some reason, make Jesse imagine he's having like a LSD trip. Earlier in the film Jesse was getting high with a friend, and I thought, "Oh shit, are they going to say the whole movie was just a bad trip?!" That would have been beyond stupid, but it would have been pretty damn ballsy. Hmm, maybe I'm on drugs myself to even think this? Overall, this film has decent scares while trying it's hardest to make aliens feel creepy. The acting is good with some solid performances, and the pacing keeps you engaged. However, there were so many stupid moments and the film does fall apart at the end even though there were some decent final scares. This is definitely worth a view, but it helps to understand the writer followed a typical haunted house formula and merely inserted aliens to it. The film isn't too bad, but it could have been so much better.

Notable Moment: When Lacy hears Sammy talking to someone in his room only to find a large, dark figure lurking over the bed. Very effective scare.

Final Rating: 6/10

L: Change the World Review

Disclaimer: Contains spoilers!

Plot Summary: With only 23 days left to live, the world's great detective, L, must stop a terrorist group's plan to destroy humanity with a new virus.

Review: Well you knew they weren't going to leave well enough alone since there was at least one avenue left to milk this franchise with this film serving as a prequel, sequel, and sidestory simultaneously. See, that's the thing about "Death Note," it is a solid story meant to have a finite conclusion, and I my respect for that fact makes me love the series all the more. This film feels more like a cash-in than a legitimate attempt to bring anything new to the story. In fact, this entry cheapens the first two movies in a way by implying that L moved to write his name in the Death Note because he wanted to resolve the case in this film more! Are you fucking kidding me?! When this movie had first been announced I thought they were going to explore more of L's history and how he became "the world's greatest detective" but instead all we get is L running around trying to stop a lame plot to destroy the world. It's almost as if they knew it was going to be impossible to outdo the creativity and scale of dealing with the Death Notes so they were like "the world will be destroyed oh no!" How dramatic. The other annoying aspect was they advertised many of the cameos of the past characters as if they would serve a real purpose to the story which they most certainly do not. Watari and Misora appear briefly in the beginning of the movie as we are shown the case L tackled right before dealing with the Kira case. Misa and Ryuk pop up to deliver like two lines each unnecessarily except so they can use them in the trailer. As for Light, he is listed in the credits, but I'm guessing only because they had footage of him on surveillance playing on a monitor in the background. Realistically, the only person who should have been in this movie was Mr. Yagami but oddly he is not here or even mentioned; given the predicament L finds himself in, I would have thought he'd ask for his help or at least have a throwaway line mentioning that Mr. Yagami was still grieving over Light or something. The story is simplistic enough: some mad scientist working with a small, bio-terrorist group wants to destroy humanity with a new virus because humans are evil (yeah, real original). The problem is that they have the virus ready and tested, but they don't have a cure since they intend to survive and rebuild humanity with intelligent people. This mad scientist, named Dr. Kujo, is played by Youki Kudoh (she has this whole crazy milf thing going on with her) who some may (or may not) recognize from her appearance in the highly controversial episode of "Masters of Horror" in the "Imprint" episode. In fact, a lot of the cast are J-horror alumni which is somewhat unusual. Oh well, I welcome it since it's one of the better aspects to this movie. Anyway, Dr. Kujo is actually "K" which means she was/is a protege of Watari just as L was/is. This is another weird aspect to the film because the movie franchise never addressed the story regarding Wammy's House which is where all these lettered geniuses come from; this is further exasperated by the fact they bring up the B.B. Murder Case which involved the character "B." K's lab partner had created a cure for the virus but upon learning of K's plan he forced her to kill him and his research, which is witnessed by his daughter, Maki. Earlier, "F" had discovered the groups plan to use the virus and found a boy who is immune to the virus and sent him to L not long before Maki arrives setting up L to babysit two brats. Well, antics ensue as Maki infects herself, which K wants to capitalize on, as L tracks down a scientist that can use the boy's immunity to create a cure which of course he does. Maki gets captured because she's dumb, and K intends to fly to the USA to spread the virus through Maki's infection but of course L stops K and her goons; I should probably mention how completely stupid K's flunkies are, because they feel like comic book villains and try their best to look it as well (one of them is kind of hot though). Maki just does whatever and the boy is brought to Wammy's House where he is named "Near" which is an extremely loose interpretation of the actual Near character. The film ends with L just walking off into the sunset which is completely asinine because we already know how he dies and it would have been mere hours after after this! This movie also makes the final scene of "Death Note: The Last Name" seem odd because why would he go back to the old headquarters and just hang out? Wouldn't Mr. Yagami have acknowledged L's shenanigans when he saw L only seconds before he died?! Uh, I give up. What can I say, the only conceivable reason to watch this film is if you're a fan of "Death Note" and an even bigger fan of the L character since this is just a fan-service for those who can't get enough of him. I will admit, Mr. Matsuyama has perfected his performance of L and is able to act out his nuances and mannerisms flawlessly; this is probably the single, strongest aspect to the film. Even though I've been knocking this film all along, it is kind of entertaining, and I do enjoy seeing more of L. I simply would have preferred a backstory of L or even his first case to show how he learned the ropes and made some mistakes. The stupid terrorists are lame movie-of-the-week rejects and a different case for L to solve would have been preferable. Also, the most ridiculous part of the film is that we already know how it will resolve because we know L, and the world for that matter, were around on the 23rd day that L died on. If you miss this entry to the franchise, don't feel as though you're losing out. While it was a cash-in, it's worth maybe a rental. Finally, I should note the only reason I even rated this as high as I did was because of L himself and realistically if I had no idea who he was, I would have rated this film much lower.

Notable Moment: When L is reading over backed up cases and trying to solve as many as he can before he dies. I must give a lot of credit to Mr. Mastuyama for all the dialogue he had to deliver in different languages throughout the film.

Final Rating: 6/10

Death Note: The Last Name Review

Disclaimer: Contains spoilers!

Plot Summary: The cat and mouse game continues as L closes in on Light, but Light is aided with a new ally and hatches a plan to finally write L's name in his Death Note.

Review: I may be in the minority here, but I feel this entry is much stronger than the first film. Even though both films take certain liberties with the material, I didn't mind some of the changes this time around whereas I didn't like most changes in the first film. But let's start with the negative changes since there are fewer of those and because they are mostly nitpicks of a fanboy. I won't beat around any bushes, L "winning" is the biggest change to the entire story even compared to the changes in the first film. This fundamentally alters the fabric of the story itself in such a way that it can easily rub fans the wrong way. But if you think about it, Near and Light's mistakes are what defeated him in the anime/manga, and they didn't want to drag the films into all of that so I can see why they simply chose to allow L to be the victor. And let's face it, I'd much rather see L defeat Light that those little posers: Mello and Near! At the same time, L's loophole that he uses to escape the effects of the Death Note I think are questionable. Eh, I try not to think too hard about it since I suppose it may work, but I feel a Shinigami should have more sway over the notebooks than whatever a human would write. The cartoony look to the Shinigami continues as Rem looks much worse than Ryuk does; you'd think there'd be some improvements between films, but I suppose they were shot around the same time. Something I forgot to bring up with the first movie, what's up with making one of the task force members a woman? I mean, seriously? I didn't think Japan would try to be so politically correct as to pull the same bullshit Hollywood would do. Imagine if something like "Little Women" decided to change one of the sisters to a brother, would that fly well with audiences? Maybe that was a bit of an extreme example? I can never tell! Whatever...fuck you Kirsten Dunst! And the female task member is completely useless (as are all the task members when compared to their anime/manga counterparts respectively) so what was the point exactly? Hell, Sayu does more than any of them combined! Light's death was downplayed for some reason as Ryuk casually writes Light's name and the emphasis of his death is weakened. Him mumbling some shit to his dad is not how the "god of the new world" would have done it! Finally, the pacing is rushed a bit too much as the story comes to a conclusion quite unexpectedly, but it still felt satisfying. Now for what worked well: I'll go right back to it, L winning is a welcomed change. I was honestly shocked when I saw L appear because he obviously died in both the anime and manga. Like I said in the last review, toying with the expectations of the viewer makes checking out each of the 3 mediums worth it since they tell different tales. The strong acting from all the players continues with Mr. Matsuyama killing it with his portrayal of L and Mr. Fujiwara giving a strong performance as Light. I should note that the background characters were all stronger this time around without as much overacting from extras. Even though we briefly saw her in the first film, Erika Toda does a remarkable job in bringing Misa Amane to life. I actually prefer this incarnation of Misa the most since she feels more tragic, less pathetic, and more sympathetic; the anime version in particular comes off annoying quite often. Playing up why Misa worships Kira so much enhances her character whereas her motivations are more of a footnote in the anime/manga with more focus on obsessing over Light. This is probably a good time to mention how sexy Ms. Toda is in this role! The same goes for Sayu and Takada! I'm also aware that I just complained about the addition of a female character while applauding hot chicks! Anyway, speaking of our dear Takada, I also liked the change to her character since she too was less pathetic and actually seemed a bit dangerous and even evil; I suppose the idea was that they would merge her regular character with a combination of the Yotsuba Group goons. The real Takada is an interesting character, but I never liked her devotion to Kira as it felt more of a contrivance to keep the plot moving. Lastly, I greatly appreciated the resolution to some of our characters which we definitely did not get in the anime/manga. The anime just ends with Light dead and the implication that Misa was killing herself. And don't even get me started on the epilogue and the bonus of the manga and whether that is even canon. But yes, seeing the Yagami family and Misa going on without Light was depressing, but helped the story go out in a positive way as you wonder whether the world was better with or without Kira; for some reason snowfall in Japanese films always feels so whimsical. Overall, the story is great even if there are many changes. I can understand not all fans will appreciate these alterations in the same way I do, but it still makes for an interesting watch. The acting is great and the characters feel real which sucks because it makes me dread the impending American remake and how bad they will probably screw it up! The pacing does feel rushed and the effects needed a touchup, but, for the most part, this is a truly solid retelling of the Death Note tale. I obviously recommend this strongly for those unfamiliar with the franchise, since casual fans identify more with L anyway, but the anime and manga are superior. Regardless, track down the first episode of the anime if possible and try not to get addicted!

Notable Moment: When L is walking around Light's college in a ridiculous mask followed by the shenanigans as Misa appears.

Final Rating: 8.5/10

Maybe it's just me since I'm a weirdo, but I think Ms. Toda looks even hotter with demonic eyes!