Disclaimer: Contains spoilers!
Plot Summary: When a zombie outbreak occurs, the only one who can save the day is a schoolgirl visiting her grandpa.
Review: Rika, you say? Hmph...it would have been infinitely better had it been my Rika in this movie! Oh well. Once again, I figured this would be another film along the lines of "The Machine Girl," but, alas, it's more on par with "OneChanbara." These cheap, splatterfest types rarely understand how to pace themselves which results in things like "Iron Girl" where they should be good or, at the very least, entertaining! In this instance, the plot continually comes to a screeching halt out of nowhere, characters are wasted, and the action is dull. What made "The Machine Girl" work was the relentless nature of the action, the all-in approach to the gore, and the utmost commitment of Minase Yashiro to the role. None of that is present here.
Zombie Hunter Rika herself.
There are hints that this could have been fun, but the execution is lacking. For example, giving Rika the arm of some white guy who also served as a parody of "OneChanbara." The subtle gags like trying to fight zombies with a flyswatter could have worked too. Unfortunately, these moments are fleeting while boring moments of sitting around last significantly longer. Furthermore, most of the actors aren't taking their roles that seriously and it shows. Dialogue appears ad-libbed frequently in the worst of ways. The Rika character is not handled with conviction by Risa Kudo--she looks bored or sleepy far too often. I mean, Ms. Kudo is cute and everything with the schoolgirl outfit on, but she's no Minase Yashiro and can't hold a candle to my dear Rika Ishikawa. We do get titties, unlike "The Machine Girl," but they kill off those characters, like the maids, fairly quickly. The comedy relief characters are noticeably tacked on to waste time and add little to the story. There are plot tangents that could have been explored more thoroughly like what the symbols on the zombie hunter's arm mean, where the leader zombie came from, or even the backstory of the grandpa. I fully intended to boost the rating a tad for all the fan service, but the moronic ending made me take those points right back away. A movie as cornball as this really decided the smartest move was to kill Rika, your lead?! This decision baffles me.
I actually would have preferred this chickadee, Kotoha Hiroyama, playing Rika.
The potential to make this an entertaining flick was right there and they squandered the chance. Movies of this caliber are already a niche market, but so few can match the ridiculousness of "The Machine Girl" or even "Deadball." I can easily forgive the limited budget, but you have to engage the audience. The effects were especially pitiful and lacked any degree of imagination with the kills. Including a few topless babes and schoolgirls will do wonders for me, but that can't be the extent of the effort put forth. In the end, I think if the Rika character were presented in an epic way, and Ms. Kudo didn't look tired during every scene, that could have compensated for the mediocre story and action. As with the other films in this vein, you will either be into them from the start or not. In the grand scheme of these cheap movies, this is nothing worth seeking out when "The Machine Girl" always remains the superior option.
Notable Moment: When the maids are each comparing tatas. It would never happen this way...true...but that's pandering I can live with!
Final Rating: 4.5/10
No comments:
Post a Comment