Forum - View topicREVIEW: Gantz [2011-01-21]
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rinmackie
 Posts: 1040 Location: in a van! down by the river! |
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Yes, I imagine it would help tremendously if the English VAs involved actually cared about their performance. I know dubbing live-action is a bit more difficult than animation but it's better than it used to be, so that's not really an excuse.
And thanks to Zhou and Diedrupo for commenting about the homophobia post. I agree with you guys. I would have posted earlier myself but I don't know enough about Gantz to reply. |
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Key
Moderator
 Posts: 18188 Location: Indianapolis, IN (formerly Mimiho Valley) |
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I also went to see this last night, and Zac's impressions of the movie were pretty much the same as mine. I even have to agree that the dub was quite limp (although I disagree on all dubs of live-action movies being bad; I thought it worked for the Death Note movies). The brief look I got at the English credits suggested that none of the VAs were recognizable for dubbing anime, and neither was the dubbing studio, so that certainly didn't help.
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guitoorbenchi
Posts: 2 |
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I saw it at the theater and I enjoyed it. I'm looking forward to part 2 and getting it when it comes out on Blu-ray. The voice actors did seem a little weak, but it didn't stop me from enjoying it and personally, I'd take them over subtitles.
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v1cious
 Posts: 6202 Location: Houston, TX |
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See I hate when reviewers do this. While I personally don't like that they took liberties with the manga, I don't see how that's a valid criticism of the movie itself. How would you rate it for someone that's never even heard of Gantz? Was it made well? Did the story make sense? You're reviewing the movie, not the source material. |
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Zac
ANN Executive Editor
 Posts: 7912 Location: Anime News Network Technodrome |
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And apparently you didn't read the review text. I said anyone coming in cold would likely see it as a forgettable, shallow but kinda well-made sci-fi action movie. The sentence directly above the one you quoted says that, even. Then the rest of the review focused on how it functions as an adaptation of material that hundreds of thousands of fans are intimately familiar with. And they didn't just "take liberties" with the manga - as I said, in my estimation, they ripped the soul out. Had they left that in, the film likely would not come across as shallow and forgettable as it does. So these things are connected. If you want a review that completely ignores the manga this series is directly based on, you might not want to read a review on "Anime News Network". Edit: Let me see if I can rephrase this in a way that gets through. This is like if in the Lord of the Rings movie they decided that Sam shouldn't be such a loyal friend and instead is kind of a dick who is constantly threatening to leave. Sam's personality is very important to that narrative and a big part of why the story resonated with people in the first place. Removing it would not only irk fans, it would fundamentally damage the story and thus the adaptation would be weaker as a result. Audiences coming in cold would get a vastly inferior version of the story that fans know could have been much stronger if only they'd stuck to the basic core fundamentals of the source material. That's the kind of negative change I'm talking about that really damages adaptations. I'm not saying it needs to follow every single plot point, I'm not saying every single scene needs to be in tact or the dialogue needs to be 100 percent faithful. Those things are basically superficial if you're just trying to tell a good story based on an existing story. What I'm talking about are the extremely basic things that made the story resonate in the first place. Last edited by Zac on Fri Jan 21, 2011 5:55 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Diedrupo
Posts: 58 |
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Well in all fairness, you're not going to ever get a "true adaptation" of the manga unless they decided to make a 100 hour movie. Or a tv series. But it would never fly as a tv series in Japan.
This is just how it is with Japanese cinema. Personally I am intrigued by the possibilites of western remakes. It would be cool to just see a Gantz spinoff set in America or somewhere else that has an original story but uses the same premise/rules. And it won't be hobbled by having to be faithful to the manga nor Japanese censorship. |
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guitoorbenchi
Posts: 2 |
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Exactly, I think they did a pretty good job of condensing ~20-21 episodes, or 90 (i think, roughly) chapters of content into a 2 hour movie that should appeal to a broad audience, not just the fans of Gantz - which is typically what production companies want out of a project like this. |
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tygerchickchibi
 Posts: 1448 |
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Me being a huge supporter of dubs had to laugh at how it was executed. The Death Note dub was sooo much better (but then again the VAs in that movie have been voice acting for years). It didn't necessarily ruin the whole movie for me, because I found that even the direct translation (subs) of the movie made me think about how cheesy it is. Can't say it didn't work for this one. Mind you, I've only heard of GANTZ and I didn't get to see the series or read the manga as of yet. If anyone did enjoy the movie then feel free to be happy about it. Just because someone felt negative towards the movie doesn't mean it's right/wrong. Opinion is just an opinion unless you start forcing it on others. =O |
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doctordoom85
 Posts: 2093 |
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Three actually. The one that was threatening Kato, and then two of them that were abusing Sakurai. And the key word is "only". If it had been only one gay character acting this way, I would have easily overlooked it, but come on, THREE, that should raise some eyebrows. And I'm just talking about the work Gantz itself, not the whole author's work (for example, just because HP Lovecraft cleaned up his act later on doesn't change the fact that his earlier stories are fairly racist). And I can't count Hojo, as a kiss is more evidence towards a character's sexuality than the teasing of a presumably mean-spirited device/entity regardless of the author's confirmations outside the work. As the saying goes to any writer out there, "show, don't tell". And I'm not saying this to put down Gantz in any way. I still love HP Lovecraft's stories, even those earlier ones containing said questionable content. Only when an author's views begins to have the work's views on morality itself become warped (like when Sword of Truth said it was a-okay to spoiler[mass-slaughter pacifists], though that's only the famous example, there's actually a ton of morally questionable behavior even starting with the first book) does it become an issue. With Gantz this is not a problem, rape (regardless of gender) is portrayed as a disgusting and vile act, and homophobia is criticized (as Kishimoto points out that Kurono and Kato are being ridiculous to be nervous around Hojo). But the author seriously screwed up in the gay characters he did included. It's possible he completely forgot about Kato's bully and assumed the two harassing Sakurai wouldn't be going too far, so I'll give him the benefit of the doubt. Still a foul, but hopefully not an intentional one (and judging by what you said about his other work, it probably wasn't intentional). |
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Psycho_Despair
Posts: 376 Location: East of Eden |
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Knowing what Gantz is and what it offers, it did not keep me from enjoying the film. Of course the dubbing turned me off, but it only made me want to buy the DVD/Blu-ray even more the be able to watch it on dumb.
The action scenes actually stand out a lot esp. the Tanaka and Buda mission. The Tanaka mission was hilarious because of the robot alien it made me laugh 
I am going to watch part 2 if I am given the chance to, since part 1 ended with a cliffhanger(of course). I think this live-action adaptation better than the other failures out there, and yes I am staring at you DRAGONBALL EVOLUTION! |
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jmfsilenthill
 Posts: 1863 Location: Chinese cartoons are srs biz |
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Disappointed to hear about the unfaithfulness to the manga. Gantz is my very favourite manga!!!
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Kohii
 Posts: 428 |
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I never saw the anime or read the manga, but it did feel a bit odd. I just decided to watch it on a whim. It wasn't completely awful, but it wasn't very good, either. The dubbing was atrocious.
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teh*darkness
 Posts: 901 |
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I suggest saving yourself, don't watch those last 5 eps, and as you buy the manga, start reading from where episode 21 ends. The last 5 eps are a filler mission that wraps the series up horribly, and actually replace a mission that happens in the manga several arcs later, but they do it so badly in the anime. Volume 8 of the manga shows the end of the Buddhist Statue fight and continues from there, so I would say start buying and reading from there, and then buy the first 7 as money allows. Save yourself some anguish. As for the movie, how many of the hunting arcs did it cover in the first one? I figured it might get through the first two, but if Sakuraoka is being listed as left out, then it must have covered quite a few. |
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Guardsman Bass
 Posts: 158 |
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Argggh! I can't believe I missed the showing of this on thursday in my city!
I have a weird, morbid fascination with Gantz (not enough to make me continue reading the manga or watching the anime, but enough to make me curious). Anyone know if there will be additional opportunities to see it in Salt Lake City Utah? |
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monodistortion
Posts: 1 |
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For anyone wondering the movie covered the onion aliens, Tanaka alien, and the Buddhist Temple missions. A lot of the smaller plot points were changed and minor characters were taken out though.
If you haven't seen the anime TV series or the manga I would say read the manga from the beginning. That way you'll really understand what the dark, twisted, cruel, ruthless, confusing, sci-fi story is about. I watched the first one or two TV episodes and the animation quality wasn't great from what I remember. The theater in Burbank I was in was about half full and there was some laughing at the badly dubbed parts but no one was too annoying that I noticed. I thought the action and special effects were good and convincing but some scenes dragged in parts. Most of the night scenes were too dark for my tastes. In real life your eyes adjust to dark lighting but in the movie the blacks and shadows were so dark it was either confusing or frustrating at times. Of all the main characters i think Nishi looked the closest to how he looks in the manga and his sneering mannerisms were convincing. I agree with the reviewer in that Kei's personality changed the nature of the story a lot and I missed his transformation from a self-centered horndog into an admirable leader. I can't say how good the acting was or even if it was a good movie overall though because the translation and dubbing was stepping on my enjoyment half of the time. Some lines were awkward and felt like they were probably too much of a literal translation. The voice acting ranged from ok to bad and most of the key emotional or inspiring speeches and dialog completely fell flat. I really can't understand why they would release an adult targeted movie, in a very niche market, the japanese film, manga, and anime fans, with dubbed dialogue. For kids movies like Studio Ghibli it makes sense and Disney spends a lot of money and does a good job on the dubs. I remember when Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon came out the press made a big deal about it being subtitled and it was a huge hit. That showed that adults will see a good movie in the theater even if it's subtitled. Please, if anyone from New People reads these reviews-- please just release the second part with subtitles! I'm going to have to skip part two if it's dubbed. |
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