Directed by Shinsuke Sato, (1.5/5).
Allegedly, you will either love Gantz or hate it. My experience of the film was certainly consistent with this principle. And hint: I didn’t love it.
Let me make one thing clear: I am not opposed to films based on comic books. Scott Pilgrim vs. the World and Kick-Ass were both great – designed for people with the attention span of a carrot, perhaps, but highly entertaining nonetheless. My objection to Gantz is thus based not on principle but rather on its utterly inept execution.
The premise sounds fun: people die and are resurrected by a mysterious black orb. In return for the opportunity to permanently return to life, they must battle aliens until they earn 100 video game-style “points” for their efforts. Cue exuberant, outlandish action sequences, right? Wrong. Though wielding devastating guns which can destroy, well, anything, the characters are bizarrely reluctant to actually fire them, and elect to merely point them ineffectually at various menacingly advancing, highly lethal aliens. These highly lethal aliens are also abruptly forgotten about in the middle of fight scenes, presumably standing patiently out of shot while characters engage in long, emotional conversations.
That there is only one action sequence that doesn’t suck (though it couldn’t be described as “good” either) would be the kiss of death for any action film. Unfortunately, Gantz digs its grave even deeper. There are tacked-on, sickeningly melodramatic subplots which exist solely to (clumsily) show the characters’ “reasons” for wanting their lives back. Not only is this a stupid cliché, it would only work if we cared about these characters – which, given that they are paper-thin, witless and moronic, we don’t. In fact, in the film’s only truly effective scene, we are made to feel far more sympathy for a baby alien with two lines of dialogue (both of which are “take my onion”) and five minutes of screen-time than we feel for any human being.
The translating is also poor: characters regularly accuse each other of being “hypocrites” when that word really doesn’t apply. And there are gaping plot holes: between their tedious fights, the protagonists are able to return to their normal lives as if nothing had happened, despite having suffered highly public, fatal accidents.
I wish I hadn’t wasted $11.50 on Gantz. Then again, maybe I’m a “hypocrite” (see what I mean?).
Gantz
