Customer Reviews

Assault Girls [Blu-ray]

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(8)
1 star:		(9)

 

 

The movie is classic Oshii but with out much of a plot. Long moments of slow scenic scenes punctuated by bits of action. When I say long and slow, I mean it. One potion of the move involves a sort of montage of the four characters walking through the desert and dealing with a snail... for 15 minutes.

The action is hokey and done more for imagery then the action itself. Its fun to see the girls pose as they fire guns or spells.

The CG is obvious but sufficient for getting the point across. This is not a big Hollywood blockbuster so don't expect King Kong or Avatar level effects, this is only a step above TV shows like Sanctuary..

The characters are only hinted at. There really isn't any development and they have little dialog. (one has nothing but a few squawks) They are simply defined by mannerisms and costume.

The story is bare one. Its only about the four putting aside their name calling for five minutes to defeat the end boss. That is it. The story could have been done in thirty minutes (or 15) but its Oshii and he loves to draw out scenes of the characters cooking, or watching the sunset or spontaneously dancing. It would have been much better if it had cut down on the sunsets and you could actually see how Grey convinced the other two to join the party.

This isn't a bad flick. Its just not a good one either. Everything is interesting over exciting or dramatic and the philosophical bit are out of place. It has fun moments too, like the duel. All in all, I didn't hate it, but it'll be a rare occurrence when I pull it off the shelf to watch it again.

One thing I want to add. If you have ever played an MMO you will appreciate some of the strangeness of the movie if you catch it. You have four players stuck trying to get past a boss to reach the next level. A solo player who does his own thing and doesn't like to play with others. A player who min/maxes stats and cheats when she can. A player who is hardcore and 'better' then the rest. And one who doesn't take the game seriously and screws around during fights.

Now make them work together to take out the boss.

That amused me.

Though I'm a fan of Oshii's movies, I'm always conflicted about recommending his movies to those who have made a diet of traditional Hollywood films. Many of his films integrate Hollywood style sequences with his preferred style of pacing; which is typically very deliberate and slow. "Assault Girls" is no different, although he does shake things up a bit with the movie's structure. Those who have familiarized themselves with Oshii's work know that extended takes and long monologues are signature of his films. With "Assault Girls" he modulates these elements into chapters. The pre-chapter introduction opens up with a 10 minute monologue that provides a basis for the story, the creation of the game Avalon, as well as giving Oshii a chance to make statements about "Pax Technologica" in a globalized society. The voice over is a bit mumbled and subtitles, which are disabled at this point in the film, would have helped in penetrating the dense editorial text of this narrative. However, after rewinding a few times for clarification, I found the lengthy introduction to be thought-provoking and my favorite segment of the film.

Following the introduction we get five chapters that take us through a sort of mini-plot that finds four competing characters having no choice but to put aside their quarrels in order to battle the big boss of the game Avalon, who otherwise could not be defeated alone. Over the course of the five chapters we get the three cinematic "flavors" that Oshii is known best for: a big-bang opening battle involving three sexy female gamers fighting off oversized sand worms; an entire chapter devoted to long silent takes of the gamers wandering the world of Avalon somewhat aimlessly; and finally, a very amusing chapter where two gamers settle a dispute in one-to-one combat (yes, Oshii does humor every now and then). Chapter 3, the infamous chapter that has our four gamers wandering the dessert of Avalon, feels like a skippable chapter (15 minutes in length), especially since the symbolism, that might make the sequence more meaningful, completely escapes me (there are numerous shots of a snail that, for all I know, could symbolize the slow nature of the sequence itself). But if you can get past Chapter 3 (or if you decide to just skip past it), you might decide that "Assault Girls" makes for an entertaining and even fun "short-film". Newcomers to Oshii's work might understandably be put-off or put to sleep. However, those of us who enjoy absorbing his philosophy through film and animation, have a better chance at being satisfied by this appetizer. I think.

FUN FACT: The points earned for killing one of the sand worms in Avalon have digits that are equal to Pi.

"Assault Girls" takes place sometime after a global nuclear war, but you'd never know it if you weren't told that. In the down time of folks trying to rebuild human civilization, people find pleasure and escapism in a unified world-wide hyper-realistic virtual reality MMORPG that links directly into the brain.

We are never shown the real world---only the game universe, and the film follows three women: Gray (.50 caliber Sniper), Lucifer (shapeshifting "wereraven" Magician), and Colonel (Warrior), as well as a single man: Jäger (20mm Sniper), who all try to complete a level individually, but cannot because they lack the power to kill the end boss. Eventually realizing they can't succeed on their own, they begrudgingly form a party to kill the boss to progress to the next stage.

The "plot" (and I use that term loosely) blatantly and tiredly borrows from many similar shows, most notably the ".hack//Sign" anime series, but the film is set in a post-apocalyptic sci-fi world instead of medieval fantasy, and it lacks the dynamism and polish of its various spiritual predecessors. Instead, this film takes one single aspect of one single day, and tries to work a story around it. But it doesn't work, because things are so tunnel-visioned and so myopic, that everything is reduced to near nothingness, and plot development is stalled and almost sacrificed altogether so we "can" exist in the same singular second the characters on screen exist in, instead of any type of plot progression past the immediate moment we are "supposed" to be locked into. That might be an interesting experiment for a different type of existentialism film, but when we have guns, babes, dropships, mechs, and fighter bombers, it is wholly unacceptable because it wastes all of that.

Under a more clever or skilled writer, this movie still could have been workable and cool, but the film also inherently fails because it has no clear direction. In addition to wanting to be nothing but a snapshot of a Player Character's life in-fiction, it also wants to be too much out of the fiction in real life---i.e., sci-fi, fine art, social commentary, combat, philosophical, action, comedy, girls-with-guns, sexploitation, mecha, but it fails on all counts because it lacks the focus to carry each aspect out.

The most glaring flaw, is the painfully boring down time in which the characters aimlessly wander the same exact 20 yards of film space on a hill in search of packs of badly CGIed "Dune" inspired giant sand worms (the only antagonists in the film, not including the main characters) that when killed, grant differing levels of experience points depending on the normal worms or the more powerful level boss. The film is only about an hour and ten minutes long, but about 55 minutes of that IS the down time, and we are stuck literally watching someone walk back and forth. When we do finally get some combat and action, it's very fast, and painfully CGI.

A second flaw, is the absolutely atrocious selection of dialogue. Most of the movie is in English, but towards the last quarter, everyone starts speaking Japanese, and it stays that way up until the very end. I'm not sure if this was done to grab a larger viewership market by speaking English over Japanese, but it fails. And here's the clincher: the English wasn't even dubbed over, it was the actual actors and actresses speaking it. But with the exception of the narrator/computer voice and Lucifer, everyone had such strong accents, spoke so slowly, and were so unfamiliar with English language, it was very difficult to understand what is being said half the time, especially scenes in which everyone is talking while also wearing a rebreather mask that muffles what they say. (Thankfully there's subtitles you can turn on.) Lucifer on the other hand, had no speaking lines at all. Instead, she communicated (?) to the audience by dancing in a very odd, almost autistic way, complete with her own "music box" sounding theme song. It was weird, but she filled the typical role of the cliched and expected quintessentially aloof and eccentric character found in the majority of J-pop shows or J-RPGs that the creators and fans seemingly can't get enough no matter how often it's done.

This film was written and directed by Mamoru Oshii (director of the two theatrical "Ghost in the Shell" films), and this was billed as the first new live-action film he did since taking an 8-year hiatus from it. He should have stayed away a little longer to hone his skills, because he's really rusty. (That, or he spent so much time working with anime, that he can't make the leap back into flesh and blood film making.) As stated, there is a distinct lack of any backgrounds except the top and side of a sandy hill the team decided to film at. There is no real characterization except Lucifer's odd dancing. Even the quality of cinematography is very plain and simple, and reinforces the "boring aspect" that the film radiates as a whole. This felt like a bunch of cosplay friends getting together and making a low budget ad-libbed sci-fi movie on a Saturday afternoon on a hill overlooking a stone quarry, and then using a PC to add in the CGI effects later on.

The only aspect I thought was well done, were the costumes. They were pretty cool, and next to post-production CGI, that's where a good chunk of the money went. The ending was also very funny, but you'd have to be familiar with online gaming antics to fully appreciate it. That alone almost made up for the sheer snooze-fest of the rest of the film. Almost, but not quite. Too much was already holding the film back.

If you have nothing better to do, or if your only options are watching paint dry, going to a wedding ceremony in a dry county for people you don't know, doing calculus homework, or watching this, go for this. But if not, rent or buy at your own risk. And if you do, be prepared for a 65+ minute unintended pseudo-nihilistic film that drags out and feels like three hours.

This is a strange, but interesting, film.

If you have played an MMORPG, or games like Diablo, then you'll understand the world in which this film is set. Three gorgeous women and one not-gorgeous man are forced to work together.

I bought this because of the director - Ghost in the Shell is a landmark in anime. I was curious what a live-action film would be like. I have to say that it's nowhere near that standard. It is worth seeing, but it feels like a short film, rather than a full feature.

I had such high hopes for this movie and was let down. The production quality is top notch. Unfortunately, the agonizingly slow pace and utterly boring story make this film an absolute waste of time. Basically, it is a story about four people playing a really stupid video game.

And that's pretty much what this is. 4 hardcore players that like to solo that need to come together to beat the last boss. There's not much dialogue from the characters but there are lots and lots of visuals. This movie points at the mentality of people that play MMO's so if you don't and never have played one it's easy to not understand what's going on or why.

I gave the movie a 4 because I enjoyed it. It wasn't cheap by any means and it had great and I mean great effects! The only problem I have with the movie is that this probably could have been trimmed down to 30 minutes only! Great movie idea but poor execution, I actually wish it carried on into a real plot or story aside from joining together to kill one boss to gain access to the next tier or whatever.

If they made a sequel I wouldn't mind watching I just hope it's subbed and it has more story and less imagery. I liked the concept of the movie a lot but I understand not everyone is going to "Get it" which is probably why the movie is rated so low. This is more of a renter than an owner but it's a good renter for mmo gamers.

I purchased this film, since the description sounded promising. However, I was very disappointed. When researching this film, I saw several conflicting reviews of the films length. It turned out to be only 1:10 (70 minutes). The first 5-10 minutes comprise a lengthy monologue setting the stage. The speaker seemed to mumble, so it was difficult to hear or make any sense of the opening monologue. Then, we meet the four characters in a very superficial way, with the female lead, Meisa Kuroki "Gray" most developed. The film moves excruciatingly slowly. In the end, there were precious few moments of any action. The director's style might of worked in a much longer production. As it turned out, the film was cut short before it even got going. Most unfortunate, as the concept for the film was most interesting.

The film is excellent, especially the visuals, but it's just barely over an hour long. And there are know special features on the DVD which I usually enjoy. In my opinion it is to short and you don't get to know the characters as you should. I do recommend it thought. Good action and nice looking ladies.

If you're a fan of the Japanese director's films then you'll like "Assault Girls" . The film is a bit short and could do with a better developed plot line the film , all in all , was quite good .
=)

Clearly, this movie isn't for everyone, based on the reviews, but I like strange flicks, and I enjoyed this one.

Still, I see how other folks might not like it. The tempo is languid if you're being pleasant about it, painfully slow to many though. There isn't a lot of action, but what there is, is good. And, of course, the general weirdness of the movie set inside a video game.

The introduction is eight or nine minutes of a narrator explaining how a virtual reality game came into being and became the center of some people's lives. And I'll be the first to admit that this is the most challenging part of the movie to sit through, for me.

Jager, Grey, Colonel, Lucifer, are the players, who band together in order to advance in the game. From the offset, there is a lot of tension between the players, and cooperation is neither natural nor easy for them. I'm sure the story could be considered predictable, but I enjoyed the character development.

It was imaginative, original, and took risks in the presentation. No surprisingly, it doesn't work for everyone.

Odd little flick. I enjoyed, but can see how many wouldn't.

E. M. Van Court