Customer Reviews

X - The Movie

5 star:		(27)
4 star:		(42)
3 star:		(27)
2 star:		(32)
1 star:		(23)

 

 

I have several of the graphic paperbacks from the X/1999 clamp production. I've read and puzzled over those, and now I have spent several hours with this DVD. There comes a point in the quest for value where one has to finally ponder why a work is the way it is. I don't expect every DVD or book to be a work of art, but I do expect that each such effort have some sense of its purpose or potential value.

In the case of 'X', I confess I am mystified. On the surface, a young man (Kamui) returns to Tokyo at the behest of his dying mother to defend those he loves. But he fails to defend Kotori, who loves him, and forces his friend Fuuma to make impossible choices. On the layer below this Kamui and Fuuma are doomed to become the primary antagonists in a struggle over whether the human race should be allowed to survive. In the ensuing fight, shared with the other dragons of heaven and earth, the destruction is sufficient to wonder whether the cure is worse than the disease.

In truth, the plot is a pre-ordained ballet of opposing forces driven to a tragic conclusion. I am not familiar with Japanese literature, but 'X' reminds me of a Greek tragedy where anyone could stop the inevitable end, but no one does. Kamui's tragic flaw is his inability to act until it is too late. Fuuma, supposedly the villain of the piece, seems to be the nobler of the two, simply because he throws himself into his role. All of the characters are disjointed archetypes, but despite all of the symbols and portents, nothing really gels.

So this becomes an apocalypse in search of a cause. Harumitsu Shimuzu as put together an excellent score, which seems to capture Kamui's perpetual agonizing and the film's ambivalent perfectly. The film's theme, 'Forever Love' by Yoshiki, is worth keeping as well. But good music and interesting artwork are not enough to overcome a skeletal plot that never moves in any direction for long. A glance at the final credits reveals that this was a production with a cast of hundreds, and perhaps that is the problem. Tragedy is best when it is not designed by committee.

Overall, I heard many great reviews for this movie, so I decided to rent it. It was not what I expected. Perhaps, I was expecting too much from it, but it was a great disappointment. It seems that too much money was spent in the art and not enough in plot or character developement. After the movie ended, I can honestly say, I didn't understand a thing.

At the start of the movie, they briefly list off the characters and their traits. That's about it in the character developement department. From there, they explain how the these characters need to save mankind or all humans will be obliterated. Mainly, they have to battle the "earth dragons" to save the Earth. That almost makes sense. Then, through all of the jumbled flashbacks, flashforwards, possible outcomes, precognitions, dream-sequences, and computer simulations, you find out that the main character has to fight an evil double of himself to decide the fate of the humanrace. Because of the premise, the whole movie sikes you up for a spectacular fight scene. In truth, it lasted maybe thirty seconds. It was extremely disappointing.

I don't recommend this movie, if you are looking for an anime was plot, structure, or character developement. However, the art in itself, is rather stunning. This visuals are gripping, if not violent. I would definantly recommend this movie, if you are looking for an artsy, dramatic show and aren't interested in story. But you would be wise to first rent this before you seriously consider buying.

X is probably one of my favorite anime movies of all time. It's based on a manga of the same name by CLAMP. However the movie version tells a slightly different story than the as yet uncompleted manga (which is currently compiled in 10 tankabon).

The shojo animation by CLAMP and the character designs by Nobuteru Yuki are absolutely beautiful and are far better than the animation in some of CLAMP's earlier OAVs (i.e. RG Veda and Tokyo Babylon). The music is also excellent with the dark and gloomy soundtrack complementing the gothic feel of X perfectly. However the movie's plot suffers from two major problems. Firstly, the plot is rather slim in comparison with the X manga, sacrificing a lot of the character interaction and backstory to fit the whole manga series onto one 90 minute video. Because of this it also suffers from the same problem as RG Veda, in that there are a few parts of the movie which are seemingly unrelated to the rest of the film. It would have been much better if X had been made into a series of OAVs instead of a single movie to preserve the manga's story in its entirety. The only other problem that I had with X was that the main character, Kamui, came off as a wimp because of his voice actor. The other characters were voiced excellently but Kamui seemed to lose a lot of resentment against his fate and because of this the feeling of angst that pervades the manga series in less evident in the movie version of X.

X is a stylish, well-written and interesting manga. It's also a stoic, laughable and trite anime movie.

Follow if you can. Kamui leaves his home, best friend and girlfriend in Tokyo for some inexplicable reason. A naked visage of his mother then comes to him and pulls a Mary Poppins by pulling a sword out of her stomach (you heard me), and gives it to him for an equally inexplicable reason. Heck, the rest of the movie is pretty much like this, and often makes you wonder whether LSD is pretty much just pumped directly into Japan's water supply.

Trying to explain the plot is quite pointless, as that doesn't even seem to be the driving force in "X". Let's just say half a dozen ilicit drug-induced dream sequences and a few ultra-violent fights later, we get hit with a completely unprecedented ending. An idea that worked well in video games like Suikoden II or even episode 24 of everybody's favorite inane anime, Evangelion... Too bad here it makes you just wonder, "Uh, is that physically possible?"

Quite possibly the coolest, and therefore only redeeming part of this movie, the X music video featuring completely unreleased footage and a damn-cool song, was... cut out. And as some sort of final cruel joke, the English dub was apperantly specifically made to induce bleeding in the ears. Manga Entertainment's marketing sense-- not to mention human decency- astounds me.

Thank goodness that's over.

What can I say the cover art of the DVD sucked me in and I bought it. Well I was expecting a lot from the story line, because of the outside cover, but you should not judge anything by what is on the outside. What was inside was definitely far different from what I perceived it to possibly have in it. The plot line was disjointed, but very intriguing, though the messiah image is a bit cliqued, even though it works superbly into this movie. The messiah plot did have some of its own quirks in this movie that are fairly original. The whole mood and tone of the movie was oppressing and brooding, the animation surely made a proper set-up for the end of the world. The characters were excellent, the ones that actually spoke and did not die randomly, especially Fuuma and Kamui. The visuals were remarkable, definitely better than most animation out there. The ending was kind of drawn out with a quick conclusion, and a time of mourning. This is one of the most depressing animes I have seen, even more so than Akira, or the finale of Cowboy Bebop. Well cheer for the Dragon of Heaven, but weep for the Dragon of Earth and watch something funny after this movie, because it really is depressing. One complaint, like recent movies, notably Blood, this movie is too short what is the deal extend the movie so we can see some more character development. Recommended watch for those who aren't afraid of crying and don't mind a couple decapitations here and there.

This is based off the X/1999 manga series. I tried reading those and they not only made little sense, but ultimatly left me in state of bordem. However this anime compiles the mangas into one feature length movie that is very good, and well worth the price.

The story revolves around a boy who returns to tokyo to protect his two friends from childhood. His mother is dead (in a very gruesome manner) and he si destined to become one of two dragons, the dragons of heaven (white) or the dragon of Earth (red). the dragons of heaven want to save mankind while the dragons of earht want to destroy them. Neither one is really a villian because both have their good and bad qualites. Each also has a good argument for their cause. However there is piece of the puzzle left out, and that would be that the boy has a double that would counter his every move, and take up the other form.

As you probably have seen by other reviews this recieved average at best. Chances are is that those critics have read the mangas or are die hard fans of the Mangas. However lsten to me when I say that it doesn't matter if read the mangas or not, this is an excellent tale that should be seen by anime fans world wide.

An interesting question X tries to answer. Before I start my review here's a little warning:

DO NOT WATCH THIS WITH THE ENGLISH DUB!!!

I saw it twice in japanese and understood everything. Then I saw it once in english and I was totally lost. Everything is different in English! The brief moments of humor - gone. The tragic element of impending doom - completely missing. Any sense of compassion or sympathy for Kamui, Fuma or Kotori - simply not there. But rest assured that in their places we find a) bad acting b) a lot of words and pointless explanations that were NOT in the original version c) Some of the most incredibly stupid translations and pronounciations of names.
People said "Kotori" and I thougt they were talking about "cutlery". And somehow they made "Kamui" sound exactly like "Kanoe"
My favorite moment in the english version is when Kotori cuts her hand on the magic rain and as she starts bleeding Fuma brilliantly points out "You're hurt!". In the Japanese version he says nothing.
So, anyhoodelidoodely: my review

I like it. The anmation is great. The interaction between the good guys (however brief) lets us know exactly what they're like and what the chemistry between them is like. The two bad guys (the one who control water and the one who has that long scarf thingy -I forget their names) are sooooo cool. I only subtracted a star because I would have prefered to see less people die from suicide/selfdestruct/two for one kind of thing where both fighters perish together. The best deaths are the individual ones. And while the end is no surprise I love it. It's short, sweet, to the point and completely inevitable. The whole movie plays out like a greek tragedy. Their destinies foretold the brave warriors try to alter fate but find in doing so they actually end up making it happen. Great stuff. Yes, Tragic but great. Everything can't be a Disney cartoon!

And don't worry about not understanding the plot. Anyone who knows anything about anime should catch on to the storyline pretty quickly. It's quite straight forward and should certainly not stop anyone from enjoying this fine piece of work and its gorgeus art and stunning animation. But in JAPANESE for God's sake!

When I heard about this movie I had to buy it, I'm an avid X manga fan and I love clamps work. The way the weave stories and plots with dramatic twists. But when I saw this I couldn't help but to compare it to the manga with which I love. That was my first mistake. This is a movie which tries to condense a series of graphic novels into 100 minutes or less. It leaves out characterization for action and gore, alters the story from the original too. I went in expecting an animated version of the manga, what I got was good, but not what it could have been. I've heard that theirs work on a tv series based on X, maybe this time they'll stay with the story and not change it for time constraints. Oh, and the ending in the movie is different then that of the manga, the movie was made before the manga even had an ending written. If your a fan of the manga and just want to see your favorite characters animated then watch this, but if your expecting something as great as the manga you'll be sorely disappointed. Don't get me wrong, this movie ranks up their with Ghost in the Shell and Akira, and even Vampire hunter D, but that's if it's viewed as a seperate entity then the manga. So enjoy, but as with most books turned into movies it could have been better.

Pretty pictures. Yup, lots of pretty pictures. That earns one star for Clamp's "X". But in all conscience, that's all I can give it (and that's just 'cause I've had my morning coffee, so I'm in a generous mood). What were they THINKING? I admit, I had my hopes up: while I'm not necessarily a huge Clamp fan, I did get a kick out of Clamp School Detectives. (Cute vids with interesting characters; I'd recommend you pick 'em up if you haven't already.) I've read a couple of the "X" graphic novels, and I was hoping this movie would reflect some of the story's suspense while providing the audience with a more concise resolution to the plot. But nooooooo...... What we get is an awkward, tangled MESS of real-time and dream-time images that only serve to further confuse an already complicated storyline. It's sad, really: some of the characters had the potential to evolve into interesting, 3-dimensional personalities... if only Clamp wasn't so dead set on making a few quick bucks off of some pretty pictures! You'd almost think they were American... Anyway, highly disappointing, and definitely not recommended by this viewer. If you're looking for action, beautiful animation, interesting characters, and a plot you can follow without heavy medication, try "Escaflowne" or "Rurouni Kenshin". They're a MUCH wiser investment of your money.

Some people are very critical of this movie. Warning Spoilers. One reason is that the plot is to the point and everyone dies excpet the main character Kamui. The good thing about this movie is that the animation is very unique. If you have seen the series and the prequal tokyo baybalon then you will not be dissapointed. These are the things that you want to see. The fights to death, the graphic vilolence. If you haven't seen the series well you will either hate it or love it. But it all depends on you, see the prequal and series then watch this. you will not be dissapointed.