Overview
Lately, I’ve been feeling a bit worn out from constantly pushing out work, so I’ve been making an effort to spend some time just zoning out and watching movies. Like I did the other day, here’s a quick summary of my thoughts on a few films I recently watched.
Yuru Camp Movie
I came across this movie in 2022 while on a short trip, thanks to a poster I saw at a train station. The story follows the familiar group of friends, now grown up and working in places like Tokyo and Nagoya, as they come together on weekends in Yamanashi to build a campsite from scratch.
- Meeting up every weekend, with a four-hour one-way trip? That’s wild! How do they even do that?
- The main cast is as calm and heartwarming as ever, which was a delight to watch.
- Rin-chan now lives in Ichinomiya and works in Marunouchi, Nagoya—a setting that feels familiar to me! Incredible! But honestly, the trains aren’t that crowded, in my opinion.
- Midori-san, a big fan of Nadeshiko-chan, was right—she’s as adorable as ever.
VOYAGER
A plan to send humanity to a distant star! Children are raised aboard a spaceship, where they’re given daily doses of a drug that suppresses emotional impulses. The idea is to cultivate an ideal generation of humans, with their grandchildren eventually reaching the target planet. However, some of the kids discover the truth about the drug, stop taking it, and chaos erupts aboard the ship…
- Midori-san didn’t enjoy this one.
- While the premise and setting had potential, the kids who stopped taking the drug turned into irrational, impulsive brats. It was frustrating to watch, and I ended up quitting halfway through. Just plain disappointing.
- If these kids are supposed to be elite, at least show some nuanced conflict between their newly awakened emotions and their logic. Come on!
Wrath of Man
Jason Statham joins an armored cash transport security company and, with his impressive skills, starts taking down criminals like a pro. It turns out Statham’s character is actually a gang leader working undercover. His motivation? To track down the criminals who specialize in robbing cash transports and avenge his son’s death.
- After the letdown of VOYAGER, I turned to this movie for some Jason Statham action—and, as expected, he was badass!
- It wasn’t just a simple action film; there were hints of mystery sprinkled in, keeping me engaged until the very end.
- That said, the once-mysterious antagonists gradually became more and more one-dimensional. They didn’t feel like worthy adversaries for Statham’s character.
Mobile Suit Gundam GQuuuuuuX
A friend I was out running with mentioned this one, saying, “You’ll enjoy it more if you go in without spoilers!” So, for the sake of conversation—and as an excuse to get out of the house—I decided to head to the theater for the first time in a while.
- The first half, where Char Aznable wins the war in an if scenario, was enjoyable enough.
- But the second half? Completely unbearable. The way they forced character relationships felt like a bad tabletop RPG session, where players clumsily try to connect their characters’ backstories.
- The visuals were stunning—the action scenes and CG were top-notch. But it felt like they spent 90% of their time on the animation and then scrambled at the last minute to throw together a script that didn’t have glaring plot holes. That’s how it came across.
