[REC]2
02/10/2009
Director/s: Jaume Balagueró, Paco Plaza
So I may be late to the party but I finally got a chance to sit down in a dark room for a DVD date with 2009's spooky sequel [REC]2, and it has to be said, I'm massively underwhelmed.
The film follows on directly from 2007's original [REC] - as in, 15 minutes after the events of - and I think it's a pretty great idea to have the two so closely linked time-wise. It's great fun being able to follow the new team through scenes we saw in the last film and watch as they stumble upon things we witnessed happen only shortly before they got there (only they don't have to worry about "That's where the body was last time we saw it ...") Watching fear grow in our new protagonists is interesting, and it is a lot easier this time 'round to fall into their shoes, to feel a part of their group and follow their panic and terror. On a couple of occassions in the film I was forced to draw a quick breath and think "God guys, what can we from here??". By "a couple" of occassions though, I mean a couple.
[REC] was scary. I didn't jump once in [REC]2. Action isn't at all sudden and is entirely predictable, as are most of the points in this film that are repeated over and over. The iconic rabid zombie shot where the Newly Infected hovers slowly at a distance and then suddenly lunges, all bloody teeth and red eyes? Totally effective the first time 'round. After four identical attacks you just wonder how their teeth decayed so fast or how long it would take to wash the blood out of their clothes. Similarly when a character edges cautiously into a corridor you can almost read the directions out loud - empty corridor ahead / turn around, empty corridor behind / turn once more / OMGSCARYZOMBIE. And the undercurrent beneath the whole film: WE ONLY HAVE ONE CHANCE AND NOW IT'S GONE - no wait, here's ANOTHER chance! - but now it's gone - but here's another one again!
On more pleasant notes the effects are quite pleasing throughout; a good handful of grisly headshots, some gratuitous blood splatter, more creepy and perfectly executed sound-effects than you could shake an antidote-filled syringe at. The CGI is almost seamless, only one or two lingering shots threatening to ruin the party. The camera work however is where the film really comes into its own, and there are some truly brilliant shots throughout (the shadow play in particular is something to be appreciated).
That's just not enough to fully sway it though. Audio-visual effects are one thing but they don't stand out enough against questionable acting and increasingly silly plot lines (honestly, the end of the film goes from questionable to silly to MORE silly to "please roll the credits now). It was a gutsy venture however, and I'll be keen nonetheless to keep an eye on the series - directors Jaume Balagueró and Paco Plaza are directing the series prequel and sequel seperately to complete the project in 2012.
Glad I saw it, but won't be rewatching.
★★☆☆☆
D'espairsRay - World Tour 2010 “Human-clad Monsters” FINAL
13/04/2011
A couple of years ago was a dark time for me and my celebration of D'espairsRay, and by "dark time" I mean I just didn't like them. Since hearing [Coll:set] in 2006, none of the subsequent releases - albums or singles - did anything at all for me. Friends continued to follow them and would insist on playing me new material, but all to no avail. That was until I conceded to watch their 2008 Spiral Staircase #15 Final DVD, when I realised that for anything lacking on CD they completely make up for it onstage.
This was undone upon watching the Human-Clad Monsters Final.
It's a good DVD, don't get me wrong. The show opens with a fantastically well-led round of 13 -Thirteen- which comes off as a perfect cross between a My Chemical Romance show and an military march, and further down the line the already emotionally charged duo of CROSSED ARROWS and SCREEN are performed with enough intensity to raise goosebumps. "Forbidden" in the encore will always be a fan favourite, and the upbeat combo of Angeldust and MIЯROR is a great way to close an encore (don't forget to keep watching for a surprise track at the end)
What's missing is anything at all personal, or ironically anything remotely human. One of my biggest issues is down to the massive layering in the band's music in general. It's great to have eight guitar tracks and two drum tracks in any given song guys, but what are you going to look like when you can only play one guitar onstage? The same occurs with backing vocals, where I find it quite mystifying how Karyu and Zero can provide vocals identical to Hizumi's. You're just left with a slight feeling of detachment - yes, these four very talented gentlemen are onstage, playing a tour final in front of thousands of fans - except that they aren't playing a half of what is prescribed. Similarly there is no interaction between band members on stage, and short of a few high-fives at the end there is nothing between the band and the crowd either. Again, just a sense of detachment. For all the 2D front though it has to be said that Hizumi's vocals - when actually performed - are absolutely spot on, and are definitely a very big plus-point for the band.
D'espairsRay are good, this can't be denied, and having seen them in the past both live and on previous DVDs I can definitely agree that onstage they are possibly even better than they are on CD. It's just a shame that their normal spark of devillish mischief is missing from this particular release. Worth watching if you get the opportunity, but I wouldn't suggest going out of your way for it. Re-watch the Spiral Staircase if you're missing the goodness.
★★☆☆☆
girugamesh - GO (limited edition)
26/01/2011
girugamesh have always had a way with opening tracks - bass-heavy or techno and energetic - but right off the bat this intro is too slow, and too quiet. It doesn't bode well, but it leads nicely into the already-established Destiny.
Great sing-along vocals carry the song through the verses while good rocky guitar does its work inbetween, even enjoying a little six-stringed breakdown of sorts in the middle. The chorus is much lighter, more pleasant if you will, but it all rides smoothly along that encouraging girugamesh fire that burns underneath.
EXIT comes along to put that fire out.
Well, that's being slightly unfair. The song starts with the good get-going guitar you'd expect to find in the middle of an album, but then kicks into vocals that want to be closing a tracklist. Here is where one of the fundamental problems with this album begins: the music and the vocals do not want to mix. On several occassions - beginning here - nice underlying bass and good heavier guitars could make a pretty ok rock track, and then pop vocals come in to mix it up. And not in a good way. For this reason, EXIT comes across more as throw-away filler. It's a shame, but every album needs them.
It's easy to miss the transition between songs as COLOR bears exactly the same problem - pop vocals betraying rock music. The only consistency here is the lack of consistency. That's ... not good consistency there, boys. An easy throw-away song. Again. But just when you're losing hope, MISSION CODE happens.
So it opens with synth and gutsy check-out-my-attitude vocals, and well-trained by the rest of the album so far you prepare yourself for a promising start to quickly descend into cheerful pop, but when the rest of the band chime in with the group refrain SHAKE IT SHAKE IT DOWN you start to realise that something might actually be happening here. Finally, five tracks in, you're hit with a track that maintains its energy and vibe throughout the whole piece. A painfully simple yet totally catchy guitar riff powers through the majority of the song, leads us into a chorus which doesn't stop for breath, and then a nice three-part guitar-bass-guitar breakdown in the middle sends us back for a great outro on the home-run. Selling point of the album right here, if only they could keep it up.
The only note I wrote next to 見えない距離 (mienai kyori) was "Please, no more of this". Skip it enough times and you'll forget it exists. Slowly but surely, it's working for me. Come the end of the track I'm feeling mildly suicidal, which is when I realise with apprehension that they haven't had a ballad track yet. Oh.
再会 (saikai) takes that spot, and I will admit here that I simply dont know what to say. I don't think that such a soft ballady style suits the band musically, but lyrically the song is something else. It almost brought a tear to my eye, I'll admit that, and that makes it difficult to judge. Objectively speaking, it earns bonus points for actually sounding different to every other track so far, which is something. The ballad was a risk worth taking, but not worth repeating.
I said from the start that I would never like a song called Never Ending Story, but I admit that it's definitely catchy. It could be clever placing after the requisite ballad track, but it's a song that's difficult not to sing along to. It's just a shame that - just like EXIT and saikai - it sounds like it belongs at the end of the album.
Speaking of which, イノチノキ (inochi no ki) comes to put things to an end in a very ... similar fashion to the rest of it really. This is a song which really could be ok, if it didn't sound exactly like the majority of the tracks that preceed it.
Overall, GO is an album full of songs that could well be ok if they didn't all sound like carbon-copies of the others. The genre-mixing is finally becoming a problem too, and as a damn good rock band they need to figure out if they are just dipping a toe into pop waters or if they want to take a complete dive. If this album is mere experimentation then it was a good attempt but it exposed lessons to be learned; if it is a sign of things to come then there is going to be a problem.
★★☆☆☆
[REC]2
