|
|
| |
| Panorama (Japan). Region 3, NTSC. 1.85:1 (Non-anamorphic). Polish DD 5.1, Polish DTS 6.1, Japanese 2.0. English and Chinese Subtitles. . 106 mins |
| The Movie |
| Cover Art |
 |
| Credits |
Director: Mamoru Oshii
Starring: Malgorzata Foremniak, Wladyslaw Kowalski, Jerzy Gudejko, Dariusz Biskupski, Bartek Swiderski, Katarzyna Bargielowska
Screenplay: Neil Gaiman (English screenplay) Kazunori Itô |
Ever get that "Emperor's New Clothes"
feeling? After watching director Mamoru Oshii's
Japanese-Polish hybrid, Avalon, written by Kazunori
Ito (co-writer of Ghost in the Shell), on the
back of enthusiastic ecommendations, and encountering
positively orgiastic response claiming the film
is truly a visionary masterpiece, and is not to
be missed, I find myself sitting at my keyboard
distinctly under whelmed. If anything, my overriding
feeling towards this melding of David Cronenberg's eXistenZ, the execrable, equally pointless
though far worse Dark City and another
overrated picture, The Matrix is one of
intellectual apathy, tinged with a certain respect
for the visual aspect. Oshii, whose previous films
include Patlabor 2, Ghost in the Shell and Angel's Egg has been compared, skill-wise,
to John Woo and Tsui Hark, luminaries in the Hong
Kong movie world. Avalon is visually inspired
butcontextually and academically bereft.
It has absolutely nothing on classics such as Ying huang boon sik/A Better Tomorrow and Die xue jie tou/Bullet in the head, whilst
to compare this to the best of Hark's work, typified
by the nihilist masterpiece Di yi lei xing
wei xian/Dangerous Encounters 1st Kind is
positively sacrilegious!
Avalon is set in a near-future Poland where
large numbers of disillusioned young people eking
out a meagre existence in a drab society are becoming
increasingly addicted to an illegal, multi-player
virtual reality war-gaming experience called Avalon.
Oshii's heroine, Ash (Foremniak), a solo player
and once part of an elite group who broke up under
mysterious circumstances yearns to conquer the
game in order to reach Class Real from where there's
supposedly no reset button if things go wrong.
Yup, it's that old chestnut, the fabled 'Special
Whoop-de-doo Level'. or something vaguely similar.
After half the film's worth of wandering about
her bleak apartment, dressing, looking dissolute
and emerging periodically to play the game at
a locale which is an amalgamation of clinic and
cyber-café that brings to mind Brian O'Blivion's
Cathode Ray Mission, she encounters the mysterious
Bishop (Biskupski). From him, she learns that
Murphy (Gudejko), former leader of Wizard, the
elite group hailed in its time as invincible is
'unreturned' -- more to the point, his brain has
been fried beyond recognition by the game, and
catatonia is his future. Not good you'd think,
but no -- being brain-dead and trapped in a catatonic
brain-fried experience is apparently good, in
contrast to what Katherine Bigelow's Strange
Days had us believe. It transpires that Avalon
has a secret -- and a secret character, a 'ghost',
which opens the doorway to the realm of the 'unreturned'.
Soon enough Ash is on the trail of the spectral
presence. oh, and her pet dog disappears as well.
You might well ask . "what is this movie
about?" Shot on location, entirely in Polish
in and around Warszawa, with the cooperation of
the Polish army, Avalon is a surreal piece incorporating
Kafkaesque themes of dream/reality confusion,
detachment and isolation - something David Cronenberg
has spent a career doing much better with films
such as Videodrome and eXistenZ - and drug and counter-culture allegory. The film
climaxes with a cringe worthy little piece of
soap-opera that has the effect of rendering the
carefully constructed, grim future landscape pointless,
much in the way that atrocious tacked-on ending
scarred the initial run of Scott's Blade Runner.
Eschewing narrative and populated by simplistic,
shallow characters, Avalon is a difficult film
to quantify because, whilst it fails on nearly
every point that may be considered within the
sphere of a traditional review format -- coherence,
plotting, narrative construct, scripting and acting
-- it is never less than an interesting watch.
The ambience and cadence of the near-future world,
created by Mamoru Oshii's hypnotic helming are
captivating, and whilst the plot is maddeningly
vague, this is agreeably compensated for by the
astounding visuals, Avalon's overriding redeeming
element and what rescues the film from being a
wasted viewing experience. It's the desaturated
futureworld - all misty, colour-drained sepia
inundated with explosions of unexpected colour
that stays in the mind long after the dull characters
and insipid dialogue have departed the memory.
Avalon looks absolutely amazing, but it just doesn't
go anywhere, do anything, have any point, or make
any sense. This reviewer doesn't play computer
games, finding them tedious and irritating at
best, therefore the constant parade of videogame
graphics and merged real battle imagery courtesy
of Industrial Light and Magic's polishing skills
becomes irksome after a while, despite looking
visually gorgeous. The bright, sunlight-suffused colour of the climax comes out of nowhere, is
incongruous and downright out of place. It's all
style over substance and quite simply fails to
live up to the hyperbole, yet the stylised world
Ash lives in is never less than fascinating. There
are clever touches within the film -- signs and
posters relating to Avalon proliferate (someone's
seen Carpenter's They Live), background
figures remain spookily static, books are blank
in this strange futureworld, the visually arresting
malevolent machines - helicopter gunships, the
Citadel - are a chilling portent of man's militaristic
bent - particularly relevant in these troubled
global times. An ocular feast but psychologically
anorexic and leisurely paced, Avalon cries out
for a more thoughtful script to have been allied
to the tremendous optical and aural experience.
Kenji Kawai (Ghost in the Shell, Ring 1, Ring
2) contributes a superb score - unusual locations
and standout cinematography. I expect that, by
now, it is quite obvious that I have mixed feelings
about Avalon. It doesn't even approach being the
film many think it is, and yet despite having
few redeeming features, those features are quite
striking. A curious, curates egg of a film that
could've been so much more challenging. |
| Video |
| Presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.85:1,
though non-anamorphic, this is a nice looking transfer
that handles the various colours schemes and computer
effects with ease, not the best I've ever had the
pleasure of viewing, but not at all bad for an non-enhanced
disc. The subdued colour palette is beautifully
rendered, giving Director of Photography, Grzegorz
Kedzierski's shots a stylised, phantasmagorical
quality to them, making the visuals both haunting
and engaging, and giving an impressive sense of
visual depth. Crucially for such a strikingly desaturated
visual scheme, shadow delineation and black level
are excellent, whilst detail levels are remarkable.
With merely a hint of grain, no signs of edge enhancement,
chroma noise, pixelation or artifacting, and only
a few minor blemishes visible, the print is in pristine
condition. Even without the benefit of anamorphic
enhancement Avalon looks quite superb. There is
only one real problem; Irritatingly, the subtitles
are presented on the matte below the picture, which
is slightly elevated. This precludes being able
to watch the film in full anamorphic mode, unless
of course you can speak Polish and therefore don't
require the aid of the subtitles. Why don't companies
think!?! |
| Audio |
| The Memorial Box Edition comes with dual Dolby
Digital 5.1 EX and DTS 6.1 ES soundtracks in the
original Polish language, as well as a Japanese
dub in Dolby Surround only. However, it's the Polish,
not the Japanese release under review and this version
comes only with the film's original language option,
a Dolby Digital 5.1 Polish track. This mix is aggressive
during the game sequences especially, with other
scenes offering a subtler presentation. Ambient
and low frequency effects are nicely done, and Kenji
Kawai's excellent score is nicely engaged throughout
the entire soundstage. Dialogue is crisply presented
via the centre speaker and background noise adequately
integrated. English subtitles are provided, badly
placed, but easy to follow with no evident spelling
or grammatical errors. |
| Extra Features |
| Supplements, you cry. Erm.. What supplements?
The limited 2 disc 'Avalon - Memorial Box' set contains
two highly detailed books, entitled 'Avalon - An
Inside Look ' and 'Avalon - Pre-Production Book',
within which can be found the Treatment and Screenplay
by Kazunori Ito, Mamory Oshii's own storyboards,
sections dedicated to the Art and Mechanical Designs
by Atsushi Takeuchi, as well as a synopsis, production
notes and cast biographies. It also presents, in
full frame and 2.0 Surround, 'Days of Avalon', a
100-minute making of documentary. The only extras
available on the standard Japanese edition are a
selection of Avalon trailers, the Theatrical Teaser,
plus two full Theatrical, in anamorphic widescreen
with a choice of Japanese 2.0 or 5.1 channel audio
options, as well as two TV-Spots presented in 4:3,
Japanese 2.0 Surround only. That's still an improvement
over what is offered here. Whist the Japanese discs
at least offered relevant additional material, this
disc on the other hand offers next to nothing, certainly
nothing of note or relevance. There's a trio of
trailers, well not even trailers, just pointless,
random clips from a trio of releases Blow, La Femme
Nikita and Nowhere to Hide. Hardly breaking the
mould as far as DVD supplemental features go! |
| The Verdict |
The Japanese R2 DVD release
costs around £40, whilst the limited 2 disc 'Avalon
- Memorial Box' set runs £96 and adds a Polish
6.1 DTS and a second disc containing a 110-minute making of documentary, a 57-minute visual
effects feature and a 290 page booklet on the creation
of Avalon. The second disc, entitled 'Gate
to Avalon' is available separately and runs
around £35. All that said, this version offers nothing
except the film, however at a greatly reduced price
tag. I've had the rare experience here of having
a film literally grow upon me as I recall it in
order to write a review, it's not, conventionally
anyway, a particularly good film, but it is a visual
feast. Given that I didn't actually purchase the DVD, it doesn't cause me distress to have
sat through the film, but if you're contemplating
a purchase I'd think carefully if I were you. Even
for devotees the Japanese disc is prohibitively
expensive, so for those interested in the film and
wanting a more fulsome presentation than is offered
here, but not interested in handing over upwards
of £35, Miramax apparently own the US R1 distribution
rights for Avalon.
Comment Script
|
Got something else to say? Spill your guts on the
Digital Retribution Message Forum! |
|
|
 |
|
|
