Ni no Kuni

I feel thoroughly ambivalent after finishing this movie, which is an adaptation of a RPG game supposedly quite well-known in Japan. On the one hand, I feel like I watched a decent fantasy movie that had quite a bit of potential, and some interesting ideas going on. On the other hand, I feel like I watched something that at times was badly flawed, over-the-top, and quite stupid… At first, I found it quite interesting, since the idea of interconnected worlds and how they all work together definitely caught my attention. However, they then started throwing various surprising twists and turns at me, and I was just watching everything rolling my eyes and feeling slightly irritated at how poorly they managed to execute some of the scenes, which just did not make much sense. I could not understand any of the main protagonist’s behavior at one point and I thought that the way they find out where the main villain was hiding and discover who he actually was, was a completely stupid idea. In fact, I was really not impressed or pleased at all with the big reveal in the finále and the way they presented the situation between the two protagonists seemed questionable. There were actually many moments when I raised my eyebrows as they were just not believable, however, it is impossible to go into them without spoilers. What was missing? I think that perhaps it was lacking a longer and more elaborate exposition, and maybe they could have cut down on trying to shock as much as possible with the unexpected revelations, or just thinking everything through much better and then showing it on screen. As it was, even though it was interesting, it was too bizarre and failed... I am your father's brother's nephew's cousin's former roommate. 4.5/10. (16.01.2020)

An incredibly forgettable film. I watched it yesterday, but I don't really remember what I liked about it. The animation? The music! Yeah, the music was good. But other than that, it was a mess. The story ran this way, then that way, characters jumping in and out of their beliefs as easily as lights switching on and off. The development of it all was unnaturally fast, unorganized; it doesn't compel you to watch it closely, but instead just bores you. If they had made it into a series, it would have all worked better: it could have been more elaborate; this way it felt sloppier. Plus the unnecessary twists and turns, we could have done without a few of them. There's no need to cram so many things into one film. The world was interesting, the alter ego principle was interesting, but the rest was like the cake cooked by the dog and cat in the famous children’s book by Josef Čapek. It didn't exactly go down well. (16.02.2020)

For me, NiNoKuni was such a Running Sushi of twists and turns. As a fairy tale, it doesn't have a bad foundation, but I think there's a bit too much served up on one plate, and we get a few too many knots in the string to untangle, or rather we get two more for each one we untie. What is disappointing is the imbalance of the twists, where some are as transparent as glass and some are exaggerated to the point of absurdity and could easily have been done away with. In general, this spoils the quite decent pace of the plot and prevents the whole from being elevated to a higher level; the immersion of the experience was never constant and that's a pity. I can't say it's bad; as a kid, I would have enjoyed this little endless story. But I can't help feeling that it could have been so much better if it had been simply simpler. (11.02.2020)