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| From http://www.assaultonplaneta.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/guyver.jpg |
Dir. Steve Wang
USA
Film #3, for Wednesday 3rd October, of Halloween 31 for 31
Practical and computer effects
have been a major sticking point for anyone who caught the bug of genre cinema.
CGI, after replacing almost all practical effects in mainstream and genre
cinema after 2000, has been kicked to pieces by fan communities for years and I
myself have contributed a few punts into the ribs while it was down. However it
is not the fault of CGI itself – it is a tool that needs good craftsmanship to
use. Even bad computer effects, or dated effects, can have a beauty (intentional
or not) if it matches the context. If used subtly, it works greatly, or if used
as an intentionally artificial or cartoonish flourish, it adds to the mood. The
problem is that, as a tool for art, it is used because it seems to be what
should be used rather than the right tool, probably more the case than for
budgetary reasons, overused and without artistic consideration in most films. It
either is a hollow mess with no emotional or primal effect to it, or if done in
a way that is ‘supposed’ to be bad (rather than using ‘bad’ techniques
purposely, or admitting its artificiality, to disrupt the sense of verisimilitude
or adding an unrealism to proceedings), comes off as lazy, as with most intentionally
‘bad’ films in general let alone their production ideology. Practical effects
can be just as badly used though, and like CGI, it needs the right craftman
(and in all respect an artist like a film director) to use it properly. Why practical
effects are so loved however, aside from the obvious nostalgia of the previous
eras of genre cinema, especially the 1980s where it had it glory days, is that
as physical material or a trick involving existing objects it also evokes the
feelings of texture and material, flesh and bodily fluids, metals and
mechanics, physical presence to the space away from the effects, and so forth. Practical
can go from a simple blood effect to reaching into other artforms such as
illusion and puppetry. CGI is closer to animation, and its unlimited
possibilities, and even as far as illustration and painting. Practical effects
go into sculpture, performance art and tangible creation. Bar the few examples
that blur the lines, and the times when CGI and special effects are used
together and cross each other lines separately, CGI is more of an art of the
eyes and subconscious thought if viewed away from the obvious exceptions, unbounded
by physical restrictions, while practical effects are a conscious art that
evokes one’s ability to ‘hold’ something, or feel the space of a body or entity
distorted or be abstracted under the contradictions of the creator’s
imagination against the limits of the optical illusions or materials in their
access. And when you have trained stuntmen and martial artists, in practiced
fight sequences, in rubber monster suits combating each other the physical
aspect of practical effects is taken
to a literal idea.
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| From http://s3.amazonaws.com/auteurs_production/images/film/guyver-2-dark-hero/w448/guyver-2-dark-hero.jpg?1289461430 |
Adapted from a manga by Yoshiki
Takaya, and made after two animated adaptations in its original home of Japan, The Guyver: Dark Hero is a sequel to a
previous American adaptation called The
Guyver (1991) which had Mark Hamill in its cast, and watched by itself
there is the obvious issue of the introductory set-up being missing. I have not
seen the first film yet, although in my favour I have seen the 2005 animated TV
series and padded out the missing information, despite the localisation differences,
from there. Past the missing set-up though for the whole concept, the story is
rudimentary so that this does not become a problem when you have the gist of
what is going on. Sean Barker (David Hayter, later screenwriter for comic book
adaptations such as X-Men (2000) and
Watchmen (2008), and voice actor for
Solid Snake in the Metal Gear Solid
videogame series) became fused with an alien symbiote/weapon known as the
Guyver, able to cover the host with an alien bio-armour with provides him superhuman
abilities and an arsenal of weaponry. Driven by its infection of him, Sean
follows a lead at an archaeological dig to try and discover the origins of it. Unfortunately,
member of the Cronos Corporation, the villains of the original Japanese work
and the first film, are prowling around the site, made of beings known as
Zoanoids, men who can turn into beast humanoids of immense power. Power Rangers, Japanese pop culture
entertainment involving its heroes fighting Kaiju and monsters, and considering
its origins as a manga and its anime adaptation, the influence of them, all are
mixed into this. Then of course is the specific melding of animalism, body
horror and biomechanics that has permeated Japanese culture, and is distinctly their
own compared to Western examples of the same concepts, that director Steve Wang
and the production team perfectly recreate in an American context.
I will be honest, as a narrative
film it really is not that much to praise, as if the putting together of scenes
and the whole film, but it survives these glaring flaws as a worth viewing
movie because the practical effects and the fight choreography is so
imaginative and well done. Yes, aspects are dated and the film is not for
everyone, the concept of men in rubber monster suits fighting each other a base
thrill, but the vivid melding of the physically startling (beast men, bio
armours, the flesh and viscera construction of an alien spaceship discovered
early in the plot) with solid stunt and combat work is a pleasure in its own
right. Base thrills can be more powerful and inspiring than ‘deep’ thoughts,
especially when you can see the love poured into this film just in the beast
man designs. If more straight-to-video films, especially now in a perfect
world, were like this fan culture would be one closer to genre heaven. And this
film fits the mood for Halloween. If the concept didn’t slide into horror
tropes already, the franchise is known as an ‘ultraviolent’ work, the American
adaptation surprisingly bloody; that most of the victims are in non-human forms
is probably why this had a 15 certificate for its (long out-of-print) UK DVD. Gore
and the joy of its spilling in a fictional context is a fickly and controversial
subject in any entertainment, which we can enjoy but even in this film needs to
be paused on for a second by me considering how surprisingly gruesome this can
get for its age certificate. It does add a necessary sense of brutality to the
combat considering the science-fiction and body horror tropes pull in weaponry and
inhuman abilities into the basic premise, probably faithful to the original
vision from I can pull together about it. It also avoids becoming vindictive and
callous in its violence, despite at least one moment of ocular trauma that
generated a cringe from me amongst examples, in that the sense of bodily
manipulation is combined with a thread of gleeful Grand Guignol mentality to
create something that sticks in the mind but never becomes numbing or
alienating to a premise which is driven to entertain a viewer. The fights
themselves regardless are impressive, considering the restrictions the costumes
would cause in your mobility, even without the gore. Power Rangers was perfect to evoke as the stunt coordinator Koichi
Sakamoto worked on many adaptations of that series (including the first one
which I grew up with), the style of fighting exactly the same style but with concreteness
absent from many films. The fights and stunts have a physical force to them,
the contact with each other and scenery probably painful for the stuntmen even
when wearing the suits. Any potential issues with it were obliterated with Wang’s
1997 film Drive with Mark Dacascos,
one of the best American martial arts films ever made just in terms of the
quality (and insanity) of the fight sequences and stuntwork, and the creativity
behind it.
Aside from that this is a film
which stands by its technical qualities in these areas, but stands so well with
them that the foundations are prevented from collapsing like so many examples
in the same areas do so easily. Again, if more films were like this in genre
cinema, despite its major flaws in story and composition, the ideas and their
recreation are beautiful to see by themselves, their macabre physicality
evoking far more than a rush job, either with practical or CGI effects, would. That
Drive (1997) vaulted this film in
terms of quality confirmed that Steve Wang and his collaborators were sorely
missed after the American release of Drive
was botched miserably and shot the team’s kneecaps out from under them. Adaptations
of other sources can be a miserable experience to sit through, its cemetery pilled
with corpses of so many forgettable, lazy additions that the ones like The Guyver: Dark Hero which can climb
out the pit of bodies, with its head held high and a severed spinal column of a
weaker film like Green Lantern (2011) in
its bloodied claws, even in 2012 is impressive to me.
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| When the Zoanoids are on their breaks from their plans on world domination. From http://www.automation-drive.com/EX/05-13-11/Guyver_2_suits-Edit-large.jpg |
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