The Dimension Travelers

Rating:
Summary: Sophisticated Sci FI!
Review: The Dimension Travelers is a decent film which explores the posability of alternate realites.

The film centers around a school girl Midori (played by Chiharu Niiyama) who begins to find her life and friends routine and boring, until she meets a new student at her school Mayumi. The girls connect and become fast friends. Eventually Mayumi confesses that she is a dimension traveler, which allows her to enter alternate realites by the sheer force of imagining them with her mind. Mayumi also reveals that Midori is a dimesnsion traveler, and soon Midori is caught up in the ability to switch her realities. As she switches realities, Midori soon discovers that not all are safe. Both to her and the worlds in general. In one reality she is a mental patient in a psychatric hospital. In another the people of the world are being controlled by a mind altering device, and Midori is part of a resistance force. Soon the ability to jump into other realities becomes a problem for both the girls and a third dimension traveler. The worlds begin colliding with one another creating chaos and destruction. The three travelers discover what the problem is in the end and have to make a sacrifice in order to save the realities. I don't want to spoil the film for you, so I'll leave the rest for you to see.

The Dimension Travelers is an intelligent story, and was written by the same screenwriter of the anime movie Perfect Blue. The film plays out more like a psychological tease leaving the viewer to decide if Midori is really switching into alternate dimensions, or if she's just plain crazy. The special effects are average, save the reality where Midori is a freedom fighter. The two leads, Midori and Mayumi, do a good job with their roles and help convey the urgency of each reality. Also, the soundtrack fits the film with it's hauntingly Sci FI sound accompanied by a female vocalist.

The tech aspects of the DVD include both a Japanese and English dubbed version.(English dub is done well on this one) Movie tralier, a bio on Chiharu Niiyama, character notes and some DVD-ROM features.

I did like this film and have watched it more than once. However, I only gave it a three, because the film moves along slowly, and the disc quality could have been better. This edition appears to have been copied form a laser disc where a slight glitch appears, also there are a few spots where the color looks a little too green.

This film is not for everyone, but if you like psychological teasers, anime that makes you think, or non-action oriented Sci FI, you might just enjoy this film. It's worth a watch if you fit into any of those three categories. Just don't expect a Matrix type film. It's definately not that.