Galerians - Rion

Rating:
Summary: Cyber Punk Classic
Review: Galerians: Rion is a CGI movie based on the first Playstation game by the same name. Set in a dystopian future, the plot revolves around a 14-year-old boy named Rion who awakens in a strange hospital and discovers he has psychic powers. Hunted by others with similar abilities he must find a girl named Lillia and unravel the mystery of what has happened to him.

Although the story is derivative of many other sci-fi tales (Akira, Total Recall), it is of particular interest because of its dark, cyber-punk surroundings. This is an animated movie that would likely not be made in America. It features young people (teenagers, mostly) being experimented on and addicted to the use of drugs (the latter being necessary to enhance the psychic abilities of the characters). But the bleakness of the story strengthens the main character's search for purpose and identity. It's a search that leads towards the universal truth... are you a victim of fate?... or a participant in your own destiny? Are you what others want you to be?... or are you what you believe you can be? Questions that we all strive with every day.

If you are expecting a computer animated movie on the level of Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within, you'll be disappointed. The company who made this obviously did not have a comparable budget. However, despite that, they have done an admirable job. The picture is sharp and vibrant, with backgrounds richly detailed. Characters, while not having the high detail of say the Spirits Within, are still distinctly rendered (one particular female quite alluringly so!). And though animation is not extravagant through many of the dialogue heavy scenes, its obvious the creators saved their best for the action sequences. The psychic battles are often quite spectacular and gut wrenching (literally... at least once!).

The voice acting, at least the English cast, is adequate (I'm afraid I don't like reading subtitles... distracts me from the picture!). But, a few do rise above the rest... particularly Lia Sargent as Rita, Dave Mallow as Rainheart... and holding it all together... Dave Wittenberg as Rion (he's at his best when Rion is pushed to the edge in his psychic confrontations).

The only real problem I had with Galerians: Rion was that there was just not enough of it. The story situation seems so ripe for more elaboration that I can only hope that the producers of this film can someday afford to do more... or that some bigger studio might be smart enough to snap up the film rights. Despite more money, they would be hard pressed to put in such a good effort as Director Masahiko Maesawa and Producers Enterbrain and Polygon Magic did.

Rating:
Summary: Man-Machine-Menace : Welcome to humanities final stand
Review: Galerians: Rion is the movie adaption of the survival horror game Galerians which was released in 2000 by Crave Entertainment. The movie basically expands all of the CG movies which were in the game, and takes all of the parts you would play and translates them into CG. The film clocks in at a short 73 minutes, but packs a huge amount of story and depth into each and every moment. The action is intense, the music is great, (both the japanese and new english remix soundtracks have been included), and the CG while note Shrek quality is still good enough to get the job done. I highly reccomend this movie to anyone who loves science fiction, and horror.

Rating:
Summary: Not too bad
Review: Not too bad of a movie, but I was expecting more. I was dissapointed to just see some rehashing of CG's with some added, new CG from a game that came out a few years ago. Being a Galerians fan though, I was joyed to see a movie created of it. Though, something original would have been better I think. The action scenes were excellent, if not a little fast paced. I think any other person watching this would find it a major disappointment, so it's definately a fan film. The animation isn't too bad, but seems a tad bit outdated. The story retains itself 100%, which in my opinion is a bad thing because there was really nothing original about this movie. And for it's price, I really wish I could have gotten more out of it. But, what can you expect from a movie that has the main selling point being it's soundtrack (which I didn't hear in the movie, because I retained the original japense). Oh well, it was good for what it was, and despite it's pace being too quick, with editing that was way to fast to enjoy entirely, the action scenes made this fan of both galerians and psychic type powers a happy camper.

Rating:
Summary: A Boring, Insipid waste of time
Review: Visually and technically uninventive, this film bring a new meaning to God awful waste of time. Long periods of silence encompass this film, with the soundtrack barely audiable while low grade computer aniumation attempts to show facial expressions that range from blank stares to half lidded eyes and snarling lips to express emotion. To call this a cyber punk classic is to say that "Final Fantasy:The Spirits Within" rates as a classic in the same league as "Ghost In The Shell", a comparison that would gag the average Anime fanatic. In fact, FF:TSW is head and shoulders beyond this piece of trash both technically and dramatically. Don't be fooled, this is no piece of cutting edge animation, just a piece of dren that your average student film project would bury in any arftistic competition.

Rating:
Summary: good animated film, great soundtrack
Review: when flipping though the channels i stopped on mtv2 and heard heavy metal song playing and i thought the animation was part of a music video, but then as i watched further, it kept going on into more storyline and i realized i was watching something that made me think i was watching the cut scenes of a video game (shocker there, huh?) that's exactly what this movie is. they made a playstation 2 game, galerians: ash, which i haven't had the opportunity to play yet. then they took the concept and made a movie out of it.

the movie pretty much plays out like a fast paced bloody version of dragon ball z battles. you have genetically engineered people battling one another in search for a girl who has the key to destroying a psycho computer who's AI has made it think it was a god. it had some interesting villians who all had different mind powers such as telekinesis and teleportation.

the soundtrack is a great compilation of today's heavy metal. the original japanese version doesn't include this. the english version makes it somewhat obvious the voices of the characters were dubbed, but it is worth watching this way just for the music. i was completely surprised that the soundtrack wasn't advertized more. before i stumbled on the movie, i wouldn't have ever heard the songs like 'hate in me' from godhead.

if you are a fan of either heavy metal or anime or both, this is a worthy pick to watch.

Rating:
Summary: Galerians
Review: When I first heard that there was a Galerians movie in Japan I searched everywhere for an english edition, or even somewhere that I could by the Japanese edition (I really didin't care what language it was in.) It's been a little over a year since I first heard of the movie and the day has finally come when it will be released in America. I've played both games and even though the second one is better then the first, they are both excellent games. I would suspect that this movie will be innapropriate for children under 13 for all the blood and violence. Though I have only seen clips both english and japanese, I can say that this will be a must have for any Galerians fan. Now if only the original soundtrack to this and Galerians: Ash would be released here....