Film Reviews by Chewi

Even though this was released between the original series and Steins;Gate 0, I saw it last due to it being hard to obtain in the UK. Having loved both series, it had a lot to live up to. I was dubious about what it could pull off in 90 minutes. I'm sorry to say that it failed hard. The first half an hour was tiresome. It spent too long reminiscing, which would have been fine for a series, but not a movie this short. I was very conscious that there was only an hour left to go and the plot had barely started yet. Once it finally did get to the point, it just seemed to make that point over and over. With 20 minutes left to go, I'd already given up hope of it actually developing into anything interesting. Seriously, just skip this one. Steins;Gate 0 is so much better.

This didn't quite work for me. I thought it would be interesting from a cultural perspective, which it was. The premise sounded exciting, but they could have done more with it. Although the African actors were relatively good, the others were quite weak, especially the lead. I get that he wasn't supposed to be a likeable character, but he just didn't have much presence. This was made worse by the fact that the film felt quite spaced out at times, even during the scenes without drugs. All in all, this seems like a missed opportunity.

I'm torn on this one.

It certainly fits the horror genre but not quite in the way I was expecting, due to the synopsis being a tad misleading. It's quite slow paced, and I was eagerly waiting for the plot to develop in a way that it never actually did. If the synopsis had been more accurate, I might have enjoyed it more, but on the other hand, it might not have appeared intriguing enough to pick it up in the first place.

Despite the above, others have noted that the acting is superb, and they are not wrong. I had every confidence that Wil Wheaton would nail the creepy friend role, and he certainly did, plus the rest of the cast were great too.

It's not terrible but apart from the ending, which was a little rushed in the original, I can't think of a single thing this film does better. Sure, the visuals are impressive, but the harsh realism overwhelms any sense of drama. The script is unchanged for the most part, which would be fine, except that it makes the relatively weak voice acting of some characters even more prominent. Zazu, in particular, comes across very flat.

I really should have read the description more carefully. While the pictures shown here suggested some degree of fan service, which doesn't normally bother me, this was just dripping with it and in a way that left me feeling very uncomfortable. My wife and I only watched to the end of episode 2. We couldn't take any more. It wasn't so much the amount of bare flesh on display but the context in which it was shown. If deliberating shaming girls by ripping off their underwear so that their bits fall out in front of their peers isn't bad enough, you have scenes of borderline rape, all of which is portrayed as humorous. I'd feel less awkward watching full-on hentai in front of my wife; at least that doesn't pretend to be funny.

Don't get me wrong, my wife and I loved the original series and appreciated some of its quirkier aspects, but this was off the scale on the WTF meter. I had to read the synopsis on Wikipedia after watching it just to make sure I hadn't missed something. I seemingly hadn't but I still felt like I had wasted my time. The plot was confusing yet dull and ridiculously drawn out. The visuals were impressive but when the rest is so tedious, you just want it to be over. It's easy to see why it's proved so controversial and yet most people seem to love it. I just can't understand why.