Supergirl (1984) Movie Review

Supergirl is a fantasy superhero movie released in 1984 and directed by Jeannot Szwarc. The film was made to expand the Superman franchise, which had gotten a very respectable success with the 1978 feature film directed by Richard Donner. The rights to the franchise were picked up by Alexander and Ilya Salkind, who also got the rights to Supergirl in the seventies and decided to go ahead and produce a blockbuster film based on the character as a spin-off. With a 35 million dollar budget, the film starred Helen Slater as Supergirl, Faye Dunaway as Selena, Hart Bochner, Peter Cook, Mia Farrow, Brenda Vaccaro, and Peter O'Toole, Marc McClure came back as Jimmy Olsen from the other Superman movies. The film underperformed at the box office and it was one of the reasons why the franchise was sold to The Cannon Group later on.

Kara Zor-El lives in Argo City, a place filled with survivors of Krypton. She is given a mystical object known as the Omegahedron by a wizard but she loses it. The orb lands on planet Earth and she embarks on a quest to retrieve it. Selena, a malicious witch, picks up the orb and decides to use it to her own advantage. Kara arrives on Earth and discovers the powers the planet's environment grants her, exactly like Superman. She goes to school and gets new friends, posing as Clark Kent's cousin. All goes well for the kriptonian girl, but things change when the fiendish Selena sets her eyes on Supergirl.

Supergirl is a very hard beast to tackle properly since its backstory conditions most of its components. It's a mix between sensibilities that tried to relaunch camp and fantasy with a new honest appreciation for the source. The movie itself seems to be lost between different settings and cultural elements that intertwine without much cohesion or sense. The oddity begins with the dissimilar styles of both fashion, costumes and tone throughout. While the campiness of the source material was acknowledged by the Superman movies made up to this point, this is probably at that point where they were really trying to jam in some of the self-aware cheesiness with goofy jokes and slightly corny lines but I gotta say that it's all balanced pretty well. The performers bring some naturalism and deliver the lines in a believable fashion, the music adds seriousness to the scenarios and the script, while a bit shaky, isn't half bad.

There's some beautiful cinematography at work here with some lovely high contrast, soft-focus images decorated with gleams and glints, the high key lighting gives this a very soothing and approachable look and the vibrant colors infuse it with some personality and make it stand out. The very intricate special effects add a sense of grandeur, these impressive practical VFX elevate the rather pedestrian material and conception of most of the action while delivering the joy we expect out of a superhero movie post-1978 Superman. The ending is particularly amazing with a lot of visual stylization, the art department and set department really did a fantastic job in this aspect. The comic book origins aren't betrayed since we still get a lot of outlandish sets and almost baroque ornamentation in some shots, at several points the frame is filled with details and elements that add life to the shot.

Some elements keep it from achieving its full potential though. The apparent disconnection of the antagonistic factions and the slap-dash, nearly episodic nature of the narrative almost give this one the feeling of a stretched out TV pilot instead of a tightly written feature film, this is also because Supergirl herself doesn't really have a goal to accomplish with any urgency, being thrown into a different environment she has to adapt to and gets to know in a variety of ways. This sounds more like a TV series setting to me.

One thing I enjoyed very much is how they turned the Supergirl story into a fairy tale, not only with its whimsical tone applied to a coming of age story but also because of the villainess being an evil witch jealous of a younger girl who is the embodiment of purity and goodness. It's a very clever and imaginative way to both do something unique with the character but also tie it to the childish sense of wonder of those old stories while still being relatively faithful to the essence of the comics.

It's very much recommended for those who are into the character as well as those who enjoy some cheesy eighties movies back when there was a lot of merit and fun with these summer blockbuster films. If you feel like it needs a rewatch I would suggest to go ahead, it certainly kept a lot of the merit and improved in some ways since I last watched it.

Gall Force: The Revolution (1996-1997) Anime OVA Series Review

Gall Force: The Revolution was an anime OVA series released from 1996 to 1997 and directed by Yukihiro Matsushita (Star Ocean EX, Hunter x Hunter, Rave Master) with a screenplay by franchise creator Hideki Kakinuma. The cast includes Kotono Mitsuishi, Kikuko Inoue, Ai Orikasa, Michiko Neya, Urara Takano, Chisa Yokoyama, Kyôko Hikami, Tomo Sakurai, Fumie Kusachi and Chiharu Taira. It 's the eighth and final installment in the Gall Force media franchise, lacking the usual direction by Katsuhito Akiyama.

In this version we don't find any Paranoids, instead we see a galactic civil war between West and East forces of the all-female Solnoids. An anti-matter gun is believed to be what will end this war once and for all with total destruction of both sides. The Starleaf (Rabby, Patty, Rumy and Eluza), along with enemy pilot Lufy, this time encounters an organization trying to go back to the way life used to flourish, because of this they have created children as well, attempting to save their race and leave war behind.

Remember when I said that New Era could be enjoyed by people who had problems with the first Gall Force movie since it was a new version of the story? I think that applies more towards this OVA series because it is quite literally a remake of Eternal Story, touching upon very similar plot beats and points (not only are the characters and the setting pretty much the same but we also have the monster on the ship and the garden of eden location with human children), however, is more akin to the sensibilities of a late nineties science fiction series instead of an eighties feature film. This means that the interactions weigh in a little bit more on the story and the focus is on the plot rather than on the visual treatment and expression, which creates slightly more rounded characters to a degree.

My way of thinking when it comes to remakes and reboots is simple: make changes that are worthwhile but keep the essence intact. This one takes some components that had some relevance and importance in the original plot but expands upon them with more elements and adds more things on top of what we knew already to give it a new spin, such as the internal conflicts between the Solnoids, which have far more impact and change the course of the narrative to a new area, with more memorable villains as well.

The animation is nothing really astounding but it's competent enough to never really feel cheap or defective. There's a variety of action, with shootouts, laser-sword encounters and spaceship battles. None of it looks bad and the direction and the storyboarding reach the level of satisfying. With the limitations that an average OVA product can have, the team did a good job.

While a somewhat more standard sci-fi adventure with space cruisers and space ship combat, the last entry in the Gall Force series still takes advantage of the same premise to come up with some fun scenarios and enjoyable cackling villains. This is also the first and only Gall Force piece of media to explicitly touch upon lesbianism, which is odd considering the concept. 

A recommended mini-series for any Gall Force completist and even for those who had some issues with the other shows and movies.

Fantasy Mission Force (1983) Movie Review

Mi ni te gong dui (Fantasy Mission Force: Dragon Attack, Jackie Chan - Fire Dragon) is a 1983 action martial arts fantasy movie directed by Hong Kong action filmmaker Kevin Chu, previously featured in the blog for directing the classic Golden Queen's Commando (1983). It was written by Wei Hsin and is known for featuring Jackie Chan in a somewhat small role alongside Brigitte Lin, Adam Cheng, Jimmy Wang Yu and Jing Fang.

The film is a typical "men on a mission" story with a ragtag group of misfits enlisted by the Allies to rescue some unorthodox generals kidnapped by Japanese forces in this fantastic and anachronistic version of WWII. The team finds a gang of cannibal Amazons, ghosts and the Axis army on their way.

You can tell this is a Kevin Chu movie because of the delirious and fragmentary narrative, the collection of genre movie elements put together in a rather impressionistic and non-coherent matter, as well as a disregard for copyright laws since this movie features stills of Snake Plissken, Rocky and Roger Moore as James Bond in a scene. Everything is just a jumble of crazy fights and nonsensical slapstick comedy done in an action movie fashion with enough blood and sexuality to make it mature but silly enough to entertain all audiences.

While Jackie Chan is considered to be the star and has top billing in some internet sites, the reality is that it is Brigitte Lin the one who steals the show, playing Lily, a tough girl with a grenade launcher and a black jacket. She kicks everyone's butts and has to save the day in just about every other sequence. Lin had previously played Black Fox in Golden Queen's Commando and her character has a cameo in the film as one of the possible heroes who can pull off the dangerous mission but it is said that she quit and started a family, pretty funny. Unfortunately she doesn't make it to the end, a lot of characters don't, but she is the shining light of an already curious movie.

There are a lot of very dynamic and fun battle sequences involving several acrobatic feats caught on camera and perfectly staged to make the stunts shine. There are many memorable stretches such as when Lily pulls one of her trick contests at a bar at the beginning of the film, shooting the dress off a tied up girl, as well as a whole middle section with the male characters trapped by an all-female army that ties people down with cloth and is lead by a guy in a tuxedo with his wife. The final battle with the Nazis is also awesome. There's very little in between that doesn't work either so i would say that this is a well balanced and always fast-moving picture.

Very recommended for Hong Kong action movie fans, this is one of the weirdest and most delirious films in the canon and with its good stunts, starpower and constant crazy scenarios it will entertain for all of its length.