Nemesis 2: Nebula (1995) Movie Review

Nemesis 2: Nebula is a 1995 sci-fi action film written and directed by Albert Pyun. It's the second installment in the Nemesis film series and introduces the character of Alex Sinclair to the franchise, who will take the leading role from Alex Rain. She is played by bodybuilder and actress Sue Price, who would go on to reprise her role in the three following movies. In fact, this film and Nemesis 3 were shot back-to-back.

In a future overruned by mechanical overlords, the robots are about to kill a rebel woman who is with the human resistance, she sends a genetically-enhanced baby back to the 20th century. The child, named Alex Sinclair, ends up in an African village and grows up to become the best warrior around, impressing the chief of the tribe and defeating her fellow warriors in combat. A monstrous robotic entity known as Nebula hunts the now adult and fully formed Alex throughout the desert landscape. 

What I really love about this movie is probably how it becomes a very personal odyssey and achieves a very surreal and dream-like tone by having a fractured narrative that allows the film to either slow down on the ritualistic and contemplative moments of discovery and journey for the protagonist while also functioning as a very slick and well-crafted action movie on a very low budget. The typical drawbacks of a small production are present, like the fact that the film feels very empty due to the lack of locations and extras, making things seem very desolate. At first I thought it was a post-apocalyptic movie because of it but that's really only in the first scenes, the rest takes place in our era. However, this works in the film's favor as it accentuates the dream-like quality, abstracting time and place from normal and average real life, entering into a different realm it can play around in. 

The action is fast and with all of its perfectly cut and assembled sequences there's very little room for fat while making things still very legible. The places Pyun shoots in are very well handled and look very rich visually, specially with those old-school practical effects that reached a high point in the nineties even in poor productions. The stunts are also very professional and quite well executed, every fight has weight and every shootout has a very strong sense of place and rhythm. The visual effects such as slow motion and image manipulation to achieve the unreal visuals and movement are decently implemented and make the film more peculiar. It is expected for Pyun to be good at action, but I also liked how he worked with the actors, especially Sue Price, who gives us a very nice performance even if obviously most of her work has to rely on her physicality and body language, something she still accomplishes with more than just efficiency.

The sci-fi plot is rather thin and somewhat simplistic, but that also works in its favor since it helps to keep things streamlined and allows the film to move at a brisk pace without wasting much time on anything that isn't part of its thematic exploration or just the joy of constructing inventive action or using some great lighting and neat textures due to its splendid cinematography. This really does feel like someone with a B-movie budget trying to make the most out of it and making it work.

While these low budget science fiction B-movies are kind of an acquired taste, I gotta say that I do recommend this one to anyone who enjoys their nineties direct to video flicks and for those who enjoy beefy action heroines and wanna see more of them in media, which we should.  

Gall Force 2: Destruction (1987) Anime OVA Review

Gall Force 2: Destruction is a 1987 science fiction OVA directed by Katsuhito Akiyama and written by Hideki Kakinuma, featuring the voices of Hiromi Tsuru, Naoko Watanabe, Yûko Mizutani, Waka Kanda and Chieko Honda. It’s a sequel to Gall Force Eternal Story (1986) and the second in the Gall Force original trilogy, made by a lot of the same creative team.

The seemingly eternal war between the Paranoids and the Solnoids it's still strong ten years after the Star Leaf incident. Fierce pilot Lufy is found and revived, long after being left floating in deep space during the last film. She is picked up by a Solnoid cruiser and after her recovery remembers very little outside of recognizing Catty, or at least someone who resembles her. She is then informed that the home planet for both factions at war has been destroyed and that they now plan to go to the 9th system and put an end to their conflict.

This time taking one of the more unique and stand out characters from the first movie, Lufy, this OVA follows her trying to cope with the events that took place in Eternal Story, with human life developing in Terra while Lufy and her new allies try to battle the Paranoids on their way to the planet where the unification of their species took place as the war practically destroys everything it touches. A lot of the epicness and fluid starship encounters are still awesome and breathtaking but you can tell this one went direct to video just by noticing the length of the film.

Once again, the collectivist attitude permeates the whole movie. Simply trading the colorful main group from the original with some similar-but-not-really new girls who, while not being badly designed, are not as particularly striking and visually arresting as the first crew. Most of them are not as remarkable and the color coding does very little compared to the rainbow rule that gave the original crew their iconic look. Another issue is that because the length of the OVA's from here on becomes so short you don't really have time to warm up to many of them and we end up with stories that end just before the conflict could get any more juicy and reach a greater climax. It's not like what we have seen seems bad, but it simply can't leave some space to develop even further, which I guess it's a compliment to want more of something.

The action is again quite wonderful and inventive. We don't get as much variety due to the short duration of the OVA but the spacecraft battles with so many laser beams, missiles and explosions to dazzle you are more than enough to entertain. Makes sense that this type of combat would be the primary focus since Lufy is known for being an expert pilot and now that we follow her she can show off her talent in extended space action sequences.

Very recommended if you enjoyed the first one, even people who disliked that they got rid of Lufy in the first movie might like this sequel.