GANTZ: The Movie Impressions

Last night, the worldwide premiere of the live action GANTZ movie allowed fans of the popular manga and those curious to watch in theaters before those in Japan when it comes out on the 29th. The actors of the two main characters, Kazunari Ninomiya (of Arashi fame) and Kenichi Matsuyama (Death Note, Detroit Metal City), even made their way to Hollywood to introduce the film and hold a Q&A session in front of screaming, adoring fans. Was it all worth it in the end? Find out after the jump.

It just so happened that I found out something that would have prevented me from buying a ticket in the first place the day of the screening: English dubbing. I raged for a very long time but I had to face the fact that I already have a ticket and a friend is coming along so much pride had to be swallowed. Now as for the actual movie itself, I believe it pieced together the main plot lines from the first eight volumes, subtracted a bunch of characters (including the lovely Reika), and really left a lot to be desired. That said, a pretty decent budget was put into the movie considering the cast and the great CG effects used during the fight scenes. Unfortunately, and perhaps this is a personal complaint, the lot of the movie was extremely dark thus making it hard to make out what exactly was going on especially since the missions occur during the night time. As far as live action adaptations go, GANTZ certainly wasn't the worst but slow pacing hurt the viewing experience when exciting fight scenes weren't happening.

Now, back to the dubbing issue. As expected, it was not a good dub job but saying that simply doesn't cut it. It has to be the worst dub jub I've ever heard in recent time. Just when I thought the industry is actually giving a crap about quality English voice acting, it seems like it's only regressing and very quickly, too. I really don't see how whoever is responsible thought it would be a brilliant idea to half ass a dub with ESL-level amateurs that they probably picked off the streets in some Chinatown. Subbing would have been just fine, thank you very much.

As one particularly loud individual said as we left the theater, they wished they could use the hundred points in GANTZ to erase their memories and free themselves from such an atrocity of a screening. I couldn't help but laugh and agree. Judging by a trailer, part two is supposed to be coming out fairly soon as they filmed it all already and it looks a little more promising even if it does seem to skip a lot of content. At least, I'm pretty sure it'll introduce Reika, thank goodness. Now I really want to go back and try to remember where I left off in the manga...