Landlock (original) (raw)

Oct 16, 2010

I'm always drawn to the evocative art stylings of Masamune Shirow, who is one of the very best at character designs and visuals, but if he had written Landlock, this could've been a much better movie that didn't simply just look really good. Instead of what should've been a pretty entertaining fantasy epic turns into a mildly contrived, relatively boring endeavor.
It starts off strange, with the protagonist speaking in an introductory monolouge, but then little is explained or told to you as things begin to immediately happen with little rhyme or reason. If this had been fleshed out over a course of... one act as opposed to seven minutes, it would've been more effective. I was lost, but pieced thing together as events clumsily unfolded shortly thereafter. The plot is very simple, but so much vital information is either not given to you, or rushed so fast it has no impact. It's like if Green Legend Ran was hacked into bullet points, with people getting kidnapped every ten minutes.
The characters aren't that great, but I've seen worse. The problem relates to the plot, as everything regarding the mystique of relationship shared between the origins of Ansa, Luda, and Agahali. I wasn't given a lot of time to know these people that well, so it's hard to care about them. Stunning reveals don't pack the same emotional punch when you're not given much reason to get behind your heroes. The villian is predictable, and isn't built up to be much of a threat, quite honestly. He plays by the numbers with no surprises whatsoever. The other support characters don't add much, except for Volk. He rules. At least with Shirow's art, the cast looks very good.
Above all, the sound is probably the worst aspect of Landlock. It's old, but for goodness sake, the audio sounds like it was recorded through a pillow. And the English dub is atrocious enough that 4KidsTV dubbing sounds like an orchestra by comparison.
IN CLOSING: Once you get over the clunky hump of the goofy first act, it turns into a moderate adventure movie with some decent action scenes. It's worth checking out if you're in the mood for a mediocre fantasy title, just don't expect anything stellar.

STORY: 5
ART: 7
SOUND: 3
CHARACTERS: 5
RE-WATCH VALUE: 6
OVERALL SCORE: 6 out of 10

PROS: Nice artwork, C movie-level atmosphere makes it a little fun
CONS: Poor plot, bad English dub, weak characters

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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