Director: Ken'ichi Fujiwara
Year: 2019
Country: Japan
Alternate Titles: Aian gâru: Final Wars
Genre: Action/Sci-Fi
Plot:
In the middle of a war-ravaged Japan, a woman manages to meet up with another guy who's part of the resistance corps looking into why the Artificial Intelligence program JUDA is sending out murderous cyborgs looking for a specific girl. That leads her to a young girl who's also part of the resistance group but is continually fearful of the dreams she has of Chris dying in battle even though they never met before. After battling the JUDA movement's latest cyborg, they both learn the true meaning of their connection together and race to stop the two groups from unleashing Armageddon on Earth.
Review:
Overall, there was quite a lot to like with this one. Among it's better qualities is the fun and engaging story that offers up quite a lot of wild and frantic action scenes. From the opening shootout at the bar that includes the revelation of her being a cyborg by surviving multiple gunshots and sprouts laser-beam weaponry that starts the film off in a flashy manner, the influx of cyborgs into the animated fight scenes has a lot to like. The low-budget nature doesn't allow for much beyond the grounded brawling to be featured here so we get continuous flashes of brief fights, shootouts and confrontations that get a special boost due to the addition of a cyborg to the scenes. That leaves this with some solid action, including the raid on the alliance headquarters that lets the two cyborgs get together as well as the soldiers squaring off in order to protect the girl. With the finale taking place within the terrorist headquarters which manages to get plenty of fun swordplay and some rather big special effects for the cyborgs to have some solid set-pieces.
As well as this fine action, the film also gets some great reasoning for all this fighting. This is due to the fun story that has quite a lot to like with how well-detailed it really is. Concerning the exploits of the various groups left alive after an apocalypse has affected mankind and the eventual discovery of cyborgs created by dead people that have altered the resistances' plans, this setup works nicely to generate the motivations for the action. As the Resistance tries to ascertain the truth about the terrorist group JUDA's intentions to kidnap her to use for their own evil deeds in trying to get to their headquarters, there's some better than expected work here at detailing the various tactics employed to gain the upper hand. That the flashbacks to their human selves and the memories that are given here really fill in the blanks for a lot of the extra beats in the story come together nicely and give this one a lot to like.
There are a few issues to be had here. The main problem is an absolutely frustrating and maddening pace that really leaves a lot to be desired. The film tends to stop and go several times at various intervals, employing action scenes only to stop them to drag on to other tangential storylines during these moments. To go into the fight scenes involving the cyborgs going at each other and then follow those scenes up with the unnecessary and overlong sequence of the loner going through the weapons demonstration with the excitable haggler that's got nothing to do with the rest of the film, isn't all that funny and just serves to enhance the running time. Other scenes include the strange meeting held that introduces a romantic interest to their relationship but goes nowhere with it and forces the film to keep shrugging off the action to later parts of the film so it's running time is quite unbalanced with more setups in the finale. That these action scenes manage to showcase how ill-at-ease she is as an action hero, barely able to perform rudimentary martial arts moves and blocks or really look at that impressive in the swordplay scenes, also undermines this making it hard to believe she's a capable fighter. These issues hold the film back.
Overview: **/5
With plenty of enjoyable elements and only a few minor flaws that are somewhat more detrimental than expected, there's enough to make this watchable enough if not being an altogether impressive effort. Give this a chance if you're into these kinds of low-budget Japanese action/sci-fi films or want to finish off the rest of the series, while those that are looking for something more substantial should heed caution.
This review was originally published on Asian Movie Pulse and is gratefully reprinted with their cooperation.
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