K-20 – Die Legende der schwarzen Maske (2008)

K-20 – Die Legende der schwarzen Maske: Directed by Shimako Sato. With Takeshi Kaneshiro, Takako Matsu, Tôru Nakamura, Ryôhei Abe. Set in a fictional Japanese city in 1949, a master criminal hones in on his latest victim.

“Quite frankly I dislike most of the Hollywood comic to screen adaptations that have been made possible with high budget CGI and motion control. The most positive thing about a cheaply made film is that either the makers deliver shoddy goods (nearly every SciFi Channel movie) or they focus on story, drama and comedy which can result in the most satisfying movie.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eK-20 inhabits a world thatu0026#39;s very familiar to comic book readers, alternate history what-if. Here the Japanese have avoided WW2 and have evolved into a strange combination of the Taisho era with the totalitarian leanings of the Showa with technology seemingly mired in the 1920u0026#39;s even though the film is set in the late 1940u0026#39;s. German is used instead of English when a universal language is needed. The film revolves around a Japanese invention that finally brings Teslau0026#39;s dream of wireless energy to fruition. Unfortunately it can also be used as an extremely powerful weapon. u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThe look of the film is excellent and the effects are, as others have pointed out, very good and well conceived. But that is true of many other big budget films like this. What makes this film different is the drama that fleshes out the fantasy. Itu0026#39;s not perfect, some of the acting is old-school over-acting, the main characters are very familiar to anyone with familiarity with Japanese entertainment especially the Dukeu0026#39;s daughter. And there are some moments that strain the vieweru0026#39;s credibility but The Dark Knight had moments like that as well. Overall the film ended and I had enjoyed myself.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThere are way worse ways to spend your time, (The Spirit anyone?) hopefully this film will see a wide release.”