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Avalon (2001) r
Ever wondered what would happen if an anime legend went to shoot a live action movie to Poland? Wonder no more...
A young woman named Ash is a professional player of an illegal virtual reality game called Avalon. The game is addictive, potentially dangerous and contains secrets people are willing to risk their lives for. She learns how to reach a secret area from which none has returned and is ready to go.
Avalon is thematically close to Cronenberg's eXistenZ. It deals with questions about reality, existence and to some degree isolation. It doesn't offer fully explained answers and it seems to be open to different interpretations. I usually like when answering is left to viewer but the end of Avalon felt little anti-climatic (was the whole film just telling us that the world changes and future is unknown?).
Visually the film is weird. Most of it is shot through a heavy sepia filter and has kinda overexposed look to it (the effect is more pronounced within the game). Cinematography itself is good and there are lots of beautifully built scenes. At times the smallish budget shows but majority of effects are actually quite nice (and it helps that Polish army lent tanks and helicopters for free).
Script is little on and off. The combination of European style and Japanese story feels messy at times. The game concept has some issues but at least it's much more sensible than in Ready Player One. Characters are very simplistic (one can wonder if there was an actual reason for this). The end feels little cheap and throughout the film there's a constant feeling of getting more style than substance.
Slow and beautiful scifi where the story is just a surface but which may not be as deep as it tries. Back in the day I rated it 9/10 but after rewatch I'll lower that a bit. Still a good movie though.
Ever wondered what would happen if an anime legend went to shoot a live action movie to Poland? Wonder no more...
A young woman named Ash is a professional player of an illegal virtual reality game called Avalon. The game is addictive, potentially dangerous and contains secrets people are willing to risk their lives for. She learns how to reach a secret area from which none has returned and is ready to go.
Avalon is thematically close to Cronenberg's eXistenZ. It deals with questions about reality, existence and to some degree isolation. It doesn't offer fully explained answers and it seems to be open to different interpretations. I usually like when answering is left to viewer but the end of Avalon felt little anti-climatic (was the whole film just telling us that the world changes and future is unknown?).
Visually the film is weird. Most of it is shot through a heavy sepia filter and has kinda overexposed look to it (the effect is more pronounced within the game). Cinematography itself is good and there are lots of beautifully built scenes. At times the smallish budget shows but majority of effects are actually quite nice (and it helps that Polish army lent tanks and helicopters for free).
Script is little on and off. The combination of European style and Japanese story feels messy at times. The game concept has some issues but at least it's much more sensible than in Ready Player One. Characters are very simplistic (one can wonder if there was an actual reason for this). The end feels little cheap and throughout the film there's a constant feeling of getting more style than substance.
Slow and beautiful scifi where the story is just a surface but which may not be as deep as it tries. Back in the day I rated it 9/10 but after rewatch I'll lower that a bit. Still a good movie though.