An American animation directed by Sam Deats, Adam Deats and Spencer Wan.
Dracula is planning to destroy all humans in the world because religious leaders in a village burned his wife as a witch. Trevor Belmont joins up with Alucard and a female magician from a group known as "Speakers" to stop Dracula's plan.
I really liked this and it held my attention all the way through 12 episodes, but it was not flawless. The plot was complex, with different groups of characters having their own agendas and being involved in different events at different locations. It was clearly presented, making the task of following complex alliances and schemes easy. The animation style looked very new, stylized and slightly Japanese. The black outlines on characters and the detailed backgrounds were what stood out to me most. It actually sounded good. The dialogue, music and sound effects were mixed relatively correctly, but with some extra emphasis on sound effects and more low end response than I expected. I really liked the authentic Slogra and Gaibon fight. Now the problems. There was unmotivated swearing. I'm all for a good curse word, but think that there should be a reason for using them. Alucard and Belmont generally don't work together in the games, but they did in this series. There was also the Speaker magician out of nowhere. Storming Dracula's castle happened a little too quickly. I don't think I've ever gotten through Symphony of the Night in under 7 hours or so, but this happened in under 20 minutes. The ending was disappointing, but I won't spoil that because you should watch this. I rate it good and would recommend it for anyone who likes animated series or the Castlevania games.
An American science fiction directed by Steven S. DeKnight.
A man infected with kaiju programs drone Jaegers to open new rifts and let kaiju back into the world. Some rogue Jaeger scrap collectors become pilots and fight.
Here's the math: 10 minutes of monster fighting in an hour and 50 minute film is no good. The monster fight was not too bad, but it was surrounded by filler. There were plot points that did not connect like the rogue Jaeger and the abandoned factory on the island. I know the antagonist caused that, but it didn't connect to anything else. The story writing was predictable, the dialogue writing was brainless and the acting was painful to watch. I would actually rather see novice actors from indie horror flicks than these "professionals" pretending to mean the trite crap that comes out of their mouths. Obviously, the CG was high quality and very detailed. I also liked the 3 monsters combining to become 1, but all of that took place between 1:18:00 and 1:30:40. Overall, it would have been a better 10 minute YouTube video than a full length movie. Just like Moby Dick would have been a better children's picture book than a 585 page novel. I rate this poor and would not recommend it.
A Chinese animated wuxia directed by Andrew Chen.
A young debt collector makes friends with a ghost who works for a tree demon. He also meets feuding exorcists, one of which helps him.
There were some similarities and differences with this and the live action version. The fast pacing and basic characters and plot matched quite well. This featured a "ghost town", meaning a town inhabited by ghosts instead of a poor, living human town. The animation style was a little more like traditional western cartoons than eastern anime films. Lots of the character designs were simplified, but the backgrounds were rendered more realistically. Another difference is that the hero in this had a pet dog and the live action hero did not. Overall, I thought this was vastly inferior to the live action. Even though the pacing was quick, it was nowhere near the speed of the live action. There was also no climax fight against the tree demon. Everything in this animated version was way too happy, bright and Disney for the story being told. I rate this o.k. If you're really into the series, go ahead and watch it.
An American science fiction directed by Liam O'Donnell, starring Frank Grillo and Bojana Novakovic.
Aliens come to Earth to harvest humans. They bring spaceships and giant robot monsters. A cop's son is turned into an alien and a girl is born infected by alien DNA.
Totally absurd. This seemed like it was written by a middle school student. Again, the actors had a restraining order on microphones and whispered most of the dialogue. The CG was extremely detailed and the giant robot monsters looked cool. There is really nothing else to say about this. I rate it poor and would not recommend watching it.
