User blog:Berserk333/Phantom Rouge review

Sorry to make another blog named this, but this is pretty long and I had to rant. It's a negative review.. I didn't know what to expect from a HxH movie, but not this. For how smart and exciting the show and manga is, this definitely did not deliver for me unfortunately. Anyway, there are spoilers, but I guess everyone's all ready seen it anyway.

Firstly, I was surprised at how bored I was. I love when characters interact in the show and manga, so it's not all about fighting, but when I realized 35 minutes had passed without a fight, I was getting a little worried. Part of it was I knew Pairo and Kurapika's back story, so that didn't help. Mostly since the movie seems more about Killua than Omokage. I'd say about 40% of the film deals with Killua's brother troubles. I really liked the part when fake Illumi stands up from the chair greeting Gon and Killua. It was very sinister. The problem is, fans of the manga and show have seen this all before. They then go on to have the same conversation about three more times in the movie. That Killua should be scared, not to make friends, etc. etc. In fact, the first ten minutes deals with this. It was very lazy, very copy and paste. The oddest scene was after Gon loses his eyes, Killua runs off and feels at his lowest point for letting that happen. He's about to be hit by a freakin' train when Gon saves him again. This makes him feel better when Gon gives him his 15th morale boosting speech. I say it's odd because only 20 seconds ago Gon protected Killua AGAIN. From the TRAIN. That was about to KILL him. On top of that, when they get to the church for the climax, Killua AGAIN freezes in terror at the sight of his fake brother. Huh? What? He needs another speech? I know it's etched into his brain to be scared of him and to run away, but story and writing wise it doesn't work. Not for a movie anyway. Of course the argument could be it's for people who have never seen the show or read the manga, but if that's the case, they wouldn't know who the hell any of these people were or what was going on.

Speaking of fighting... I really would have liked to have some. Besides the Uvogin cameo and the climax,   that was about it. All the other fights are settled within seconds. Even the first Illumi fight just seemed like a beat down. Who of course is suddenly weaker even though he has Gon's eyes. Supposedly giving him a "soul." Another lazy aspect of the movie was, why did fake Illumi have his eyes and not Gon's? Everyone else takes the eyes of the person they sucked them out of. Why was Illumi the exception? How cool would it have been, and traumatizing for Killua, if he saw his brother's body with Gon's eyes? THAT would give me a heart attack if I were him. This could have been an excuse to have him freeze in terror at least. The other thing I love about HxH is the strategies they come up with. When Omokage is shooting at them and Gon's plan is to -run towards him as a shield so Kurapika can run behind- I kind of slapped my head. This was the main boss after all! And since when did Kurapika have to get so close? He snags Uvogin like 100 feet away. Nice of the writers to have seen the show...

I was also surprised at how strangely predictable they made this movie. Everything from Retz being a puppet, to Omokage being her brother, to him having created her somehow. I don't know why they made it all so obvious. I did laugh from being surprised when he sprung up the PT puppets, but only after I scratched my head for an hour and ten minutes wondering why he only seemed to have made 6 puppets or so. I also wondered: are the puppets controlled by Nen? Does Omokage distribute a little bit of his Nen to each like Kastro did with making his double? It would have been better if every time one of them defeated a puppet, Omokage got a little bit of his Nen back and became stronger. This then would have made more sense to have to defeat him first, while all the puppets are around, which of course at the same time makes it hard since there's a bunch of puppets around. If this is the case he must have more Nen than anyone.. except maybe Netero. I would have loved to see him making a puppet. The closest they get is showing him ripping out his sisters eyes, with her puppet form next to him. Also, I have to address, that this would have been a lot more fun if it didn't feel like Naruto's Reanimation Jutsu from Kabuto. Especially when Uvogin, Pakunoda and the Shadow beasts show up.

What exactly are these puppets made of? Punching one in the chest, and cutting off one's head kills it? Are they made of wood? Nen? What? I don't think it's ever explained. If it's wood, you'd think it wouldn't matter, since it's... a puppet. Maybe cutting off Nen threads (similar to what Hisoka uses at one point) would defeat them. It just seemed too easy. Again, going back to Naruto, one of my favorite fights is Sakura against Sasori. It's just done so elegantly and amazingly well. This was just rushed and poorly written, which is weird because you'd think the main villain's Nen power would be explained a bit more. Again, harping on Killua, if maybe half of his scenes were cut out for the antagonist, it would have worked. What was the point of the dream sequence? It really served no purpose.

Where did the fire come from at the end? Did Retz set it? One second they're watching Nobunaga walk away, Kurapika collapses from exhaustion, then they turn around and half the church is on fire. How did she do this? I think it would have been more intimate if as Omokage died, she started fading away as well (again, she's only "alive" because of his Nen) and when the four realize this, there's nothing they can do because she essentially sacrificed her brother and herself. I only figure she's alive because of his Nen, because he says at one point she has free will except for his commands. I guess he forgot to program her not to stab him. Also, the biggest plot hole moment was when the projection PT members vanish because the chains force Omokage into a Zetsu state. And yet, for some reason Retz is able to stab him. How is she being controlled? Does anyone know? Maybe I missed something.

My favorite line was "F**k you, Hisoka!" from Omokage. I know we all have wanted to say that to him at some point. Finally someone had the guts to. Speaking of Hisoka, Omokage angrily yells at Hisoka he'll turn him into a doll (when he's dead I assume.) So why didn't he? Obviously the people the dolls are based on don't need to be alive or dead. How cool would it have been to see a Hisoka vs. Hisoka fight? Also, nice of Nobunaga to keep his promise that Spider's should finish spider business... by being insanely late. Why did the PT just walk passed Hisoka at the end? He admits to not being one of them, attempts to kill their leader, and yet all of them show up for practically no reason, just to threaten him and let him get away? It's not like they were in some long drawn out battle. It seemed very awkwardly handled and poorly written.

The few things I did like was the end of Kurapika and Pairo's fight. Just the look he gives Pairo when he's killed him was pretty touching. The animation and voice work are top notch. All and all I was disappointed and maybe had my expectations too high. Thanks for reading if you got this far! :) Let me know what you think.