But aren't all reviews opinionated anyway?

Yamichan16 wrote:

But aren't all reviews opinionated anyway?

Yes and no. Yes it will be someone's opinion, but it shouldn't be so biased to the point where its obvious they are ignoring some of the faults of the movie. A review will always be slightly biased in some way, but at the same time you should be aiming to make it as unbiased as possible, if that makes sense?

Yeah that does make sense. I have you seen any other reviews out there?

Not yet. I haven't really gone searching for them. I've seen enough QQ drama on tumblr about it so I'm getting kind of tired about it. :/

Theres drama over this? Wow and this the reason why I rarely join fandom sites.

There are just some I've seen defending the film so much to the point where they are getting angry over people that say they don't like it or say that the actors can't act or whatever. But thats just tumblr. drama is all over that place like white on rice. lol

Pretty much the same on youtube as well now.

I usually don't read youtube comments now because I see fights break out and most of the time they have nothing to do with video. As for tumblr I usually reblog stuff I like and liveblog episodes of Teen Titans with my tumblr friends.

As for people defending the film I understand that they enjoy it and don't want people to bash it. But they need to understand that saying you don't like it isnt bashing. Everyone's opinion is different. I wish people and fandoms understand that. Oh well :/

Brit-chan wrote:

Yamichan16 wrote:

I was somewhat disappointed in Moon Kitty's review. I was hoping he would break it down bit by bit. Though I glad I wasn't the only that had issues with Beryl talking and Luna.

I can't watch his whole review on it. He's just too biased imo. I think he is pretty close with the people that made the film, especially with the crazy amount of advertising he's done for the film in comparison to the other fanfilms that are in the works right now.

I actually quite agree with both of your statements, Brit-chan and Yami. I was thinking his review wasn't going to be that great because of his standards with the manga. I was actually quite surprised overall by his reaction and the fact that he didn't mind the inconsistencies of the movie (although he had issues with that in the manga).

I really, really like it. It looks interesting and really well done for a $5000 budget. I think they used their resources very well.

Personally, I think it's great there is people talking about Sailor Moon. Since its epic awesome, I think everyone should know about it

I couldn't understand what Beryl was saying due to the weird effects they put in her voice.

I thought Beryl looked great! I loved that she had a snake wrapped around her. I just wished I knew what she said :/

Yamichan16 wrote:

I thought Beryl looked great! I loved that she had a snake wrapped around her. I just wished I knew what she said :/

I think my only problem with Beryl was her hair. I thought it looked like a frizzy mess. Beryl's hair supposed to be wavy, but not the way it there. There's a difference between making wavy hair and having it crazy frizzy like it was. But besides that, I thought her costume and make up was pretty great. Actually, I liked all the costumes in the movie. I thought it was clever to reference the original manga design as her costume.

It's just everything else I've complained about so far that puts it off for me. lol

To condense two pages of posts down to one, I agree with Brit. This film was very ambitious but lacked in other areas. I'll admit these were most apparent to me, a film student.

MoonKitty's review is far too generous. To anyone who wants to read an in-depth review of the film that addresses acting, script, cinematography, music and all the like, I have posted one on my tumblr.

http://laurennakaowinn.tumblr.com/post/13814237828/sailor-moon-the-movie-2011-review

Hey folks,

With all the chat going on this, I had to check it out. Let's just say overall I'm no too impressed with it. And it's not for the work that goes into it, and not for the folks that were doing it. Overall it just seems "off" to me.

I realize that trying to do a live action version is rather difficult, but there are more than a few things that are hard to buy in this, but there were a few things I did enjoy:

Nick Uhas as Endymion and as Darien are good overall, and looks like something he can be built off of if this continues. As Tuxedo Mask... eh. The mask kind of kills the costume there.

Avery Danielle as Serenity/Bunny/Sailor Moon.....hmm is all I can say. I don't know, I just have a hard time buying it. Age and look are the first things that came to mind for me as problems. Too much makeup came next. Although I didn't have any problems with her "Make Up" line, or the "Punish You" line, and the Sailor Moon costume was pretty good too.

As a couple together, I have a small gripe with their heights as the difference should be larger. Although in some critiques that I've done previously on the SM musicals I have griped about height differential there too. Although I suppose doing it is easier said than done.

Liv Rose as Beryl.... ok I'll buy the whole creepy thing vibe. The dark silhouette with the staff was rather cool, the costume ok, the voice ok, the snake was a nice touch, but the contacts used for her eyes seemed to deter from the whole thing.

Luna....yikes is all I'm going to say.

Let's see... Naru and Melvin.... again I have to admit I had a hard time buying either of them.

Although the Sailor V game (I believe) was a nice add on in the arcade.

Perhaps the saving grace were the two officers in this. I have to admit I enjoyed them more than most of everything else, and easily had the best lines of the bunch.

I also enjoyed the opening music, a little long but overall good.

Overall final score for this would easily qualify as "work in progress." I realize limited budget and other things can cause hindrances, but if the acting, scripts, and plot are done well a lot of that can be ignored. As an experiment, I watched it once and then listened to it again by playing it with my monitor off. Without my eyes to distract me (and point out all the flaws I kept seeing), I have to admit that I wasn't too impressed with what I heard either.

Sorry but this one just didn't fit the bill for me.

laters,

RRViper
(although that Grayson clip that was on the first page? Saw that as well, and the first thing that came to mind when it was done was "Dude, I'd pay to go see that!")

Reiko, nice review! I'm glad you covered everything in the film!

@Reiko: Now that's what I call a review! Well done!

I have to admit, I didn't watch the whole thing, but I'm so glad that they made the film, regardless of the quality and/or substance. With the manga re-releases, hopefully, we'll see more fan projects!

Reiko, thanks for the wonderful review! That was what I was looking for!


The cinematography was something that bothered me, but I didn't quite understand what it was. You explained it perfectly for someone who has no idea on that sort of thing.

Great and complete review Reiko!

Thanks for the feedback, everyone. I'm glad you all enjoyed it - it makes me feel like less of a prick for writing such an obnoxiously long review. I was worried it might have been two harsh but I tried to highlight the good and the bad.

innocentvenus wrote:

Reiko, thanks for the wonderful review! That was what I was looking for!

The cinematography was something that bothered me, but I didn't quite understand what it was. You explained it perfectly for someone who has no idea on that sort of thing.

Thank you! The cinematography was a particular issue with me because I study videography. I didn't want to put this in the review (but since I'm being obnoxious anyway...) I felt that I could have shot it better than their cinematographer or at least designed the camera motions better. I dunno. I've spoken to the producers before and conveyed my desire to work with them. They said if I ever make it out to NY that I'm welcome. Though this was before I released the review which might make them retract their invitations :lolz:

Edit: Aww Yamichan thanks for liking the post!

Well Reiko, if they judge your observations were correct, they might want to work with you right away!

It sure would help them!

JoJiaMystie wrote:

Well Reiko, if they judge your observations were correct, they might want to work with you right away!

It sure would help them!

Hope so. I posted this somewhere on this board but it's a dream of mine to work on a live action Sailor Moon production.

Your welcome for liking it! ^^ I enjoyed it very much. Never thought about teh camera angled until you mentioned it in your view. I'm glad I'm not only one that thought Kris and Eric should not be in it.

I'm glad that you were able to put a good perspective on the cinemtography, while I can sit here and pull apart some of the script and acting (there are a lot of things that just don't work for me at all), I certainly don't have the experience you do for the technical video work, Reiko. So awesome review on that!

I know I stated this in my original post, but I have to honestly say, the two things that put the whole movie off for me were the portrayal of Naru and the way the fight scene was conducted. I didn't really go into too much detail before so I'll just do it now.

Naru was very off character. She was too valley girl. I would have preferred someone to try to do a bad rendition of the Dic DUB version of Naru/Molly. I'll take a bad Brooklyn accent over that boy crazy valley girl representation of one of my favorite side characters. Naru is supposed to be fairly intelligent and not too overly boy crazy (especially not in the manga, a bit more so in the anime). But she had a tendency to not freak out about cute guys. In fact, Naru never even once seemed interested in Motoki at the arcade in any versions of Sailor Moon (anime, manga, PGSM...) I really just don't get it.

The other thing is when Tuxedo Mask shows up during the fight scene. He pretty much just takes over the fight while Sailor Moon flails about (yeah she killed the monster, but it was by accident and not by her at least attempting to fight). Now, normally, if I were in the situation, I think freaking out in the corner while someone else is beating up the bad guy would be a normal reaction. That might be normal of any teenage girl. Except the whole point of Sailor Moon is about her being AWESOME and kicking butt even if she's terrified and flailing about!

In the Anime, Manga, and PGSM, Sailor Moon manages to hold her own by herself. Despite how weirded out she is by transforming, she still goes to save Naru on her own accord (which you know, i think the attack would have been a bit better if it had been a monster attacking Naru, but ok can't have everything my way i guess lol) and manages on her own (crying and wailing the whole way...). She receives the help of Luna, but Luna is more like a vocal guidance for her. That is like the whole essence of Sailor Moon. Girls kicking butt on their own, being awesome doing things without the help of some "prince charming" or whatever to save the day. Tuxedo Mask is really supposed to be like side support.

Having him take over the entire fight just...really defeats the purpose of Sailor Moon to me. And the way the scene was shot and handled with Tuxedo telling her to run. Like, yeah Tuxedo is supposed to be a bit stand offish and such...but a controlling jerk? Hm. Where are my corny lines like... "Crying isn't going to solve anything, Sailor Moon!" (Which haha ironic enough crying sort of did in that first episode). I think if that pivotal scene had been handled better between the script and camera work. I would have had a lot less complaints about the film. I could have maybe even tolerated Naru.

Anyway, I have to say, I have that opening song stuck in my head. It was really pretty... In fact, I really like that whole opening song sequence in general.

Now if only poor Luna could be redone. I know animation 3D models is hard (i've tried it and failed horribly) but if you're going to include it, try not to make your cat look like a demon. Like if anything, they could have gotten away with a slightly more stylized cuter cat. Because the part where they show her silhouette was really great, but all the up close shots...ugh. Poor poor Luna.

Ok, well I think I'm pretty much done stating how I feel on this. I just can't help it because i enjoy critiquing films and its a film about something very precious to me so I'm going to be an extra hard critic.

Brit-chan wrote:

Naru was very off character. She was too valley girl. I would have preferred someone to try to do a bad rendition of the Dic DUB version of Naru/Molly. I'll take a bad Brooklyn accent over that boy crazy valley girl representation of one of my favorite side characters. Naru is supposed to be fairly intelligent and not too overly boy crazy (especially not in the manga, a bit more so in the anime). But she had a tendency to not freak out about cute guys. In fact, Naru never even once seemed interested in Motoki at the arcade in any versions of Sailor Moon (anime, manga, PGSM...) I really just don't get it.

The other thing is when Tuxedo Mask shows up during the fight scene. He pretty much just takes over the fight while Sailor Moon flails about (yeah she killed the monster, but it was by accident and not by her at least attempting to fight). Now, normally, if I were in the situation, I think freaking out in the corner while someone else is beating up the bad guy would be a normal reaction. That might be normal of any teenage girl. Except the whole point of Sailor Moon is about her being AWESOME and kicking butt even if she's terrified and flailing about!

In the Anime, Manga, and PGSM, Sailor Moon manages to hold her own by herself. Despite how weirded out she is by transforming, she still goes to save Naru on her own accord (which you know, i think the attack would have been a bit better if it had been a monster attacking Naru, but ok can't have everything my way i guess lol) and manages on her own (crying and wailing the whole way...). She receives the help of Luna, but Luna is more like a vocal guidance for her. That is like the whole essence of Sailor Moon. Girls kicking butt on their own, being awesome doing things without the help of some "prince charming" or whatever to save the day. Tuxedo Mask is really supposed to be like side support.

Having him take over the entire fight just...really defeats the purpose of Sailor Moon to me. And the way the scene was shot and handled with Tuxedo telling her to run. Like, yeah Tuxedo is supposed to be a bit stand offish and such...but a controlling jerk? Hm. Where are my corny lines like... "Crying isn't going to solve anything, Sailor Moon!" (Which haha ironic enough crying sort of did in that first episode). I think if that pivotal scene had been handled better between the script and camera work. I would have had a lot less complaints about the film. I could have maybe even tolerated Naru.

Naru was a big problem for me. Her character reminded me of a non-druggy, less hyper version of Kris' Sailor Venus in SMA. Or maybe she was trying hard to work with a personality so far from her own. I've met Kris twice at our local (NY/NJ) anime con at my panels and she acts nothing like that. Then again, I still don't understand why Naru would even act like that to begin with since you're right; she never has before. It could also be because they were trying way too hard to set this up as America so they resorted to those old stereotypes.

I also had a problem with Melvin being way too creepy. Did he really sniff Bunny before running off? That's not Melvin's character either. I actually missed that the first two times I watched it.

Maybe Tuxedo Mask's controlling nature was supposed to show the parallels of their previous lives and present? Like it was supposed to be a reflection of the scene with Endymion and Serenity? I rewatched it completely for a third time and his performance really did remind me of Edward Cullen. Even some of his expressions were pretty close. I can see why my brother said that lol.

innocentvenus wrote:

Maybe Tuxedo Mask's controlling nature was supposed to show the parallels of their previous lives and present? Like it was supposed to be a reflection of the scene with Endymion and Serenity? I rewatched it completely for a third time and his performance really did remind me of Edward Cullen. Even some of his expressions were pretty close. I can see why my brother said that lol.

That may be true, and I did see it as them trying to parallel the scene between the past and present, but at the same time. The present Sailor Moon is completely different from Serenity and is more like a matured warrior version of Serenity. The Serenity of the past was naive and weak, what makes Usagi/ sailor Moon more interesting is she is trained as a warrior in order to be able to protect those she loves instead of having to watch them die again (though we all know what happens in the anime/manga, but she is able to over come it all and mature as a person and still manages to save everyone in the end!)

I think the problem is (and this might change with the rest of it), is that it seems like they're focusing almost solely on the love story. Love transcends time and space and all that. In fact, I think they spent way too much time establishing it. We have the song in the morning playing for both Darien and Bunny which asks "Where are you now?" and even states "I didn't see this coming" which establishes the fact that they are reborn due to the Moon Kingdom's demise and gives the feeling of two souls trying to reconnect to one another. It actually is a bit a redundant when I think about it, especially after the awesome opening song. Then we have the whole fight at the end with is the reflection of the past.

Wish I could explain this better.

Really, as much as I love the whole Moon Kingdom sequence I think it actually hinders the film. It's almost as though they're stuck in the confines of it and funnels the story into just a love story without the ass kicking and girl-power. It should of stayed as a mystery as it did in the original source material.

I think it is a great project, and was very well done. Even with the budget they had the costumes, actors, graphics, and music is great. I love how the transformation sequence isn't really too flashy as it is a live action movie.
Luna did freak me out, and it was difficult to hear her when she spoke but other than that I have no problems with it.

Is it just me or when they use the name Bunny, it comes off as a little stripper'ish? I would have preferred Serena for this version. Using the Japanese names seem really out of place in this "American'ized" version.

I feel the same way like most people in this thread, there were the goods, but there were the bads. I read a very constructive comment on a tumblr review the other day stating how they should have casted all of the parts (like Naru, Melvin) with actors and not people who were apart of the crew, which does make sense because their acting was not up to par and corny.

Overall the acting in general felt forced, not natural, fake in a way. It cut up the flow of the story, it distracted me.

Kudos to the team, I am really glad people are still really dedicated to the franchise.

LET SAILOR MOON LIVE ON FOREVER!

nyko wrote:

LET SAILOR MOON LIVE ON FOREVER!

VIVA LA SERA MUUUN! XD