{"id":18117,"date":"2019-04-05T16:03:51","date_gmt":"2019-04-05T23:03:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cinemastance.com\/?p=18117"},"modified":"2019-04-05T16:03:51","modified_gmt":"2019-04-05T23:03:51","slug":"blu-ray-review-terra-formars-2016","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/?p=18117","title":{"rendered":"Blu-ray Review: TERRA FORMARS (2016)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This Special Edition Blu-ray release from Arrow Video is currently available for purchase (www.arrowvideo.com \u2013 www.facebook.com\/ArrowVideo\/).<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Japanese director Takashi Miike is famous for making an\nincredible variety of features in numerous genres. Of course, he’s perhaps best\nknown for creating some of the scariest and most disturbing movies of recent\ntimes, including Audition<\/em> (1999), Ichi the Killer<\/em> (2001) and One\nMissed Call<\/em> (2003), but was also praised for the stirring, gorgeous (and\nviolent) samurai flick, 13 Assassins<\/em> (2010). Terra Formars<\/em>, based\non a hugely popular manga comic and anime series of the same name, is another\ncurious and unexpected step in the career of this intriguing filmmaker. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

One can understand why Terra Formars<\/em> didn’t get much\nof a release in North America. It certainly won’t appeal\nto the average moviegoer and for many (like myself) who are completely unfamiliar\nwith the property, the finished product is completely and utterly bonkers. Sure,\nthe story and plotting may unfold in an traditional manner, but there’s an unhinged\ncraziness to the proceedings that is quite unlike anything that would be\npresent in a production from this part of world. The film definitely has its share\nof problems, but I couldn’t help but be entertained by all the bizarreness\nunfolding before me. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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In the future, the environmental plight of Earth will become\nextremely dire, leading the government to begin a terraforming project on Mars.\nIn an effort to make the red planet habitable, vegetation and insect life is\nintroduced. Some 500 years later, outlaws Shokichi Komachi (Hideaki Ito) and\nNanao Akita (Emi Takei) are on the run for murder and find themselves taken\ninto custody. Sinister scientist Ko Honda (Shun Oguri) forces the pair to choose\nbetween death or performing a government mission. Grouped together with\ncriminals including a terrorist, a serial killer, two Yakuza members, the\nleader of a child prostitution ring, a computer hacker as well as others in trouble\nwith the law, the group are sent to Mars and told that their job is to wipe out\nall of the planet’s surviving cockroaches. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Not long after arriving, they discover that the bugs have\nevolved into a massive, muscular humanoid force ready for battle. The heroes\nalso discover a government conspiracy back home and learn that Honda has\nadapted their own DNA prior to the trip in a\npeculiar fashion. Team members are given vials for injections that can briefly\nturn them into various insect\/human hybrids. As mentioned by one of the more dejected\ncharacters, “We’re the Earth’s rubbish, being sent in a metal coffin to\nclean up Mars’ rubbish.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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What follows is chaos as the group come under attack and their\nship is damaged, forcing survivors to venture towards an older ship to salvage\nrepair parts and potentially escape. These sequences are absolutely crazy, as characters realize\ntheir only recourse is to inject themselves, and transform into a wasp-man,\npreying mantis-lady and other combos as they fight to the death. It gets\nviolent and bloody very quickly, as Miike has no issues with mercilessly wiping\nout characters almost out of the blue. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Some of the cast do make an impression with their very over-the-top\npersonas. Still, with the exception of the leads (whom flashbacks provide more\ninfo on as events play out), there are so many people involved viewers don’t\nget enough time to know them all. Truthfully, this issue will likely be more of\na problem with North American viewers. To Japanese audiences, all of the actors\nare familiar and have a long history of playing certain types of roles, bringing\nthose known qualities with them to this film. But for the rest of us, they\naren’t as many opportunities to stand out. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, this reviewer focused on the impressive visuals and the general nuttiness on display as the team take on bug characteristics and get involved in violent skirmishes with enormous cockroaches. Ever thought you’d see a serial killer turn into an insect, have a rear spiracle grow from his mouth and expel gas, and then use the, well, kinda gross power to propel a military vehicle across the desert at a remarkably rapid rate of speed? Or wonder what happens when you inject yourself with too much serum? You’ll see it all in this film. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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By no means is this a classic, but it is a fascinating\nB-movie with its tongue planted firmly in cheek. In some respects, it feels\nlike the director is trying to create a more commercial property for the big\nscreen, yet can’t help but insert his own doses of eccentricity into the\nproceedings. And personally, I don’t believe that taking a somber and more\nserious approach would have worked; the movie benefits more from taking a\nsimple, and frankly, goofier approach to the material.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If nothing else, the movie looks incredible. Despite having\nbudget limitation, the scale is still grand and appears much more costly than\nit ultimately was. This reviewer was particularly impressed with the production\ndesign and lighting, especially in the cramped futuristic environments city and\nspacecrafts. The team also make use of floating monitors and computer screens,\nwhich often hang mid-air around the players. Overall, the film has a\ndistinctive look. Of course, the practical make-up effects are also impressive.\nThe big-eyed killer cockroaches and the transformed bug versions of the leads\nare also equal parts goofy and unsettling. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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It’s a very recent title, and as such the image quality on\nthe disc is crystal clear and striking. Images are superbly sharp, and the neon\nand video monitor-tinged background sets are incredibly detailed. There’s no\nway that the movie itself could look any crisper than it does on this release.\nThis is a phenomenal-looking Blu-ray that will impress Miike fans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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And there are bonuses present as well. This Special Edition\nincludes a 90 minute documentary on the making of the movie, which does provide\nextra insight. The first half of the running time collects the director and actors\ntogether for various interviews in which they talk about what drew them to the\nproject, the challenges involved, and their histories together. It also displays\nthe technical details involved in making a film with so much CGI\nimagery and special effects. Essentially, much of the feature was shot in front\nof a green screen, with only a spaceship set and a city location being\nconstructed. Considering how much was created in post-production, the work\nlooks all the more remarkable. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some other curious bits of trivia include the revelation\nthat director Miike himself ended up donning on a form-fitting suit for the\ndigital effects team, and essayed one of the threatening and brutally violent cockroaches\nhimself – it’s a fun little cameo for those in the know. Another interesting\nbit brought to light is that the Martian landscapes inserted into the\nbackground were shot in Iceland\nimmediately after principal photography. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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There’s more on this Blu-ray, including lengthier interviews\nwith some of the cast members which include extra comments and tidbits not included\nin the documentary. Additionally, there is also short blooper reel, and\nmultiple trailers for the movie that played on cinema screens in Japan.    <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alas, in its homeland Terra Formars<\/em> didn’t end up being\na box office success. Perhaps fans were already too familiar with the existing\nproperty and didn’t care for an eccentric adding his own personal touch and\ncondensing the narrative so much. It is an odd production, but I can see it\nbecoming something of a cult item if its audience eventually finds it. Viewers\nmay love it, hate it or be completely and utterly baffled by it (as I was at\ncertain points), but it moves like a rocket and you most certainly won’t be\nbored by what you see. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the end, it’s fun to see something so completely\nleft-of-center escape from obscurity and Arrow Video should be thanked for their\nefforts. The movie looks great on Blu-ray and the release offers plenty of\ngreat bonus content. If you go in with the right expectations and just want to\nsee a pulpy, completely surreal science-fiction\/action flick, then Terra\nFormars<\/em> might provide you with a few yuks. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This Special Edition Blu-ray release from Arrow Video is currently available for purchase (www.arrowvideo.com \u2013 www.facebook.com\/ArrowVideo\/). Japanese director Takashi Miike is famous for making an incredible variety of features in numerous genres. Of course, he’s perhaps best known for creating some of the scariest and most disturbing movies of recent times, including Audition (1999), Ichi […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":18124,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[186,697,741,2923,4558,6906,9144,13027,17775,18350,19520,19743,19744,19745,23834],"class_list":["post-18117","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-dvdblu-ray-reviews","tag-186","tag-action","tag-adaptation","tag-blasts-from-the-past","tag-cockroaches","tag-emi-takei","tag-hideaki-ito","tag-manga","tag-science-fiction","tag-shun-oguri","tag-takashi-miike","tag-terra-formars","tag-terra-formars-blu-ray-review","tag-terra-formars-review","tag-violent"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18117","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18117"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18117\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18117"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18117"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18117"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}