Guardianes de la noche: Tren infinito

I have waited a long time to see this because a CAM version, or a low-resolution version under 480p of Demon Slayer-Kimetsu no Yaiba-The Movie: Mugen Train, or anything produced by the Ufotable animation studio, is in my opinion a crime against its creators, its aesthetics, and the work itself. I understand people’s impatience to see this movie, however, it should at least be seen in HD, because if not, you are going to miss out on the visuals which is one of the best things about it. The movie’s producers prove that you can make a great CGI model of a vehicle inside a traditional animation that looks seamless, for example, the first shots of the extremely impressive train and its passage through the landscape. The producers of this movie manage to present the wonderful beauty of the surrounding environment in combination with the quality of the camera work, like the random several seconds-long shot of the train tracks, with the grass growing next to it, the graphics almost give you a visual orgasm and make you want to take a screenshot and have them as your screensaver for a few days. Then there is the winter landscape and the blizzard, which is done in such a way that you can almost feel it, it just looks so beautiful and almost realistic! The fights, well the first one is sensational due to the camera work again, it is incredibly dynamic, with unexpected angles and this reminded me of why I liked the Demon Slayer anime series so much in the first place. I am not even going to try and describe the last fight, the ending of the movie itself is on par with the best parts of the Demon Slayer anime series in terms of action, dynamics, and aesthetics. Both opponents are equally great, and that makes it perhaps even more insane and effective. The final fight was definitely worth five stars! Indeed, the animation and soundtrack deserved five stars too in my opinion, (although there is one part where I had to close my eyes, and for those who have already seen it I am only going to say SPOILER ALERT hands and tentacles END OF SPOILER). However, the rest of it is not that great. When I started watching it, and then again at the end, I had the impression that someone had decided that the more emotional the outbursts the characters had, the more believable their hysterics would be. OK, a lot of shonen anime have that aspect, however, it was really extreme at the beginning of this movie. At the end of the movie, I felt they had failed to achieve the desired effect. All the screaming and crying actually prevented me from getting emotionally involved. Maybe I am more cynical the older I get, or it just does not really work this way - that the louder and noisier it is the better it is (funnier, more dramatic, sadder = more emotional)! Apart from the old familiar characters you love, like Nezuko, because she is the only one who is silent, there is a character from The Hashira who takes center stage and has as much energy and enthusiasm as he has powerful vocal cords (and so the movie gets even noisier). At the beginning, I thought he was going to be a typically idealistic protagonist. I thought he would just be laughing non-stop, not even stopping to blink (if you can remember Mirio from My Hero Academia for example - same feel!). From the two main villains, the first one got more screen time, yet he lacked any sort of complex and compelling motivation and could have had a more interesting conclusion to his story. After all, in the Demon Slayer anime series, every villain was a bit pitiful anyway, however, I really did not care for this one in the slightest. The second villain just reappears without any sort of announcement and so his entrance seems to be somehow, well, I am not going to say weird, because it is just more like a typical shonen cliché that leaves you feeling: that was predictable... The same could be said for the finale itself (no surprises there), where the loudness overkill once again spoiled it for me, except maybe for one moment (SPOILER “You're a coward!!!”, is a big hint SPOILER END). On the whole, I am happy that I waited to watch it in HD, and I am still looking forward to whatever else comes out of the Demon Slayer universe (especially the second season of the anime series). However, like the anime series, it is still all about the show - the glitzy glamour, the craftsmanship of the graphics, the camera work, and the soundtrack that I am so taken with here. The content of the movie, however, is only slightly better than average. Personally, I was pleased that they did not give much time to Zenitsu, and when they did, he was in a "sleep mode". On the whole, there was also disappointingly little Nezuko in the movie... 7.5/10. (28.04.2021) (menos) (más)