Making sequels is a fickle thing. It's vary similar to owning a
house. Once you've bought said house , you have two ways
of going about doing what you wish for the house: 1# you could put in
nice furniture, a new paint job, clean up the attic, just make it
better then it was or #2, you can do an entire overhaul on the damn
thing, make the roof look like a chicken coop, put in new rooms that
look tacky as hell on the outside, put a statue outside of a little
boy peeing into a waterfall which will probably not go well with the
neighborhood watch, basically go hog wild on the place. Sometimes #2
works, but most of the time it doesn't (hello Matrix sequels.)
Afro Samurai: Resurrections is easily the former and
an improvement over the first installment. The characters are
actually interesting, we get an analization of Afro and the
Consequences of his actions, bringing up the subject of revenge. It
might not do it fantastically and sometimes it wavers on it's premise
and I can't be sure if Afro learns from his mistakes now but from the
ending of part 2, I'm really revved up for part 3.
The story starts off with Afro sitting around his
dads old house living what seems to be a simple monastic lifestyle.
He has a big bushy beard, sits around whittling figures of the
people who he used to know, when all of a sudden out pops ol' teddy
bear head on a motorcycle with the sexy new villainess where he goes
all ape-shit on Afro, steals the #1 headband and the jawbone of
Afro's Father (I'm positive that's a biblical reference. it's just
too strange not to be.) and leave Afro so that he can ultimately come
back to them slashing his way through as many guys as he humanly
cane.
The overall theme of this movie is Revenge and
Constant cycle seeking such revenge continues. This is a natural
growth from the original film so it being the full-blown subject of
the second film is no surprise, except I didn't actually think they
were going to do it. The first film gives off the Attitude that,
though Afro is a vicious homicidal killer, we should like him because
he's cool and acts cool and he's voiced by Samuel Jackson, one of the
coolest actors alive. It comes off as a paragon of the ol' "style
over substance" mentality which films, Television and other forms of media
have continued to do ever since Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers first
started making Banal movies where they just tap dances nicely. This
sequel, certainly not the most intelligent film ever made, at least
tries harder to go beyond the surface of the characters and find out
what makes them tick.
I might be giving more credit to the movie then it
rightfully deserves, maybe but I can't help but encourage more of
this in sequels. Unlike the original which gives you the feeling of
inconsequential things happening at roughly the same exact time which
makes up the movie, this time each and every character, incident and battle
Afro has culminates to an ending where Afro has to look straight into
the eyes of his own past, his own ways of life, and to see the deep dark
secrets and inner demons we ourselves refuse to see when the source of that which you;ve done immense evil for stares back and you and makes you question why you did it. it shifts the
entire characters world and helps make Afro something he had never
been in the first movie: Human. What he does to
acquire the #2 headband is cruel, mean-spirited and unjust and the
best part? The character of Afro seems to actually agree with that sentament.
What's even better is that those things that made the
first movie good are back and sometimes even better then before. The
art-style is even more fused with a cross between Urban Graffiti art
and traditional Japanese Water colors seemingly blending into an art
that, maybe not extremely substantial, is unbelievably stylish. The
return of the Rza is a happy occasion since he sometimes makes the
most interesting music you wouldn't necessary see in such a scene
(Kill bill Vol.1, right before the Crazy 88 fight. would you hear
that song playing in the background if it wasn't a Tarantino movie? I
thought so.). The BGM is arguable if it is better in the first movie
or this one but either one helps set the mode.
Even better is the fact that this time the action
steps up a notch, Afro's adversaries aren't just mindless drones to
tear to ribbons under his steel, this time a lot of them hold up
against him in imaginative, creative and thrilling fights that need
to be seen to be believed. Not only are the fighters this time more
competent, but they hold philosophies and beliefs that make them want
to fight, make them need to defeat Afro almost as much as Afro feels
he needs to defeat them, probably even more.
Am I overpraising this film? Probably, but I can't
help site a work which increases the overall feeling, tones, themes,
and imagery that the original did. It keeps what made the original
work and develops what it didn't have, and brings in things you only
wished they had in the original. This film is definitely better then
the original and, Given the perfect way they ended this film, I'm
hoping the third tops this one in spades.
Whew boy is this long! well, either way that's all
I'm saying. I know it's opinions and everyone has opinions, but I'm
smart, smarter then you, so I'm right :-D
Screenshots
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