I Am Hero is based on a Manga of the same name and It has been one of my favorites in recent years and let me remind you Manga is not yet finished so the movie as well, but that doesn't mean the movie will leave you hanging, in fact they adapted the best ARC in the Manga and finished it damn well and they did convey that theme in the Manga in this movie, so what is the theme? Well just read damn the title my friends.
The story revolves around Hideo who is a once a promising mangaka but his dreams always stay out of reach for the reason that his characters were pretty normal like him, he has a relationship that is about to end, in short he is somewhat your typical loser protagonist. One day zombie apocalypse happens, miraculously he's one of those who survive then he met this girl that he promised to protect with his life. One interesting thing about this movie is its setting, it is in Japan where there are only few people who owns a gun and our protagonist owns it as a hobby. This gun is vital to the story as owning a shotgun at this situation means you are the king, this became the point of conflict with humans in the story as someone wanting it badly enough to kill for it and the way it serves as a metaphor for Hideo's character development is a work of a mad genius, like only in japan, the land of metaphors.
Visual effect are spectacular as they did something very different here, zombies veins are black, they deform differently once they became zombies, They move and contorts like insects. The sound effects are amazing too, the squishy sounds once their head exploded was done right. Music is intense if it needs to be intense. Song at the end it quite nice, it captures the atmosphere of the movie well.
Oizumi Yo gives a solid performance his zero to hero transformation was believable, though he doesn't look like the character in the Manga at least his persona reflects hideo, kudos to him. As for Nagasawa Masami and Arimura Kasumi, they were at least mediocre. I was especially disappointed with Nagasawa Masami's character cause that character is very different from the manga, her character supposed to be a baddass. Kasumi Arimura's character didn't do as much here so I can't asses how he did in this film.
So how would this stack up against other zombie titles? well let's say to me it made zombies scary again and kind off remind me why this genre has been one of the favorites for these past decade and that last minutes was a FREAKING-INTENSELY-GORY-HEAD-EXPLODING FINALE.
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It was not perfect, but it was perfectly entertaining.
Personally I like my zombie horrors with a dose of humor and I am a Hero delivers. I do think I might have laughed at some not exactly humorous moments too, but that's how you roll when you've seen so many horror movies in your life.The best aspect of this movie is the fact it has personality. Having a normal guy be the real and grow to be a hero is a dynamic journey I love to see in movies. I do believe that he was too dumb and too naive for too long, but with how the story ended, I can somehow forgive it. What's more, I appreciated how the zombies had these specific behaviors connecting them to their past lives. Big shoutout to athlete, who from zombies' perspective must have been the MVP.
On the other hand, I wish they turned Hayakari Hiromi a bit later in the movie, or let her meet Suzuki Hideo faster. We did not really get to know her that well as full human before she turned, but after the change, she was not really much of a character to follow anyway.
The acting - good. I feel like the only person who truly had to show some skills was Oizumi Yo. The other characters were a bit too flat to requite a high level of performance.
Loved the design for the zombies. The eyes going sideways was creepy and the visible mutation was a great touch. They actually looked scary. Props for all the practical effects that made the movie that much more gruesome.
The action scenes were also great. Some more, some less believable, but I appreciate no one turned into a ninja or professional fighter. They all fought with all their strength and limited skills. That said, there was one scene closer to the end that did feel a bit long and I was really close to skipping few seconds.
Overall, this was such a fun ride. A lot of blood, a lot of killing zombies.
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This review may contain spoilers
I feel like I'm being over generous with that 8 stars. Lol I really feel like 7 would be better.I didn't like the movie but I didn't hate it either.
I kept seeing this in my recommendations and though I'm a huge zombie junkie... the plot and cover art just didn't seem like it would be all that great. For the most part... it kinda wasn't, sadly. I hated the male lead... so so so much. I get he is a sweet dude, that's cool and all... but it's literally the end of the world and you're still not wanting to shoot anyone because of the law?? News flash buddy, the law had it's face eaten off. TF even? Lol
So when everything always went down, the girl always seemed to be the one to save him.... always. and it annoyed me to no ends. You're literally being protected by a teenager.... who doesn't even have a gun. But yeah. Go, you, I guess?
Props to the last few minutes when he actually grew balls and started shooting people. Completely and totally unrealistic single handed, but again, do you, I guess? You'd think that would make me a little happier but it didn't. Lol I guess mostly it took up to that before he started firing. Like he didn't even shoot the dude that shot the girl that had been protecting him the whole time. I already didn't like him but kept wanting to give him the benefit of a doubt... but after that scene, I don't care what he did. I lost all hope for him.
For a weak lead to stay a weak lead is a new one for me.
Also just want to say, I mean the characters, not the actors. The actors were amazing hence the 10 stars for the, ^_^
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Watch for the Zombies Only
****I tried to include as few spoilers as possible!****I came into this initially excited and ready for some action as a zombie lover. Instead, I was mostly disappointed.
Firstly, why did this movie have so much potential? From the very beginning, I knew that this movie could have gone in an interesting direction compared to other zombie films. The zombies looked and acted quite different and new to how they usually are depicted (you know, just a regular human face with maybe some blood and wounds that walk mindlessly). They also included a half-zombie, which isn't something seen usually in the "zombie world".
However, that's pretty much as unique as it got. The storyline quickly got boring and fell victim to the typical tiresome tropes of the zombie genre. I couldn't care less about any of the characters and the half-zombie ends up doing nothing for the rest of the movie (a huge waste of potential).
I truly tried to enjoy this movie, but the only redeemable part of this movie is the zombies. If you want a quick movie to skip through for the zombie scenes, this is for you.
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Unintended dark comedy
And it's overhyped.The main problem I have with this movie is the weak characterization of our main leads. A loser, a high school girl, and a nurse. Some side characters too, but damn they all felt generic. We don't even know their "wants", the only "want" we know is our main lead's - to be a hero (and it's just because his name is Hideo, rather shallow, no?)
We are supposed to care about our cast and feel suspense once they are dealing with zombies. But viewers in 30 minutes will understand that our main character is lucky beyond repair and unrelatable.
The way they treated women characters in this...It baffles me. Even if they had fighting potential we didn't see them in action.
A generic zombie story, with great special effects and cinematography. The zombies looked scary and disgusting, it was creative special effects makeup. Yet it felt like women were... sexualized...those angles.
Music, quick editing, and one-liners created a dark comedy. Surely it's hilarious when one zombie is spouting about deadlines and when another person is running like Jack Sparrow. As comedy and unintended parody of zombie movies, it is rather good.
The first half was more interesting than the second one. By the 70 minute mark, it started to feel a bit boring.
Don't expect Train to Busan, perhaps it's more in tune with Peninsula (that one at least had one or two likable characters).
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