Reviews

I just finished watching Berserk for the second time in my life. This time it felt different than the first but one thing remained: Berserk made me feel strong emotions once again.

This is a very tricky anime to deal with. The story is excellent, the characters are excellent and the flow of the series is excellent. Kingdoms Chudor and Midland are fighting in a 100 years long war against each other. A war that is now fought only because it is a war, neither side can hardly remember why the war started. Guts is a young mercenary, who gathers attention with his phenomenal fighting skills with his huge sword. After a battle, he encounters a band of mercenaries who try to steal his gold he gained from his battle. It appears that the mercenary group had been fighting with the opposite side that Guts fought. Guts handles the attack, but when the leader of the mercenaries, Griffith challenges him, he loses. After resting, Guts wants a rematch with Griffith with following terms: If Guts wins, he can walk away and if Griffith wins, he can do whatever he wants with Guts. Ultimately Griffith wins - again - and forces Guts to join his group of mercenaries, The Band of the Hawk. That is where their journey together begins, Griffiths journey to world domination...

Of course, this is only the beginning of the whole story but it is futile to tell it any further here. Berserk has three main characters: Guts, Griffith and Casca, the female captain of The Band of the Hawk. And I have to say, that the chemistry between these three characters is one of the most interesting ones I have ever witnessed in any story. They have very different personalities that react with each other very unpredictably. Guts is a man who has learned to live his life through battles, he knows nothing else but the adrenaline and it's temptation in the battlefield. Griffith is a charismatic leader who aims for only one goal: his dream of becoming the king of the world. No. Matter. What. Casca is a women whose life changed when Griffith saved her when she was just a girl. She has followed Griffith ever since, becoming a strong warrior in the process.

But this is only the surface. All of these characters become different in the viewers eyes with each passing moment. As the series evolves, Guts, Griffith, Casca and even all the other characters (Corcus, Pippin, Judeou etc.) change and reveal surprising elements of their inner self. It is very fascinating to watch how the love - hate relationship between Casca and Guts evolves and to what direction or how Griffith goes extreme making his actions very questionable and his motives difficult to analyse. It is interesting to watch the electricity between Guts and Griffith, how Griffith becomes dependable on Guts and how ultimately Guts pulls all the strings. Everything Guts does affects Griffith. Guts makes Griffiths ascending towards his dream possible and Guts has the power to ruin it all.

It is also very fascinating to see all the philosophical aspects of Berserk. Each person is what he/she is for a reason and these reasons define what these persons live for. Sometimes they don't know why they do what they do or why they live their lives. And in the times of desperation they question their motives and desires, not surely knowing what they want from life. The thoughts of these persons make you wonder your own existence as well and the meaning of your life. Does it have a meaning? Does it have to have? Or do we live here just because we live here? If a series can make me think these kind of questions, I believe it has achieved more value than just entertainment...

Yes, Berserk truly is very deep in a realistic way. The watcher becomes one with the characters as the series goes on. All the philosophical aspects combined with the ruthless violence and darkness makes Berserk truly an amazing series. But the thing that makes this series so unique is it's ending. All of you who have watched this series know from what I'm talking about. The original story of Berserk doesn't end where this anime ends (and I have not read the manga...Not yet) and since there will be no second season, this anime stands for it's own. The ending makes me mad. It makes me sad, shocked, petrified, horrified...In a good way. I can still remember when I watched berserk for the first time, I couldn't believe the ending, it was so shocking! NOBODY can end a series like this, this makes even Twin Peaks's ending look soft. It is actually heartbreaking to watch the last two episodes of Berserk, when you have jumped in to the worlds of these characters...Everything they ever made, everything they achieved becomes nothing, and the high hopes for the future (after difficult times) are crushed in a blink of an eye. Not a happy ending, not in a million years...

Every anime friend, you have to watch Berserk. It is deep, dark, violent and philosophical view to all sides of human nature and the motives to actions that lurk beneath. Berserk holds many different world views and personalities, but makes every action and decision understandable from the aspects of each character. Guts's violent nature, Cascas varying actions, Griffiths ascending towards his dream, they all are explained in a realistic way, trough different motives. I can even understand why Griffith chose to become Femto, no matter how heartless and cruel decision it was. Berserk is absolutely magnificent anime, that makes you wonder and question many things, even in real life.

I watched AVP-R again today and I still think the same as before: It is a pretty entertaining film. First of all, it works much better than the first AVP which had a pretty bad plot and story. C'mon, a human and a predator riding together hand in hand? Predators don't team up with anyone, they are just intelligent, extremely vicious creatures who like to test their strength against anyone worthy to battle against (Aliens and humans for example). This alliance in the first film made it bad, it could have been a good movie.

But now in AVP2 things are different. There is this PredAlien (the King Alien who throws the jizz everywhere) and humans are again the sacrificial lambs who are just in the wrong place at the wrong time. PredAlien makes the predator spaceship crash at earth and soon aliens will spawn everywhere. Then the predator comes to deal with the mess from another planet, trying to kill all the aliens. Humans are just in his way, the predator ignores them unless they are a threat to him. Of course, the humans don't just stand aside and be slaughtered so they fight back for survival. Voila, we have a real all against all setting, the stage is set. And this is good.

I think this movie has one considerable new angle if you compare it to the Alien movies or the last AVP: The environment is in a normal town in the US. Predator used this in it's second film, but it was a major city, this is a medium sized town in this film. The battle stadium is completely different and it makes this more personal film. All the characters get much screen time and since this film has several main characters, it works well. The battles look great, especially the final showdown with predator and Predalien. And one good thing about this movie is also that it is not constant battling, the battles are not long and they come every now and then so you can't get bored of them.

Let's continue with the good sides. The music in the film is good. The best thing about this movie is still this: It is pretty brutal. The scene at the hospital is very good, as the PredAlien watches the innocent babies and then pumps the ladies full of alien eggs, so they can burst in masses from the pregnant women. Heads explode, human bodies get melted by acid, limbs fall off, blood bursts from everywhere. Everything works in the violence side. One last good thing about the movie is the plot, it is actually pretty good. Good for a action film and way better than in the first AVP.

Now the bad things. Some of the actors are pretty lame. You can get a peep inside the main characters but the film doesn't have any personal characters as Predators 1 & 2 or (especially) Aliens 1-3 had. The teen love thing/the sad bully-bullied settlement is awful but I think the death of the teen girl (don't remember the name) at the end recovered a lot from the whole angle. Definitely the best part of the movie was when the sexy teen girl gets nailed in the wall by predator. But still, the whole teen love angle should have been replaced by a little better angle.

In the end, Alien vs. Predator 2 is very enjoyable action film. Not the best, not by a long shot, but it doesn't ruin the legacy of Aliens or Predators, as the first AVP did. The characters should be more original and some plot changes should have taken place, but AVP2 is still a exciting, brutal and entertaining action film that also has a pretty good ending. I recommend if you want to watch an action film that doesn't require so much attention.