Amon Saga |
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Amon's got an axe to grind. You
see, he's got this whole "avenge his mother's
death" thing, but it turns out the same guy behind
her death is also trying to find the lost city of gold to
increase his power. Well, might as well kill two birds
with one stone. Amon is a rogue, on his own until he is encountered by the Valhiss empire who are looking for soldiers to join their army. Only the best of the best can join, so a gruesome contest is held to slim out the ranks and find the cream of the crop. You can hardly expect the hero of the story to die in the first ten minutes of the story, so Amon inevitably wins and joins the Valhiss empire. Before he can go forth with his plans of revenge, Amon meets the lovely Princess Lichia. Lichia is a pawn in a game between two emperors, and is being used by Valhiss in exchange for the map to the city of gold. Like princesses in every story, she gets into major trouble which eventually lands Amon in the fabled city of gold. He meets the Emperor Valhiss, and they have their final fight to decide the fate of both empires. Not a long summary, eh? Well, truth be told Amon Saga is not a really long movie. I wasn't about to summarize the whole thing, but if I didn't my review would be painfully short, and I tend to pride myself on my wordiness. Back to the length, Amon Saga is around 67 minutes without credits(the packaging says 90 minutes, but don't be fooled). Hardly enough time to tell a story that strives to be epic. The amount of characters is on the large side, and the amount of time given is hardly enough to get to know them. On the other hand, maybe it's better that Amon Saga isn't that long. Some parts of the movie were painfully bland, perhaps a sign that Amon Saga hasn't aged too well. The movie was made in 1986, hardly old as most movies go, but seems painfully dated when compared to other titles in the fantasy genre. I'm a fantasy fan, and some of my favorite titles are rooted firmly in the genre(Slayers, Escaflowne). However, it doesn't seem like Amon Saga brings anything new or interesting to the table. Amon had a lot of room to grow, but all in all he has no personality. The only thing that drives him is revenge, and there is really nothing unique about him. I enjoy seeing heroes with a little more "oomph" behind them. Now that most of my complaining is done, I bet you're wondering what I did enjoy about the film. Well, Yoshitaka Amano, one of the most unique artists in Japan had a major part in the look of Amon Saga. His ethereal style made the early Final Fantasy games so unique, and the look tends to do the same with Amon Saga. Although I wish the designs were as fluid and wonderful as the painting on the DVD cover, most of the art in the movie was nice eye candy. Some of the animation may be poor, but there are some great designs to back it up. The soundtrack is also very nice, with a haunting main theme that will stick in your head. The audio and video quality was a mixed bag. While the movie is from 1986, fifteen years is not really all that old if you think about it. The video is dusty, fulls of nicks and scrapes, and has some bad color bleeding in some scenes. However, there were some very beautiful scenes in Amon Saga. One of the best looking ones is the dream/hallucination scene involving the field of flowers. The picture is bright and crisp in this scene, along with a few others, but the overall quality is very poor. Manga delivers on audio again with a nice 5.1 English mix, along with the original Japanese stereo track and an English stereo track. The English 5.1 mix is nice, if a bit overpowering. The Japanese track really didn't add much to Amon Saga, so I really can't recommend one over the other. Oh, while I'm on the subject of sound, there is a very, very annoying scene towards the end of Amon Saga featuring two sorcerers screaming and squealing at each other for what seemed like five minutes. If you think you've heard annoying, this scene almost made me turn off my DVD player in disgust. It was just as bad in Japanese, so there goes my "sub is usually better" theory. If you have a low threshold for pain, or jittery house pets, you might want to hit mute during this scene. The packaging is very nice, and very attractive. I have a feeling that some poor anime fans are going to pick this up based on how cool it looks. I have some Amano art hanging in my home, and having his original art on the DVD cover is a treat for me. DVD menus are minimal, nothing too flashy. The only extras are previews, and some character bios that really don't give too much information. Amon Saga seems like a wasted effort. With so many talented people behind it, you would think they would turn out something inspired. Instead, Amon Saga is tired, bland, and done to death. A good effort, but a mediocre product. -Bob Mackey |
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| All text, original pictures and HTML © 2001 Bob Mackey. All rights reserved. |