*This blog post was started on October 7, 2021.
I have yet to line up a guest for my podcast "NinetyForChill.com - The #Podcast" this week, but the past few days have felt pretty productive.
A blog each day, sleep has been caught up on, I finally requested that the "libertarian" who works in the next to me stop watching those hate videos.
"I will turn the volume down."
"Thank you."
The request was made after they were chuckling a long with a talking head who was calling all those who have been vaccinated dumb. That is an implication that you think half of your coworkers are dumb. Why do you want to insult us. Once I knew they were a right-wing nut, I had stayed away from political conversation to avoid confrontation.
"It just is not the place for politics."
"I get it, but I am not watching anything harmful."
Is
that an attempt to call me a snowflake? I did not respond because the only
appropriate one is, "What about all the guilty pleas for January 6th? They claimed videos as their instructions."
We will see how long there is peace. They were working a half day, so they did not get that behind my back time to bitch to our coworkers. Of course, the catty one did announce before she started watching her murder porn, "I will try to keep the volume down" and "That's why I have captions on." It is cool to know that I am not the only one who uses subtitles all the time.
If only HBO Max would keep that consistent. With "Robot Chicken" on my Apple TV, I end up having to put the captions on for each episode. Weed is my path to relaxation when I put Stoop!d Monkey's show on. What do you expect a stoner to be capable of?
With my nightly routine exposed, I may as well transition to last night's DVD.com (Netflix mailer) feature. The awkward meshing of CG and anime to serve as a sequel to a forgotten first-person shooter for Windows 95 could have served as an amusing display for someone who had just partaken in self medication.
This feature must have been a big get for ADV Films in 1999 since "SiN: The Movie" had its trailer attached to all of their VHS releases. They probably did more to promote the franchise that Ritual/Activision did for the game. If only they were quick enough to release it before I lost track of the anime industry, I might have been impressed.
SiN: The Movie (2000)
John Blade is a cybernetic colonel in the HARDCorps, an elite force that primarily works in vice, but after a string of serial kidnapping and murders of young girls, the drug busts are not impressing the media. When the team gets a break in this case, their body count begins to rise. It turns out that the killer is/was a nearly indestructible mutant that can absorb other organic matter. Blade's best friend JC ends up being assimilated as they try to capture the monster, resulting in Blade killing his compatriot in an act of mercy.
The latest kidnapping victim is rescued, but JC's sister, Jennifer C, wants to take control of the case with her military authority. She also wants to bring down Blade for not only his recent failures, but his possible ties to the mob. With the physician over seeing the victim Elise's treatment does not feel she can be moved from the hospital, so nothing can be done investigation wise to find the answers.
This dead end seems to be the ideal time for Elexis Sinclair to act. Using mutants of her creation, she commences an operation to capture the girl. Her target seems to hold the key to unlocking her father's work, creating unstoppable humanoids that would embarrass god's image. SinTek has the politicians in their pockets, so despite the casualties, the HARDCorps hands are tied.
It is up to Blade, his mob ties, and Jennifer to bring down Sinclair. If you are a betting person, I would put your money on the colonel. Sinclair is the reason for Blade being as much machine as human. Her goals also resulted in the death of Blade's father. Did she need to give him any more motivation?
"SiN: The Movie" is a brief piece of action (1 hour) that provides an intriguing enough story that does not bog itself down in exposition like many video game adaptations tend to do. When you have seen the likes of "Battle Arena Toshinden" and "Tekken", you will appreciate the decisions made in terms of storytelling. It is the computer generated dependency that will bug you.
At the turn of the century, anime must have thought that it had become stale because many title try, mostly unsuccessfully to incorporate it into the programs. The problem is, this technology was not experimental at the time, so it should not feel out of place at all. This feature ends up with scenes that present a CG monster, but when the monster attacks, traditional animation is used. If you cannot integrate the new effects seamlessly in, you have the feel of a made for Syfy movie.
What really makes this embarrassing is that anime has been trying to use computer effects since the early '80s. "Golgo 13: The Professional" had computer generated effects in 1983. The reason they work is because it is essentially an aside to the rest of the content. They were not meant to interact directly with the traditional animation. Just because your tech is superior, does not mean you know how to approach it. This ends up muddling a good narrative by distracting us from what the film does right.
What it does right is just abandoning character building. It is kind of like they knew video games were not at the point of two-hour cut scene tutorials. This movie knew it had to end quickly, so it makes our characters deal with the horrors they face. The audience knows it is crazy, and we just become impressed at how well they are dealing with the trauma.
"SiN: The Movie" feels like a fun, over-the-top, horror take on cyberpunk anime. Too bad half of that fun is ridiculing the poor CG effects, but an hour of a "get to the chopper" attitude is amusing enough on its own. If only this could have been dedicated to a console game, because I am not getting a PC to play this.
