I finally saw this movie and, well, I thought it was decent. The acting, at least from the main cast, wasn't bad (although the lines they were forced to give were). The special effects were easily Hollywood worthy and really made the movie watching, especially the big battle in LA and the final battle between the two dragons (in Mordor?
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What ruined the movie, though, was the terrible writing! It seems they had the budget and the cast necessary to make a pretty good kaiju film, but never bothered to write a script that matched the quality of the effects or actors (again, it's not like the cast members were all that good, but they themselves weren't all that bad either... I"d imagine if we gave them a better script they would've been much better). Did ANYBODY understand the story? It was so muddled... and the characters so nonsensical... it seemed like the filmmakers only really had ideas for the monsters and action sequences, the actual story was only an afterthought tossed in to give the cast something to do between the action. They had the money to do so, why DIDN'T they hire a better writer... or at least some decent script doctors? This move SHOULD have been a lot better than it turned out to be.
All of that said, the best performance in the movie comes from the main monster, Buraki. Wonderfully animated and beautifully detailed, whenever Buraki appeared on screen you were able to forget the idiocy of the story for just a little bit and actually enjoy the movie. For the majority of the film, he's really just another critter-on-the-rampage (a very pretty critter who rampages spectacularly, though), but I was most impressed with the monster's characterization in the final scenes of the film. When the villains finally have our heroes cornered and Buraki is sure he's going to win, his demeanor changes completely! You start to get a real feel for what he's thinking and of his narcissism (I've never seen a dragon/snake STRUT before... O_o() ) When the final battle begins, I felt nothing toward the "good imoogi" and found myself instead almost rooting for Buraki, who seemed as if he wanted to win far FAR more than his opponent. You can see his rage and his own personal shock when he sees his prize being snatched quite literally from his jaws. I actually felt a little sad to see Buraki get offed, just as I started to feel some sympathy toward the character.
I would like to see the story be a prequel of some kind exploring Buraki's character a bit. We're never told WHY he's evil or WHY he wants to go to heaven so badly. For that matter, we're never told why we should root for the "good imoogi" either... hell, at least we know Buraki's name! Ah well. I can dream, can't I?