tecnowraith
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Akira live-action film greenlit!
- Thread starter tecnowraith
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I'll reserve judgement until I've seen it. I'm not too bothered with the change of location or main characters. As long as they explore the same themes as in the animated film mixed in with some dystopian action scenes I'll be pretty happy.
What I am already happy about is that they're trying to get a lead that isn't too well known.
I wouldn't want star power to overshadow the character. Just imagine Tom Cruise doing it.
Yes.
Akira is friggin' awesome. I have seen it three times. But for better or worse, each time I was significantly not sober in some way. During each viewing, I could have explained to you in explicit (if unintelligible) detail about the plot, philosophy, and imagery in the film. Unfortunately, right now I really can't remember much about it other than awesome motorcycles, creepy kids, and protagonists that go "sploooork". Ahh, college.
On a related note, I think this movie has potential to be great if it's really live action. But it if turns out to just be CGI BS with live action cut scenes, it will suck.
Oh I can do that.
Act 1.
Tra la la la la, we're all friends and we're all cool people who ride motorcycles in a futuristic city, yay!
Act 2.
OMG I HAYT U 4 NO REASON!!!1!!
I am in secret facility and can kill you with my brain, mu hahahahahaa!
U MUST DIE!
Act 3.
I ate WAAAAAAAAAY too much and explode from that last bit of sushi. But I love all of you and you are all great!
BOOOM!
You're right. It all makes perfect sense.
I dunno if this is spoilers, cuz it's just my interpretation, but eh. Better safe than sorry.
[sblock=spoilers?]The 'main' plot is speculative fiction about how humankind might evolve in the future. The whole 'Akira' project is designed to accelerate human evolution. That's what Kei's trying to say when she's babbling (in the English dub at least) about amoeba and energy and so on.
But she makes the point that if you artificially evolved an amoeba at a vastly accelerated rate, so that it becomes something as large and as powerful as, say, a person, it still wouldn't BE a person. It'd be an amoeba, with all the power of a person.
This then is an analogy to what the scientists did to Akira...and then to Tetsuo. They figured out a way to kickstart their evolution into a much greater being...but for all their super-powers, they're still just human kids, with all the baggage that entails. Tetsuo's massive inferiority complex and towering resentment of the other kids sets loose his abilities in the most destructive of ways. By the end of the movie, he's gained a bit more perspective...but in the end, his mind simply isn't powerful enough to contain the energies that were infused into him. The process that was begun in him cannot be stopped...and he continues to evolve wildly, out of control.
Then Akira shows up. He'd undergone the same basic process, and at the end of it he managed to complete his evolutionary journey by becoming a creature of pure psychic energy; free to explore the infinite cosmos. Of course, in the process of converting to energy, so much power was released that it looked like a nuclear weapon had detonated. This was misinterpreted (by human beings) as a pre-emptive strike, and led to another world war...that ends shortly before the movie has begun. Akira returns when the three "old kids" the other test subjects, send out a psychic call. He then guides Tetsuo to achieve the same transformation...resulting in yet another cataclysmic release of energy.
It's basically a movie that explores the very dark side of the human psyche, then asks, "What happens if you give a human being...this craven, treacherous creature...all the power of a god?" Well, it's a disaster.
Of course, there are other, more positive viewpoints of humanity tucked in there too, but on the whole it's a pretty pessimistic and dark narrative.[/sblock]
[sblock=spoilers?]The 'main' plot is speculative fiction about how humankind might evolve in the future. The whole 'Akira' project is designed to accelerate human evolution. That's what Kei's trying to say when she's babbling (in the English dub at least) about amoeba and energy and so on.
But she makes the point that if you artificially evolved an amoeba at a vastly accelerated rate, so that it becomes something as large and as powerful as, say, a person, it still wouldn't BE a person. It'd be an amoeba, with all the power of a person.
This then is an analogy to what the scientists did to Akira...and then to Tetsuo. They figured out a way to kickstart their evolution into a much greater being...but for all their super-powers, they're still just human kids, with all the baggage that entails. Tetsuo's massive inferiority complex and towering resentment of the other kids sets loose his abilities in the most destructive of ways. By the end of the movie, he's gained a bit more perspective...but in the end, his mind simply isn't powerful enough to contain the energies that were infused into him. The process that was begun in him cannot be stopped...and he continues to evolve wildly, out of control.
Then Akira shows up. He'd undergone the same basic process, and at the end of it he managed to complete his evolutionary journey by becoming a creature of pure psychic energy; free to explore the infinite cosmos. Of course, in the process of converting to energy, so much power was released that it looked like a nuclear weapon had detonated. This was misinterpreted (by human beings) as a pre-emptive strike, and led to another world war...that ends shortly before the movie has begun. Akira returns when the three "old kids" the other test subjects, send out a psychic call. He then guides Tetsuo to achieve the same transformation...resulting in yet another cataclysmic release of energy.
It's basically a movie that explores the very dark side of the human psyche, then asks, "What happens if you give a human being...this craven, treacherous creature...all the power of a god?" Well, it's a disaster.
Of course, there are other, more positive viewpoints of humanity tucked in there too, but on the whole it's a pretty pessimistic and dark narrative.[/sblock]I always thought it was pretty straightforward myself. I mean there wasn't really anything in there that hadn't shown up in various episodes of StarTrek, Twilight Zone, The Outer Limits, comics and movies.
What exactly was it you found confusing?
There is some stuff that makes more sense if you've read the Manga. The complete story does occupy 6 volumes of fairly thick books. So they did have to trim a lot of side stories and simplify some things. Though Otomo hadn't finished the manga at the time the movie was made either, but the final ending is pretty much the same.
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