Movies / Home Theatre

Gantz II: Perfect Answer

By Chris Zimmerman
April 19, 2012 - 11:36

The first Gantz film, for all its flaws, was still a visual and ethereal spectacle that combined an attractive young cast with slick special effects. The first film was semi-faithful to its manga influence, making alterations to the story to better suit its own purposes. While the film made for a flashy introductory piece, its 150 minute runtime was dedicated to setting up the events of Perfect Answer, making the plot paper thin and the majority of the film superfluous.

To that end, the producers probably believed the perfect answer (pun intended) to the first film’s weaknesses were to pile on the twists, develop the characters, and underscore nearly everything else that made Gantz a cultural phenomenon. Gore, nudity, and raunchiness is what set the manga apart from everything else on the market, but rather than tread the same territory, Perfect Answer adds its own flavor to the mix, namely a story.

The thrust of the film involves the revival of the characters killed in the first movie. The arc gives the film a sense of unpredictability that sets the pace for the events that follow. Whereas the first movie had used a good portion of its hefty runtime to setup the building blocks for the two films, Gantz 2 tears down that foundation as a means of provoking a reaction in its audience.

Sequels usually mean bigger and louder, but Perfect Answer follows the formula of less is more. The action is toned down considerably, but when the time comes to deliver to the explosive climax aboard a commuter train, the result is the most impressive sequence that tethers together the various threads running through the series. Sadly though, a movie cannot be defined by the strength of one scene. The rest of movie varies in quality. The plot steadily deteriorates into a nonsensical piece that insists on expositing every bit of information necessary to understanding the plot.

The DVD comes courtesy of Warner Home Video, in a two disc set complete with original Japanese and English dubbed options. The second disc hosts the second part of an interview with Shinsuke Sato, cast profiles, and trailers for other Viz releases. The interview is an interesting listen for those curious as to the choices made to the plot details.  

Perfect Answer is by no means a bad film, but it is far from great. Movies based on manga rarely translate well to live action, but there is a greater expectation for a work that was custom built for science fiction cinema as Gantz is. There is a good idea here, but the film buries it under needless verbiage that doesn’t explain much at all. If you enjoyed the first film, it’s worth checking out for a clear cut resolution, but everyone else is better off reading the original manga.

C  

Last Updated: August 31, 2023 - 08:12