A Visual Head-Scratcher

As much as we’ve seen Western Animation thrive in the cinematic spotlight in recent years that’s pushed the boundaries of the filmic medium by introducing innovative technologies and story-telling values of new and old, it’s arguable to state that animation deriving from the East, specifically in Japan, is steadily declining into dire-straits. Ever since Hayao Miyazaki departed from film-making in 2013 following his final feature-length Studio Ghibli animation of The Wind Rises, more and more people have caught onto the perception that, economically and entertainingly, the animation industry in Japan can’t appeal universally as it once did. Indeed, while a concept like Pokemon which was, and still is, one of many examples that proved to be largely successful and contributed to this recognition of western audiences engaging with Japanese culture/entertainment as part of the norm, the demand of Japanese animation studios and companies to consistently produce intriguing visuals and stories, strained the nature of the industry, which is a shame. The simply need of animations localising to the Western market, is steadily becoming infrequent and could very well factor into the penultimate demise and appeal of the varying degree of Japanese animations that have been developed. Although the appeal that is ‘anime’ could dissipate in years to come, one distinct strand of Japanese animation, which implements the full use of Computer-Generated Imagery (CGI) and motion capture, are the Final Fantasy films of The Spirit Within, Advent Children and now, Kingsglaive: Final Fantasy XV…

The magical kingdom of Lucis is home to the hallowed Crystal, but the menacing empire of Niflheim will stop at nothing to make it theirs. War has raged between the two for as long as most can remember. King Regis of Lucis (Sean Bean) commands an elite force of soldiers, known as the Kingsglaive, to help restore peace across the land. Wielding the kings magic, Nyx Ulric (Aaron Paul) and his fellow glaives stand before the crown city of Insomnia, fighting to stay the inexorable advance of Nifleheim’s imperial army. Before the overwhelming military might of the empire, King Regis can only salvage his kingdom by accepting an ultimatum that see’s him cease all lands under his rule and see his son, Prince Noctis, wed to Lady Lunafreya (Lena Headey), the former princess of Tenebrae, who’s now a captive of Nifleheim. As the war of wills rages on-wards, the machinations of Nifleheim transform Insomnia into an awe-inspiring battleground, pulling Nyx and Lunafreya into a fight to save the Lucis kingdom…

With it being the noticeable feature that this film boldly and confidently presents, it’s best that we discuss the animation and visual language that Kingsglaive utilises since it uses CGI and motion capture approaches to tell it’s rather wonky story through visual means. Similar to what was seen and implemented in the 2005 Japanese Computer animated film of Advent Children, Takeshi Nozue’s Kingsglaive similarly implements the same CG animation to create a strong sense of familiarity and realism. The whole purpose of using CG, whether it’s used for something minuscule to help exaggerate a setting or a character, is to create this illusion of reality; a ‘reality’ that seamlessly fits to our own understanding. This was the case with the previous ‘Final Fantasy’ feature of Advent Children which combined this pragmatic mode-of-thinking of the animation with the dramatic camera movement, that moved in tangent with the characters/settings, to create well choreographed cinematic set-pieces that hallmarked back the late Gun-Slinging Hong Kong films of the 80’s. In the case of Kingsglaive, while there isn’t any stylisation when it comes to the fight sequences, the film doesn’t shy away from being a visual grandeur filled with gorgeous tones, vivid lighting and bold shadow effects. Every snippet of detail, including every office building to the strand of leaves, is animated to the highest-degree and does beg the question of whether or not CG full-length features should be more prominent in an age where new technologies for animation are applied to the maximum. What’s more impressive to notice in a film that is clearly more vibrant in colour compared to Advent Children, is the extra-detail that was put into the facial mannerisms of each of the main characters. Combined with the splendour of lighting, the character designs are are times so vividly done, that you do sometimes forget that you’re watching something that has been computer generated. It’s freakishly realistic and in turn, backs up this perspective that Kingsglaive is a certain improvement on Advent Children since there’s much more variation in terms of the animation shown and how it utilises minor techniques in the forms colourisation, narration and realism in regards to aesthetic of the locations and characters. The minor qualm of Kingsglaive’s animation would the engagement of the well-choreographed action set-pieces. This will be discussed more thoroughly when we talk about the deficient story-telling, but as much as there is a visual spectacle of the battle segments which adds some gravitas to the narrative proceedings, audiences of all kinds won’t be completely sold to the action circumstances that the main protagonists find themselves in due to the fact that the story is not only completely new and different for the niche Final Fantasy ‘fans’, but can be seen as a prologue to the actual main story that’s taking place in the upcoming video-game. Non the less, for all the cinematic efforts that went into the animation and the design of each and every detail of the characters designs and the settings, Kingsglaive boasts in it’s CG stylisation and does show the importance of how Computer-Generated-Imagery is still relevant for film-making.

Like it’s Final Fantasy filmic outings that came before, the underlying biggest problem that Kingsglaive has to contend with, is it’s story-telling and how the overabundance of exposition is trying to cater to not only the niche audience who already know of Final Fantasy law, but also the viewing group that want to know what this lauded gaming franchise is really all about. While Kingsglaive opens it’s premise with a brief montage/narration segment that sums up the fantastical tale of confliction between two magical superpowers, similar to how Advent Children opened it’s own events with the character of Marlene quickly outlining events that took place in Final Fantasy VII, for audience members who are trying to get to know what Final Fantasy generally is all about through watching this film, it’s understandable to quickly forget all the different outlandish names and places there are. To put it simply, the opening of the film for the general audience is too abrupt to get a good understanding. When it comes to the exposition of a film, when a story is trying to cohesively explain the actions/backgrounds of an event, character or setting, there definitely needs to be a balanced approach to place this in the structure. As subtle as it may seem, the best films that we see will always as adopt an exposition method that is systematically threaded within the different acts of the films running-time. In the case of Kingsglaive, it naively narrates pieces of contextual information right from the start that not only leaves the uninitiated audience members left clueless, but it explicitly reveals just how much lack of narrative progression we’re going to view. For an animated feature that willingly sweeps aside classic storytelling in favour for long-winded action that takes up the majority of the overly-long running time, how can audiences who are interacting with Final Fantasy for the first, through watching this film, be enticed by what is being displayed? It’s understandable for director Takeshi Nozue to undertake a story that accommodates to fans of the gaming series and the average cinema-goers, as well as priming the upcoming video-game. However, with a story that is trying to allocate to every person as possible, the film in turn gets too bogged down by over-simplifying a premise that doesn’t need too much sugar-coating. What’s made worse is the deployment of political intrigue ,whereby the character of Regis is presented with a peace treaty that turns into needless delegation between the characters that, rather predictably, results into more clashing and makes you wonder why was there this political motif in the first place. It heavily reminisces the trade negotiations that you see in Star Wars Episode I… Oh dear.

Along with the vivid and realistic animation, the other aspect that keeps audiences from not completely walking away from Kingsglaive empty-handed, are the performances from the likes of Aaron Paul, Sean Bean and Lena Headey who all provide solid voice work to characters that are bounded by atypical tropes that you would commonly see in an ‘anime’ character. Understandably, one concern that audiences might squint at first, is the inevitable convergence that Aaron Paul’s character, as Nyx, and Lena Headey as Lunafreya have with each other and whether or not we’re going to be greeted with Cerci Lannister from Game of Thrones talking about magic and politics with Jesse Pinkman from Breaking Bad. Thankfully, non of these two actors delve into their well-known roles as Aaron Paul and Lena Headey go about their performances as you would expect. The ‘stand-out’ performer of Kingsglaivehowever, does have to go to Sean Bean as King Regis since there is variation and intrigue to his voice-work and makes the character of the king seem important in a plot-line that is filled with ambiguity. As far as the characters are concerned, they definitely correlate with the film’s underwhelming story-line. One of the things that stood out within Advent Children was the diverse range of characters that tried to show emotion and personality, despite the fact that there wasn’t much character development within that film. From beginning to end, aside from King Regis, the characters, including Nyx and Lunafreya who are played exceptionally well by Paul and Headey, are fixated in being stereotypical individuals that predictably go about their business in an uninspiring manner.

Paralleling with the past Final Fantasy films of The Spirit Within and Advent Children, while Kingsglaive further exemplifies this emergence of ‘new’ cinema, if this is still applicable, in which the boundary between cinema and animation disappears through the implementation of digital animation and motion capture, it’s a film that undoubtedly falls down the animation piping order with it’s obscure and damning method of story-telling that leaves the cinema-goer in disappointment. Indeed, the visuals and the animation that are utilised do comprehend this perspective that we’re looking at something that is border-line real and once again makes a good case for feature-length films to trust in the advancing capabilities that CG has still yet to offer. But as far as the story goes, which purposefully tries to engage both the video-gaming demographic and the general viewing audience, is contextually executed to the point of near boredom and predictability. As much as the director Takeshi Nozue is metaphorically nudging audiences who aren’t familiar with Final Fantasy to be fascinated by the events that unfold, in the end, Kingsglaive is an animated feature designed for the avid fan/player and doesn’t cater in basic cinematic formalities…

And with that, it’s time for me to end. As always everyone, thank you for reading my latest film review of Kingsglaive and I hope you’ve enjoyed the read, If anyone has an opinion on either my film review or on the film itself, please feel free to drop a comment down below. Next week, I may or may not be doing a game review, since I’ve only done 1 on this blog and I definitely want to share my opinions on games that I used to play when I was younger. Along with a potential game or film review, I will be announcing something that I’m excited for and that you can be part of!! Until then, thank you once again to everyone for reading my latest film review, I’ll see you all next week. Have a nice day and weekend!! Adieu!! 🙂

★ ★ ☆ ☆ ☆ – Alex Rabbitte