Review of Battle Royale (2000) by Nate G — 12 Apr 2012

Maybe my expectations for this one were a bit too high, maybe I just missed something - either way - I was pretty disappointed by this one.

Some parts of it were done well, including the use of dreams and some of the creativity found in the violence. I also liked that the director connected the behaviors and mistrust in the Battle Royale with the hardships and mistrust built up among the students at school. There was just too much that either went unexplained or were explained that really didn't need to be. For instance, why did we have to know about the relationships between practically every person killed with their killer, while relationships between people who hanged themselves together were overlooked almost entirely. The character build-up of most of the featured students were fairly hollow as well, with the exception of the main character and his best friend.

The other thing that bothered me about this one was the way the plot felt more appropriate for a video-game than a feature film. It would have been a lot more interesting if there had been a little more insight into why this battle royale was happening in the first place.

Despite all of this though, there was some good action and the special effects were pretty seamless - and besides, I'm in for a good kill-fest.