Review of Parasite Eve (1997) by Weik T — 18 Sep 2008

My response to this film seems to be the opposite of the typical one - I thought the first half was excellent, with a real sense of dread and emotion. But in the 2nd hour it turns into a rather generic 90s bio-disaster-horror flick, like you might expect to see from Michael Crichton or some clown. The acting also suffers in this second half, with excrutiating scenes of Hiroshi Mikami, as in the later Yogen, demonstrating his ability at bugging his eyes out.

Honestly, I'm not sure how I was expecting it to progress, but it wasn't like this. The story from the games (which has nothing to do with this, really) was convoluted but gave us more to think about, and really conveyed a feeling of doom. This just doesn't. Not terrible, but a lot of potential was wasted here; I have a feeling that if this had come out 5 years later it would be much better.

On the bright side, I was pleasantly surprised to find out that Joe Hisaishi did the score to this. It isn't one of his greatest works, but it's still light years beyond standard movie music.