1 out of 1 people found the following review helpful:
Ambitious start to the trilogy
A Customer from ORPINGTON,
5th July, 2009
In 1969 a group of school friends create their own fantasy adventure story entitled “The Book Of Prophecies” in which an evil organisation threatens to destroy the world and they are the heroes who will save the world. Fast forward to 1997 and the group leader Kenji (Toshiaki Karasawa) is a failed rock star now working in a convenient store and looking after his baby niece, Kanna. At the same time an odd religious cult arises, headed by a mysterious masked man known only as “Friend” whose symbol is the same as the one Kenji’s gang created way back when. When a number of incidents involving a deadly virus that robs its victims of their blood occur – exactly as written in “The Book Of Prophecies” - Kenji decides to regroup the old gang to fight Friend and stop him from destroying the world. This is the first film in a trilogy adapting Naoki Urasawa’s sprawling Manga of the same name; and at two and a quarter hours long, it looks like it is planning on rivalling the LOTR trilogy in the thorough treatment stakes. It’s been said that these films follow the Manga very closely although time constraints have meant certain omission are inevitable, which are quite apparent even to the uninitiated in this first film. The story jumps around from era to era although it largely centres around the last few years of the 20th century which is when Friend begins his campaign to destroy the world with the end of the century being his target date for the end. Obviously Friend’s true identity is never revealed (not to the viewer anyway), although we do know he was someone who was excluded from Kenji’s gang hence his knowledge of their activities. What Friend’s motives are for destroying the world and why he is using the “The Book Of Prophecies” as his manual is also never explained like a lot of things in this film. Hopefully the answers will be more forthcoming in the later instalments. The concept it has to be said its quite intriguing if not entirely original but the downside is that it makes the pace of the film a bit slow in order to cram as much of the foundation of the plot in the first 90 minutes or so before getting to the action. As a result so many characters, both major and incidental, are introduced across the two plus hours with little in the way of reasoning or a sense of congruity, it’s easy to lose track of who is who and why they are relevant to the plot. Despite the pacing and scripting issues, 20th Century Boys Pt 1 (yes it is based around the classic T-Rex song) is an enjoyable if overly ambitious film but with the huge cliffhanger ending, interest in the second film is definitely assured.
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