Well, cine gore fans... Father Geek here with yet another review of VERSUS from its French Film Festival screening... and this one seems to be as positive as the others we've received... Good news to those of us who love those over the top wet effects...
I saw the movie in Gerardmer.
Although i'm convinced of the future cult status of Versus, I would like to specify a few points about this very odd project : - Forget about plot, drama, characters or dialogues, those aspects simply don't exist in the minds and desires of the team - the definition of the movie, as pointed by its creators is "non stop freefall action".
I was very skeptical about the concept, 2 hours of non-stop-action ? Better be well-crafted. - The first ten minutes seemed to confirm my apprehensions : bad acting, bad lighting, and a tendency to have the camera do just about anything without any purpose. And then, after those ten minutes, there's a gunfight between yakuzas and zombies. Almost 15 minutes of gory action. And YES, I must say, I've never seen anything like it !!!
- Yes, Ryuhei Kitamura's flick reminded me of Peter Jackson's Bad Taste or Braindead (for its humor), yes the sword fights have a lot to do with the Baby Cart series, yes the overall spirit shares an certain "uncorrectness" with that other cult movie yet to be released in the States, Doberman. But what Champagne 2000 failed to explain was the incredible technical quality of the movie. - The camera work on Versus is just amazing! Incredible and complicated crane shots at a high speed with a perfect focus. The editing guarantees a total understanding of very complex situations (mainly during the gunfights.
I just can't believe that this movie was made for just $400 000 as it easily surpasses the majority of US blockbusters, not only with its action style (as in Hong Kong) but also with its overall technical aspect. - You don't believe it ? Well I can tell you that there is a sword duel at one point that I've never seen in any movie but it looks familiar though. And then I realized I've seen something similar. it was CGI. This duel (its action, its editing) was the one featured in the overture of the video-game Final Fantasy VII.
- It's obvious that Versus will have to face a lot of bad critics for its absolute non-interest in the matters of fiction and academic art, but I can guarantee you that you're about to hear a lot from director Ryuhei Kitamura !!!
