Not a satisfying flick, plain bland and boring to say the least
I bought this film on DVD a few days ago because IGN touted it out as the best anime of 2007. Now, I'm not a fan of what people describe as 'anime' - I thought Ghost in the Shell was barely above average, I thought Spirited Away was incredibly overrated but there are some animation movies from Japan that have managed to make an impression on me. Like Whisper of the Heart, which has remained as my most favourite movie of all time since I first experienced its greatness.
I wasn't really expecting much from Paprika because I knew it was going to suck to matter how hard I tried to like it. 'Anime' these days is all about reenacting old cliches and archetypes in an even worse manner than anything, and I knew this film was just going to do that all over again. But I did have a bit of faith that somehow, by some miracle, it might just turn my preemptive judgments false.
Oh, how mistaken I was!
Paprika is exactly what I expected it to be. Pure Japanese fluff that praises itself to be high-art but does nothing artistic in its stale attempts whatsoever. To everyone defending this movie to be a piece of art: please learn the difference between actual art and colourful drawings, and this is more of the latter. Everything drawn by hand doesn't classify as art. Hardly, in fact. Art is something that serves a deeper purpose than its superficial self shows. One could argue that I have yet to discover that 'deeper purpose' of this film, but I doubt I'd ever find it. It's just what it is - meaningless entertainment.
Shallow characters, predictable save-the-word-from-evil sort-of storyline, art-style and animation were barely above average, there's no proper plot, no structure, no focus, it just drags on and on with nothing in its sight and then ends without any real climax. Yes, I understand this is supposed to be a 'surreal' film, but I wonder if the director even knows what a surreal film is. The first and foremost rule of a surreal (or semi-surreal film, for that matter) is that it should never try and explain itself, and Paprika just tries too hard there to properly work.
I would be cool with it if it were just mindless entertainment - I enjoy that as well. But Paprika doesn't want to be that either. It doesn't know where to go or what to be so it takes desperate jabs in-between and fails.
There's also zero focus within the story. Is this the story about Atsuko, who's trying to find the missing DC Minis? Is this the story about the detective, who's trying to find out about his past? Is this the story about Tokita, who's constantly trying to find himself? One movie needs one story, not ten. If this was a movie about Atsuko, she needs to be in this movie at all times - or if she's not seen, we need to know the scene is somehow connected to her.
Same with any other character, because by throwing so many stories at us at once, you're literally screaming "We don't know how to make the story strong! So, we'll just add more sub-plots and subplots to those sub-plots to add intricate depth to the story." And the truth is, it doesn't bring any depth at all. If anything, it makes me dislike this film more and more.
At the end of the day, I'd say Paprika is a film below average. It tries too hard to be like Miyazaki, to bring the mystique of his films into this, but in the end, it just feels like a cheap rip-off.
5/10
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