Smartorhypo
Highly Overrated But Still Good
Marva-nova
Amazing worth wacthing. So good. Biased but well made with many good points.
Catherina
If you're interested in the topic at hand, you should just watch it and judge yourself because the reviews have gone very biased by people that didn't even watch it and just hate (or love) the creator. I liked it, it was well written, narrated, and directed and it was about a topic that interests me.
Donald F
By pure coincidence, I've stumbled along most of Yoshiaki Kawajiri's filmography. His Lensman kickstarted my desire to find lesser-known animated films. But I'd never say it was a great movie. The only film I'd seriously recommend would be Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust, his magnum opus.Highlander: Search for Vengeance is not an exception to the rule. While it may legitimately be the best Highlander sequel, it falls back on tired tropes seen in his previous films, yet takes itself too seriously.It tries to tell a tragic tale, Colin MacLeod hunting his arch-nemesis for twenty centuries, wasting his immortality for a pursuit he always fails. The scenes in the past are actually not too bad, honestly. Unfortunately, the plot in the present future is by the numbers. In post-apocalypse, Colin finds love and revenge, leading a rebellion against a force less accurate than Stormtroopers, ascending a towering skyscraper to the final showdown. It brings up the negative effect of hatred, but after briefly contemplating, Colin still earns his revenge. Why he succeeds this time is beyond me.It is kinda fun, though. The animation is fairly good, the action fast. Most importantly, there are dozens of cheesy moments. Giant chainsaws and gators, bad-ass chicks, delayed sword slashes...the clichés show little restraint. The World War II scene should be legendary. I'd compare it to Goku Midnight Eye, but at least GME was consistently campy - Highlander's failure to be a good, serious action film reduces its enjoyment as a bad, funny action film. There's still a lot of dumb fun to be had, if you can tolerate a generic plot, a bad ending, and a pretty gruesome crucifixion.It gets 4 out of 10 for sheer ineptitude. It may be a good anime for Bad Movie Night, but there's a chance that choice will backfire.
t_atzmueller
Some crossovers work, some don't; sadly, "Highlander – Search for Vengeance" belongs to the second category. Not just that but it seems that certain films don't translate into other mediums. As example, I'd like to point out the live action adaptation of the anime "Fist of the North Star" – it worked fine as a cartoon but was a rather laughable film. Although not as awful as mentioned "Fist of the North Star" live action, "Highlander – Search for Vengeance" remains somewhat of a failed experiment.Being both a fan of the original "Highlander"-franchise and mildly interested in anime ("Ninja Scroll" being among my favourites), I looked forward to seeing this film and knowing that this wouldn't be a kids cartoon, like the awful "Highlander"-animated-series, expected a more adult-oriented approach. It was, giving us that graphic violence which we've come to expect from this particular type of anime but more blood and gore never equated to a better "Highlander" film.Where did it go wrong? In my personal opinion, the supernatural elements never had a place in the franchise, being part of the trouble that has plagued "Highlander"-sequels and TV-shows. "It's a kind of magic", and that's all that the "Highlander"-fan needs to know. That was the magic of the original "Highlander" concept: these were people like you and me, with the exception that they were immortal, fought with mean-a** swords and had to fight to the last man. What we get here are demons, cyborgs and sorcerers, set in an end-time scenario, which would fit better in a "Fist of the North Star"-film; hence, the flashback-sequences are the highlight of the film. I could go on and point out that the abominable "Highlander: The Source" took place in a similar setting, using the concept "magic" short of making Duncan McLeod pulling a rabbit from a hat. However, that wouldn't do "Search for Vengeance" justice – even if flawed, the anime is infinitely better than the (hopefully) final "Highlander" film.For 'conservative' "Highlander"-fans, "Search for Vengeance", especially those not familiar with anime, is an odd little curiosity – for anime fans it's regular fare, pretty much "Ninja Scroll" set in the "Highlander"-universe.Giving it 5 points from 10 would be very well-meaning.
SubtleFury
I am big fan of Yoshiaki Kawajiri and it pains me to see such a production with his name on it. Yes, the visuals are great, but even they get irritating as the movie goes on, because someone decided that almost every action scene and many of the ordinary ones should be done with 3D, and when you see that same method re-used for the 50th time in just 80 minutes... well not only isn't it impressive anymore but very annoying. Whatever the problems the movie had, I wouldn't be that disappointed if it wasn't the *STORY* - awful, cliché after cliché, unbelievably cheesy b-movie lines and one of the worst juxtaposion of sex scene ever (lighting candles??? what the hell?!)... The script really ruins everything good, and the characters are very flat and stereotypical, not to mention most of their designs are almost copy&paste from Kawajiri's previous works. And not only the characters are copied but whole scenes (e.g. the battle on the rooftops - Animatrix: Program), and though not 1:1 you still get a bitter deja-vu quite often.So thank you but I'd stick with Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust and Ninja Scroll - Highlander is no way near them.
Timothy McKann
When I first learned that this film was going to be released on DVD. I have to say that out of all the action anime I have seen.This one tops all of them. But after seeing the online trailer. I had to get this film,and that is exactly what I did. When I bought the film on DVD,it was loaded. I never seen anything like it. My favorite character is this film is Colin. I also want to say that he has lived for 2,000 years,and he has never aged. He is pretty cool in different settings,and wars. But however,this one is the most violent film,I have ever seen. So, if you are a huge Highlander fan,then you have to see this film.And be careful when watching it. It can mess with your head.
