That was an excellent one.

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

Amazing worth wacthing. So good. Biased but well made with many good points.

Mostly, the movie is committed to the value of a good time.

"Alive" is a dark dystopian science-fiction drama that convinces with some philosophic thoughts and some social criticism. There are a couple of intriguing mysteries surrounding the movie that keep a certain level of tension. This Japanese flick though lives especially from its dark and twisted dystopian atmosphere and a good graphic work. The acting performances of the two male prisoners and the strange witch are great enough to carry the movie on and have a classic and theatrical approach reminding me of Sartre's "No Exit".Towards the end, the movie sadly shifts into a rather ordinary fantasy flick with some boring action scenes. I also feel that one could have developed some characters a little bit more and gone more into some details. While there are many interesting aspects, the movie doesn't go as it could have. As soon as the mysteries are solved or left untouched, the story shifts into emptiness and the whole structures gets somewhat overlong, pointless and even emotionless. Even the acting gets less addicting and one loses interest concerning the different characters. The dramatic turn of events in the ending can't save much anymore and leaves the viewers more or less untouched because the flick lost too much credit in its last third.In the end, the movie is a mixed package with two third of the running time that is rather addicting, diversified and filled with tension, mystery and atmosphere while the last third is less intense and lacks of originality. This is a fairly interesting movie to rent or watch once but only of an average quality compared to many other contemporary Japanese movies and I wouldn't suggest you a blind purchase of this flick. After all, my rating is seven out of ten but I'm maybe still a little bit generous, so don't expect an outstanding movie in here but just some good entertainment with a few enjoyable qualities.

I found this movie to be very well-paced. The premise is quite imaginative, and as a viewer I was pulled along as the characters developed. The pacing is done very well for those that like to think--enough is kept hidden from the viewer early on, and questions keep arising which are later answered, producing a well-thought out and very satisfying film, both cerebrally and from an action standpoint.It seems some people were looking for a non-stop roller-coaster ride with this film--one of those that comes charging out of the gate. This would be more analogous to one of those coasters that first takes you slowly up the hill--creating a wonderful sense of anticipation--and is ultimately, in my mind, more fulfilling for the foundation initially laid.Excellent film.

I'm a big fan of Kitamura Ryuhei after films like Versus and Azumi. He paints a great picture with action and flare in his movies. The movie Alive drained 2 hours of my life that I could have used wisely (putting my head down in shame). The movie starts off very slow and I mean yukkuri. When it gets down to the action I'm pretty much half a sleep and the action scenes weren't that great. No variety in environment cause it's just a jail and if I had to give credit it felt like I was in jail for watching the movie. The movie Cube pulls together better than this movie and it was probably more low budget than this. Big disappointment. All I have to say is don't watch this movie. Hope to see Aragami soon hope that's better. Peace

The movie is based on a manga series created by Tutomu Takahashi and as usual in such cases 'the book was better'. I haven't enjoyed the movie at all, despite its unusual atmosphere, it is just too long. A good film consists of many elements and one of them is right pace, which this film is lacking. What struck me the most was decreasing quality of the special effects, as if they spent most of the money in the beginning and then tried to do the ending with whatever was left. Ah I forgot to mention the 'mutant from space' character, which was omitted in the comic book, that gave the final scenes a 'Dragon Ball' feel and only distorted the depth of the comic ending.