Review of Redline

Redline, a must watch, is like the 8th wonder of the world. It's got a terrible incoherent story, boring cringey dialogue, and cliche characters, yet somehow manages to blow our minds regardless, one frame at a time. Those familiar with my reviews know I have a soft spot in my heart for strong, creative, clever stories/dialogue, and think very little of mediums that fail to pull me in throughout the course of its plot. (and Redline's story/dialogue is none of those things) It's one of the reasons I didn't really think too highly of Kotonoha no Niwa (Garden of Words), a Makoto Shinkai short thatmany consider to be a classic masterpiece for its stunning art and creative adult themes. Redline is similar in some ways, albeit with vastly different themes. Kotonoha no Niwa, however, at least had a coherent story. This much cannot even be said of Redline.

The story is a complete mess. The plot was supposed to be about racing. And when it was about racing, it was simple and sweet, and hid a lot of the creator's weaknesses. But not long into the movie, the plot began jumping between various conflicts that have nothing to do with the main story. Conflicts that the main characters don't seem the care about, and the audience certainly and definitively do not care about. And it only gets worse and worse. Throw in the constant barrage of unnecessary fan service, and I got a headache from rolling my eyes too hard. I feel cliche just saying this, but Redline tried to do too much, and the added weight sunk their story. It wasn't just the needlessly complicated filler plot, every line of dialogue in this movie was complete garbage, and could have been written by a 5 year old.

For example, romance movies in the modern age succeeds because of creativity - the main character never gets the girl (or guy) until he figures out a creative way to woo her. Instead, Redline seems content to regurgitate cliches in the most awkward and un-creative ways, of no fault to the voice actors, who did a great job (Japanese and English). The way the two romantic interests fall in love is fine, maybe even realistic for our modern world. But the mechanics are poorly executed, making the romance portions of the movie extremely cringe-worthy, which is a great word to describe all the dialogue in this movie, actually. Seriously, try to watch the movie and not cringe, I dare you. Also, try to watch this movie and not fall asleep midway through the final race when the movie suddenly turns into Battle Los Angeles (another movie with a terrible plot).

Then there's the horrible cliche characters. If any of you have seen Johnny Bravo, you will know exactly who JP, our protagonist, is. However, whereas JB is a satirical parody, JP tries to pass off a clown for a prince. Some words of advice to all you aspiring screen writers out there - characters who think they are cool, and tries to be cool... are not cool. Characters who are called cool in the movie... are not cool. That's screenwriting 101, folks.

One thing I did like about the story is that they didn't go indepth into character backstories. I actually LOVE this. Because honestly, do we need to waste yet another 30 minutes watching a sob story about some cool guy who grew up without parents because his parents were killed, or his parents were killed, or his parents were killed? Because apparently you can't be cool if you have parents. The story doesn't really tell us this, but it's not a stretch to imagine that JP's parents were killed. And that's enough. That's efficiency.

The rest of the characters are, likewise, minimally fleshed out, and that's for the best. It's not just because it distracts from the main course action, but even in a non-action story, writers try too hard to make us care about their characters using their past rather than their present, and I hate that. It's cheap and uncreative. Every person under the age of 40 in the modern world has ADHD, nobody's got time for that. Anyways, my point is that Redline is efficient in its characterizations. In fact, Redline's hyper-efficient unsaturated sucker-punch (another movie with a terrible plot) way of characterization was by far it's strongest story-telling aspect, and it is the one reason the movie had moments that were so sweet. That, and well, the art and music, which brings me to my next point.

Up till this point, all I've done is bash this movie. Yet, I scored it an 8 out of 10. You must be wondering why. Well, the answer to that question is better shown than told. And humble reviewer like myself is not equipped do it justice. The only way is to watch it for yourself. My bet is that it won't take you even 5 seconds into the film to realize why this movie is so great, as every frame is meticulously hand-drawn over the course of nearly a decade to make this movie. Needless to say, the art is absolutely gorgeous, and definitely not the level of detail we're use to seeing from anime. I personally have never seen anything like it, and I've seen hundreds of animes, movies, and TV shows. The art was enough to overpower the terrible story and dialogue. That, and the fast-paced dub-step arcade music and background effects that knows when the shut up, really helps the movie hit home.

All in all, watching this movie is like watching the Mona Lisa. Mona Lisa doesn't talk to you. She just smiles. And that's enough.

Story: 6
Art: 10+
Sound: 10
Characters: 6
Enjoyment: 8
Overall: 8