thePopcornExplorer

Aside from the fact that this movie was directed by the great Bong Joon-ho, I was very intrigued, as probably most of you that saw it, by the concept.

A new body getting the same personality and memories: the biological and philosophical questions that raise from it are amazing to ponder and this is why I don't rate the movie lower, because not only is the concept great, the setting in which it is applied is really interesting.

Robert Pattinson already established himself as a great actor but the contrast of his performances in this movie reinforces it again.

It starts off interesting although Mickey is an odd fellow you can get past it because as I mentioned the whole narrative is good enough to engage you, however it quickly becomes a dark comedy mixed up with the drama Sci-Fi it started out as and the tone of the whole thing gets really weird.

You can't take the story that seriously and also it's not really a comedy as well, plus there's a lot of unnecessary kind of gruesome scenes that don't seem to serve much of a purpose.

In short, it's not the best narrative and it has a strange tone but it's still watchable and both the acting and the concept are really great!

It's always tough reviewing old movies, you always need to go in with your mind opened to the fact that you have to place the film in the time it was made and not through the lens of the year you are watching it.

In the past I wasn't too familiar with Bruce Lee's work, I always assumed he was nothing more than a martial artist actor, but upon reading his book I slowly come to appreciate the man and more than his display of physical prowess, the philosophies and lessons he taught.

They deeply resonated with me and I learned a big deal from them. With that being said I was missing a crucial part of this, I had never watched a movie he starred in, ever, so I had to do it.

Considering it was made almost 50 years ago there are many positives, the filming locations, the camera work, the slightly engaging plot, but the most important aspect of this movie to me comes down to two things:

• The revolution of martial art movies worldwide including realistic choreography.

• Asian representation in a world that even 50 years later continues to struggle with this topic.

This was an amazing achievement if you consider this, while the acting is not the best and there are many silly and unrealistic scenes, again, through the lens of the 70s this was nothing short of an amazing feet to accomplish.

A proof of that is, Bruce Lee still stands today as an iconic figure globally, there's not too many people that can own that legacy without having tarnished it with some controversies.

A movie that despite its flaws stood the test of time.

This is one of those rare situations for me where I first read the manga (or in this case manwa since the story is Korean) and saw the anime after, so I did love the series but I was already aware of the events so I wasn't expecting to not be this excited.

Even with all the hype I found Solo Leveling narrative fairly basic in a way, it's not really a deep character exploration filled with twists and thought out plots, it's a very straight forward story so yet another reason for me to not get much expectations of the anime.

However it succeeds pretty much in a all other fronts!

In movie or a TV show, a great thought provoking story is usually what attracts me the most, but once in a while you get something like Solo Leveling with outstanding animation, great soundtrack, perfect pacing of the story, it never drags at all and almost all individual episodes are really engaging, you get that cool classic anime protagonist vibe - all of this made for a great show!

I would be the first to criticize the fact the main character is over powered and at some point it's always him being cool destroying his enemies, this would be something boring for me in any other show but they managed to make those moments so cool I felt like I was a teenager watching Naruto all over again.

The whole dynamic of the guilds and the secondary characters while not explored that much still get some screen time which is good, I don't know, I really loved the show vibe and the way it was made.

I am really eager to see how the story ends, I still didn't finish the manwa as well so it will be a treat I am sure!