Review King of Thorn

The main character and her sister

A long time ago I read the King of Thorne manga and thought that this would be a pretty decent movie it made into one.  Turns out my expectations were not entirely met when I actually saw the movie adaptation.

Things don't turn out so well for him. 

In the year 2012 the world is ravaged by a strange virus which turns people into stone. It is called the Medusa virus. Amid the panic a shadowy corporation called Venus gate has a plan to place 160 people into cryostasis in an old castle that has been converted into a laboratory until the disease can be cured. One of the people picked is a teenage Japanese girl by the name of Kasumi Ishiki. When they went to sleep they expected to wake up to a peaceful world where they would be toward not a strange version of the castle covered in vines and inhabited by monsters.

The best and the worst of the animation, side by side

King of thorn is a straight up action movie with monster horror elements. Even though the main character is a teenage girl with no combat ability most of the movie centers around either fighting or running away from monsters. The finding this mostly facilitated by Owen one of her fellow patients who appears to be a convicted criminal but has an interesting past. Even though the main character is definitely over her head I find her still somewhat compelling as she gives the movie  the chance to be something other than a brainless monster bashing flick.

The guy that does most of the action stuff in this movie

Even though this is an action movie and one does not generally watch such movies looking for deep characterization I found the character serviceable. The pacing of the movie is decent as well although the first 20 minutes is mostly set up. Animation is a bit iffy at times as it seems so fluctuate between being very good at doing still shots and backgrounds but often degrading into jarring CG animation for action scenes.

Overall I find this to be decent movie best suited for rental like many action movies but not thing really more than that.

Rating The bronze Tetsuo cape (Akira) or being a decent action scifi movie adaptation of manga.