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Reviewed by Matt Burkett
 I
try to understand, but I can’t. They say it is “45 minutes of
pure entertainment,” but I don’t see it. They comment that Dan
Dominator is “the brilliant revolutionary director” but I don’t
see that either. That’s the thing that irks me the most about
JDR Revival, people’s baffling attraction to a movie that is
ultimately pointless, only demonstrating a director can go
through four months of intense animating for no real reason.
Yet, people will say the story isn’t important. According to
them, it doesn’t need to have a point, because Revival is
all about “style” and being “pure entertainment.”
A lot of people also say this about a personal, non-3DMM
favorite of mine: Versus, the Ryuhei Kitamura film about
an escaped prisoner who has a yakuza gang hunting him down all
while he fights to stay alive in a zombie infested forest. Any
review of Versus will be sure to mention the multitude of
genres that are rolled into it. It’s a chambara film while at
the same time it’s a yakuza gangster flick. It’s also a martial
arts extravaganza complete with buckets of Tom Savini-like gore
and slapstick humor not unknown to the Three Stooges.
Versus’ is mostly an introduction to the upbeat, insane
film style of Kitamura that would continue on in films like
Azumi, Alive and Aragami.
But Dominator Dan is no Ryuhei Kitamura.
Where as Versus is indeed a film all about style,
Revival comes across as if scenes just kept getting tacked
on and on. 720 scenes, rounding out to nearly 50 minutes, were
required to tell a non-complex tale about three kids (Dominator
Dan’s character sounds as if he were voiced by Daniel Radcliffe
of the Harry Potter movies) who need to stop a stock
villain. Along the way, fights with giant robots, space ships,
and other evil minions are in full force. They don’t add or
detract anything from the story. They’re just there to be there.
If one of the crazed fight sequences isn’t on screen, then most
certainly its comedy is. There are only two genuinely funny
moments (all dealing with the villain and his mustache/escape),
before beyond cliché 3DMM violence antics (which involves
killing every scientist throughout the course of the movie) and
other such dry humor take a firm, choking hold.
By scene 541, our hero faces the villain in a dimensional
vortex, filled with doors that lead to other worlds. In this
case, any current or popular 3DMM film. The two wrestle past the
Knights of Camelot and have a run in with Sgt. Steve
before 200 scenes have passed and our hero comes out on top.
If you separated scene 1 to 540, then 541 to 720, you would
swear you were watching two different movies. The nexus battle
takes the whole last third of the movie to play out, making it
probably the longest 3DMM battle in history, and it feels as
though it could have easily been an entirely separate flick.
It might have worked out better that way since JDR Revival
isn’t really about anything. Not even it’s much discussed
“style” saves it since there is nothing revolutionary or unique.
Though, it’s sure to hit home with people on the nostalgic level
since the detailed and colorful effects have an uncanny
resemblance to early fantasies of 3DMM’s past.
While I fully encourage Dominator Dan to continue his movie
making efforts, I discourage putting the time into making
epically aimless entries like JDR Revival. Had Revival’s
animation been strung together with a decent story, maybe even a
written script, I would most likely be in mass with the other
Dominator Dan fans.
Until then, "style" just isn't enough.
45 out of 100
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