Why gen:LOCK is cool and other stuff actually isn’t
Remember animation? Not the Aladdin animation but proper, cool, state of the art, Evangelion-Naruto-Ninja-Scroll-HunterXHunter-StreetFighterII animation? Well it’s here.
And it’s got Michael B. Jordan and someone with a Scottish accent doing voices.
WHAT IS
It’s about a dystopian future where good and evil clash about stuff. It’s got smart tech. And the fight scenes are awesome.
Mind not the voice acting (gen:LOCK still finds time to add a Japanese character just to lure the Asian fanbase:), which is stellar, but shows this good are hard to find in this day and age of “that’s pure genius” when we look at two characters fighting over a fucking pencil.
NO DUTCH ANGLES
It may have a few but what is left from my experience with the show is maybe David Tennant — confirming, once and forever I guess, Brits always add some extra class to the characters, whether they’re good and pretty or morally questionable AF— as a solid, deep and very interesting individual.
ANIMATION
It’s good like those shows you never heard of that really look into some fight choreography and spend time polishing the scene and fight design.
Light’s good.
Movement’s awesome.
Colors are great.
The frame rate is majestic. Everything’s al dente.
CHARACTERS
You have your Michael B. Jordan stealing (and producing) the show but, as I said, Tennant is the one to follow.
Maisie Williams plays the ‘unsafe, unsecure, unpredictable’ card and the others are there just to puzzle up: there’s even a gender fluid character, to which this show falls short in terms of social relevance (no character development whatsoever, it’s just a poster).
It already has a nice mix of rather questionable tech, moral ambiguity and whatever extra ingredients other shows dream of possessing; it really didn’t need a Russian-speaking character with absolutely no regard nor respect for what others think of her/his sexuality.
Even though it’s a smart character choice, it develops into a void of nothing. Again, it works but it’s cheap.
IN THE END
You don’t have to pick sides, pick a favorite, cheer for Jordan, Maisie, the Japanese dude or the Russian, you just have to watch the whole thing.
For the Ghost in the Shell fans, it’s just another 20 mins of “same old Tuesday”.
For someone looking for proper animation with a bold storyline, gen:LOCK’s the snack du jour.
WHO DA BADDIES?
You have quirky characters, nice décor, smart dialog but what gen:LOCK lacks, at least for someone who has seen trailers and whatnot, is a huge badass.
Well you sat through (ROLL LIST): Forrest Gump, Grease, Inside Out, The Sound of Music, Brokeback Mountain, Dazed and Confused… (fade out)
You’ve put up with Inception and you’d think Mal’s the bad guy, but was she really?
WAS IT COBB?!
FOR MY MONEY
Movies/shows lend you part of the story and you get to punctuate it.
If gen:LOCK chose a dystopian sci-fi future where we’re all code and we can morph into H.I. (that would be human intelligence) machinery, that’s their pitch and that’s enough.
I don’t need a clear ‘This Guy Is Not Rambo’ or someone telling me ‘I want to kill whomever Tom Cruise is playing’. I just need good stories.
And gen:LOCK achieves that through credible storytelling.
MUSIC
The soundtrack, the main theme, the “dis shit sounds epic” comes up a lot during the show.
I just added another composer to my shortlist.
War is the go-to song but you have to listen to the whole OST in order to be hooked and amazed.
FINAL THOUGHTS
It’s a proper show and allegedly it spent millions on marketing ante premiering.
I don’t get why.
It can survive a bunch of seasons, it’s an ellaborate Transformers with Ghost in the Shell elements and those lasted for ages.
It’s not “pure genius”.
But it’s better than most you get from crazy algorithms or even more gazillions spent on marketing.
