"Bubble" (2022) Review: The Good and The Bad
An amateur film review writer who likes pretty much every film genre.
Released on Netflix, "Bubble" is about a massive explosion of gravity-defying bubbles that block Tokyo off from the rest of the globe. Young people engaged in parkour use the city skyline as a playground. Hibiki falls into the water, but is rescued by a mysteriously gifted girl.
Despite its intriguing idea and an experienced animation studio, Bubble fell short of expectations. There are a lot of terrible sections in the film that detract from the brilliance of the animation.
The Good
1. Quality Animation
If anything, the quality of animation for this film is insane, and WIT Studio is responsible for this. The animation studio responsible for the first three seasons of Attack on Titan and a recent popular anime, Spy x Family,
Based upon the two series listed above, it is no surprise how beautiful the film looked. The backdrops are densely packed with elements and colour schemes that make everything stand out.
To accurately depict the parkour part of the plot, the studio also employs a lot of quick camera work and editing. Then there's the choreography aspect, where the audience can see everything happening on screen. Every scene flows like water, and it's very pleasing to see.
Despite the film's flaws, the animation is simply some of the greatest you'll ever see.
Hibiki voiced by Jun Shison
The Bad
1. Glossing Away the Fine Details
Despite the excellent animation, the film's narrative is extremely troublesome. It's simply revolting to look at. The writing never progresses beyond that first good concept.
A few critical occurrences are never described as to why they occur or how significant they are. This author recognizes that the plot's sense of mystery is intentional. However, a few little details scattered throughout the picture would have been useful.
To give a better context with no spoilers on this, the phrase "HQ" is mentioned several times by multiple characters. However, the viewer is never told what that means or represents. This is only one of many examples how the writer for this film abandon creating an immersive world and instead focus on developing a stunning animation only.
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Providing detailed details and explanations to viewers is vital because it gives us a sense of reality, even if we are in a fictional environment.
Uta voiced by Emi Lo
2. Abandoning Side Characters
Another aspect of the writing that deserves its own category is how it abandons its supporting characters. Aside from the main character, Hibiki (Jun Shison), no other characters are given any intriguing traits or growth. They're the most generic character you'll ever see in an anime series.
You have the character of a senior figure being respected even though we were never told as to why he is so respected. There's also the guy that is envious of his own colleague. You also get a man with a peculiar appearance, a strange name, and an even stranger demeanour. That's only a sampling of the basic characters that even casual anime viewers could find tedious.
There's nothing wrong with writing these characters, but you need to offer them something interesting to set your picture apart from others. Give us some background on them and the significance of their participation in the film.
Unfortunately, the film did not provide that, thus the feeling of engagement is minor at best.
"Bubble" (2022) was produced by WIT Studio
3. The Antagonist Isn't Present
The film's major flaw is that the antagonist in the film has no presence whatsoever within the plot.
In the narrative, there are two antagonists, but none of them is exciting or dangerous enough for the protagonist.
One of them is intriguing to look at, but they pose little to no harm to our characters' development. The other is scary on a power level but lacks the necessary growth in terms of personality and motivation to be a memorable villain.
As a result, the tale lacks intensity, preventing the spectator from being totally immersed in the picture.
Hibiki & Uta in "Bubble" (2022)
Final Opinion
Bubble is a prime example of a film that prioritizes its visuals rather than crafting a compelling script. 2/10 for possibly the worst film of the year.
© 2022 Fadhli Dzil
