New Gods: Yang Jian (2022) - Movie Review

Time to take a trip back into Light Chaser Animation’s universe of steampunk mysticism with a new New Gods feature. And this one actually made it into cinemas over here, instead of going straight to Netflix, and with the kind of visual aesthetics Light Chaser are chasing after here, that is one hell of a good move on their part.

New Gods: Nezha Reborn (2021) - Movie Review

Well, it looks like it’s going to take a bit longer before we get the next addition to the Fengshen cinematic universe that has already given us Ne Zha and Jiang Ziya. But a film along those same lines did come out this year on Netflix, itself also based on Investiture Of The Gods. However, where the Fengshen films went full period-setting in their reworking of the story, Nezha Reborn goes several steps further. Gone is the feudal ancient Chinese setting, and in its place is an industrial, mystically-tinged steampunk setting based on 1920s Shanghai. And instead of the cheeky demon child that used anywhere and everywhere as his own public toilet, we have motorcycle racer and courier Li Yunxiang (voiced by Yang Tianxiang), who must discover the power of his reincarnated heritage in order to save his town and the ones he loves.

Mortal Engines (2018) - Movie Review

 

We don’t get movies like this anymore. Yes, it’s a large-scale piece of sci-fi action adventure cinema, a familiar form of popcorn fodder, but I’m talking more about the aesthetic. This kind of globe-spanning steampunk is a genuine rarity nowadays. And in the hands of Peter Jackson, giving his frequent collaborator Christian Rivers a thunderous directorial debut, his finesse in the realm of computer effects gives this film an absolutely fantastic visage.

Showing a world where cities have become gargantuan machines, roaming the scorched earth in hopes of materials to maintain their own existence (referred to in-universe as 'Municipal Darwinism'), the level of scale and detail here is staggering. Watching the colossal city of London chug along what was once the world we know is a disquieting experience… and not just because of the destruction in its wake.