Rating summary

Movie		1.5
Video		4.0
Audio		4.5
Extras		1.5
Overall		2.5

Kite Blu-ray Movie Review

Not flying high.

Reviewed by Martin Liebman November 28, 2014

Kite, the long-in-the-making film adaptation of a 1998 Anime film of the same name (also a recent Blu-ray release) is a visually frenetic but emotionally empty endeavor with a repetitive, wholly unoriginal story and a transparent final twist that most will have pegged early on. There's a hyper-realism at play, a nod to movies like Sin City and other style-over-substance flicks but here without any substance to go along with that style and, frankly, not enough in the way of juicy visuals, either, to make it worth one's over-the-top movie tripping time. It's sort of like a movie released in some stage of unfinished production and/or editing or at the most generous something made to be enjoyed on the purely visceral, external, eye candy level where amplified primary front colors, faded backgrounds, kinetic movement, and violence bordering on the cartoonish are the primary ingredients. But even those seem left unfinished, the movie never pushing too hard or too far and not making up for the difference in any meaningful way. In essence, it falls into something of a genre dead zone in which nothing really comes together and nothing really comes out beyond a seen-it-before bore of movement and empty ideas with a pretty girl dishing out a trite, by-the-book brand of justice in the middle of it all.

The girl.

A young girl named Sawa (India Eisley), who is addicted to a memory-destroying drug called "Amp," fights through a seedy future-set underworld of the so-called "flesh cartels" -- human traffickers -- in search of the man she claims killed her father, a mystery figure known only as "Amir." She infiltrates the local prositution rings, donning a pink wig but hiding her true intentions until her subjects are subdued into a haze of sexual cravings. She's secretly teamed up with a cop (Samuel L. Jackson) who supplies her with police weapons capable of doing some pretty nasty things to her unsuspecting victims. As Sawa inches closer to the truth, she meets a link to her past in Oburi (Callan McAuliffe). She also comes to learn that her knowledge base is woefully lacking and that the secrets she has so long sought may be lurking closer than she could have ever imagined.

Kite appears to be aiming for a cross between La Femme Nikita and I Spit On Your Grave considering its basic story elements that see a girl doling out revenge on the people who killed her parents with precision lethal force, including, but no limited to, exploding bullets and meat cleavers. Add in that dash of Sin City and hectic urban action that hints at something like The Raid: Redemption, and its easy to see just how it manages to be so unimpressively unoriginal. The movie is all style and absolutely no substance, completely absent any sort of tangible social commentary or emotional depth. The characters are empty vessels fueled by recycled emotions and motivations working in a nondescript future landscape that adds no intrinsic value to the story, other than the development of those admittedly nifty exploding bullets. Worse, the performances fall woefully flat, thanks largely, it seems, to the nondescript, one dimensional robots the actors are told to play. There's a decided lack of character nuance at play, with broad, sweeping generalizations standing in for tighter story-shaping character development.

Those unimaginative characterizations bleed over into the terribly straightforward plot that's repeated several times in the movie for good measure, not so much for the benefit of the lead character, who suffers from a bad case of drug-induced amnesia, so she can remember why it is she's hacking and slashing and shooting, but instead for the audience, who the movie seems to fear might have missed the whole "you killed my father, prepare to die" angle. Kite is really just a mess of a movie with precious few saving graces. Fans of over-the-top bloody mischief and violence might get a kick out of exploding bullets that have a tendency to splatter nearby bystanders, but otherwise there's absolutely no other novelty. Even the direction and editing can't help, both of which only seem to double-down on the idea that the movie should be but a one-trick pony that only seems to rehash the same scenes and dialogue over and over. This is as cookie-cutter generic as Action movies come, a huge letdown even coming in with modest expectations for staleness.

Kite Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Kite generally looks fantastic on Blu-ray. Anchor Bay's 1080p transfer, sourced form an HD video shoot, is admittedly very flat and glossy, which isn't necessarily a favorable visual tone for the movie's otherwise gritty and frenetic pace, but that's modern cinema. Facial features can range from effectively plastic (which seems a combination of makeup artist and filmmaker intent and video source related) and heavily complex. Surface textures and even other, more weathered faces offer a healthy allotment of area-specific detail. Colors are mostly (and deliberately) drained across backgrounds, favoring white, gray, and black, but there are splashes of intense color, mostly in the form of Sawa's pink hair, gloves, and boots, that are boldly aggressive and nicely vibrant. Black levels satisfy, noise is minimal-to-moderate, and flesh tones, while a little pale and pasty in places, usually look fine. Considering the source, there's little room for complaint here.

Kite Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Kite flies onto Blu-ray with a Dolby TrueHD 5.1 lossless soundtrack. The presentation is excellent in all areas of concern. Music is aggressive and effortlessly fills the room with big, ambitious beats both as part of the score and, in one scene, a blaring dance club that sends a pulsing low end and heavenly highs into the listening area with the sort of expert spacing and envelopment that are hallmarks of the best tracks. The movie proper isn't aggressively atmospheric, never fully brining every little location-specific sonic nuance to life, but this audio track does handle what effects it has in its arsenal with excellence, including dynamic stage directionality and precision placement. Action effects, such as gun shots and squishy gore, and delivered cleanly and accurately. Dialogue is focused in the middle and produced with an effortless natural flavor. Overall, this is a great lossless presentation from Anchor Bay.

Kite Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

The Making of 'Kite' (1080p, 25:18) is the only supplement included. The all-purpose piece features cast and crew discussing the core story, sourcing the original Anime, character basics, makeup and visual effects, the setting, production design, shooting locales, costumes, technical details, stunt work, actor performances, the good vibes on the set, and more.

Kite Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Kite is a mad scientist amalgamation of other, and much better, movies, and rather than find all their best qualities in one place, it's the complete opposite, a movie devoid of purpose and feeling, one that goes through its motions and plays as heartless as something so wannabe kinetic can be. Audiences looking for a movie devoid of pretty much everything but a pretty face, comic book-like action, and a see-it-coming-from-the-beginning ending should enjoy this well enough, but most viewers will be better served watching one of the much better movies from which this one has drawn its inspirations. Anchor Bay's Blu-ray release of Kite does feature strong video and audio. One making-of supplement is included. Skip it.