Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		3.0
Overall		3.5

Terra Formars Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman March 23, 2019

It might be easy to watch Terra Formars with its giant mutant cockroaches and astronauts who are also able to morph into various insects and respond with a hearty, “So, just another Takashi Miike movie, eh?” Of course that’s said with tongue planted firmly in cheek, but in this case the over the top visuals and lunatic plot line may owe at least a bit to forces other than the often provocative Miike (even this film’s marketing trailers and teasers label Miike as “controversial”, which is probably an understatement). Terra Formars began life as an insanely popular Japanese manga by Yū Sasuga and Michio Fukuda which, like many an other manga, was ultimately “translated” into anime form (Terra Formars Set 1 and Terra Formars Set 2: Revenge are currently available as domestic Blu-ray sets). Miike approaches the source material with a fair amount of fidelity, but this is a film where there’s really not much “there” there, despite an impressive production design (with some admittedly hokey looking CGI).

There’s an underlying feeling of unintended consequences running through Terra Formars that is perhaps especially notable in an era where Mankind and indeed the planet Earth seem to be coming to terms with the after effects of the Industrial Revolution. In what might be seen as an example of “the more things change, the more they stay the same”, 26th century Mankind doesn’t seem to have learned much from previous generations, and Earth is wasting away from immense overpopulation and ecosystem disaster, leading to an attempt to colonize Mars (where have we heard that one before?). Unfortunately part of the “technology” sent to the Red Planet to aid in the “terraforming” are cockroaches, who due to the exigencies of the environment on Mars “evolve” into near humanoid creatures with immense strength if arguably not much in the “smarts” department other than a seemingly feral urge to kill.

If at least some aspects of Mars’ topography will seem familiar to anyone who’s ever watched any science fiction film featuring the planet, the Earth segments may seem even more familiar, at least to those who are fans of Blade Runner (take a gander at screenshot 5 accompanying this review for just one example). There is a brief vignette documenting the capture of two supposed criminals (their “back story” is divulged in a later vignette) on our home planet, with hints made that they’re being recruited for some Top Secret mission on Mars. But one of the potential problems some may have with Kazuki Nakashima’s adaptive screenplay is that while it does actually more or less stop to introduce any number of characters, even those who are introduced seem to exist in a patently unreal environment that may divorce them from any authentic emotion. As such, it’s hard to get too worked up about anyone dying (and a lot of people — and cockroaches — die in this enterprise), though there is an almost giddy hilarity in the first kill especially, which just kind of erupts out of nowhere.

Because we don’t really care about any of the Earthlings’ human forms, that in turn may rob energy from one of the major conceits of Terra Formars, that the astronauts have been “programmed” to be able to morph into bugs themselves. Miike often just stops things right in their tracks to deliver admittedly brief interstitials describing what the new hybrid form of any given character is, and what “special” insect power he or she may now possess. That in an of itself tends to make whatever fleeting narrative there is in this film to begin with kind of lurch ahead in fits and starts.

There’s probably an unavoidable whiff of entries like the Starship Troopers Trilogy running through Terra Formars, though Miike doesn’t really seem interested in delivering any “meta” material, a la Paul Verhoeven. (Kind of interestingly, essayist Tom Mes states authoritatively that Starship Troopers is Miike's favorite film in writing included in the insert booklet.) Instead, the film is essentially an almost burlesque show level series of vignettes documenting showdowns, many of which feature either spectacularly gooey slime erupting if a cockroach gets it, or, alternatively, copious amounts of blood and guts, or at least bones being snapped into submission, if it’s an Earthling or “man-bug” who meets his or her fate. It’s all relentlessly goofy, and is certainly visually interesting (if often unabashedly silly), but it never really works up much momentum. To which some jaundiced curmudgeons may be responding with a hearty, “So, just another Takashi Miike movie, eh?”

Terra Formars Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Terra Formars is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Arrow Video with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.39:1. The insert booklet included with this release has what is perhaps the briefest description yet of the provenance of an Arrow Video transfer, stating only that:

Terraformars is presented in its original aspect ratio of 2.35:1 [ sic ] with 5.1 audio.

I haven't been able to track down much if any technical data on the shoot, but I'm assuming this was culled from a 2K DI of a digitally captured property (again, as always with my reviews, if anyone has any authoritative data to the contrary, send it my way and I'll happily post an update here). Those of you who are used to some of the visual excesses of any given Miike film will already know about skewed palettes and odd framings, both of which are de rigeur in this film as well. Detail levels are quite impressive throughout, even if some of the "bug info" details can look a bit soft. In fact CGI is variably sharp, though close-ups of the cockroaches reveal quite a bit of texturing (see screenshot 1 for one example). The entire palette, while oddly graded at times (and even seemingly desaturated in some of the exterior scenes), tends to ping pong between browns and beiges and more of a blue hue (especially with regard to the "command center"). Fine detail tends to not be materially affected by many of these choices, but shadow detail in a number of dark interior scenes is still occasionally problematic.

Terra Formars Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Terra Formars features an often pretty wacky sounding DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mix in the original Japanese. There are some great panning effects offered on this track, especially when hordes of cockroaches are swarming all over the place. Many of the outdoor scenes offer spare but rather well done placement of ambient environmental effects, and the cloistered environment of the main spaceship also has some interesting acoustics which are well rendered. While there's not a glut of LFE, at least for those who are coming to this film expecting non-stop low end since this is a monster fueled science fiction "epic", there are bursts of energy that are quite forceful. Some of the "crunching" effects, which are frequently followed by "slurping" sounds of goo emanating from cockroach shells are intentionally hilarious. Dialogue is presented cleanly and clearly throughout this problem free track.

Terra Formars Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Making Of (1080p; 1:27:57) is an in depth piece which covers a host of background data as well as providing lots of interviews and copious behind the scenes footage. There are aspects of this that are definitely in a standard marketing EPK mode, especially with regard to some of the actor introductions. In Japanese with English subtitles.


• Cast Interviews are all in Japanese with English subtitles, and include:

  Hideako Ito (1080p; 10:09)

  
  

  Emi Takei (1080p; 6:52)

  
  

  Tomohisa Yamashita (1080p; 10:40)

  
  

  Takayuki Yamada (1080p; 8:16)

  
  

  Shun Oguri (1080p; 12:13)

• Outtakes (1080p; 4:46)


• Teasers and Trailer

  Theatrical Trailer (1080p; 1:35)

  
  

  Teaser 1 (1080p; 00:32)

  
  

  Teaser 2 (1080p; 00:52)

• Stills Gallery (1080p; 11:40)

Terra Formars Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Miike remains one of the most consistently unpredictable filmmakers working these days, and for that alone I personally think he's to be commended, even if some may feel his efforts are (as the marketing materials for this film maintain) "controversial". Terra Formars in some ways is just good, old fashioned "popcorn munching" fun, and it has a certain lunatic quality that may appeal to those who aren't that concerned about lack of overall story momentum or even character differentiation. While a bit hazy looking at times due to the prevalence of green screen and CGI elements, technical merits here are first rate for those who are considering a purchase.