Sadly though, it's actually not a low budget film. Mainly
because of the number of actors and characters involved.
It's actually not an easy show to understand and I left with a
lot of questions and ending up reading the comic to get those
questions answered. Having now read the comic, I realise a lot has
been left out from the comic and they've even restructuced the
story more than Peter Jackson did with Lord of The Rings.
Even then, I wouldn't say the comic or movie is for everyone,
because it's not the type that everyone would appreciate. It's
essentially a mystery movie with a science fiction element to
it.
With the comic, everything and every character has a
significance to each other. In the movie, some of these connections
are not explained and some of the background story is not told. For
eg, how the detective who found out the identity of 'Friend' is
actually told very differently between the movie and comic.
Can see though they are trying very hard to recreate the same
look as the comic in terms of visual and character looks.
I wish I could say more but I risk running spoilers for people
who are either still going to watch the next show or are still
reading the comics.
Overall I wouldn't say it's a bad show, but it's not one that
everyone can appreciate. If you're looking for straightforward
action like Die Hard series look elsewhere. Or even comedy plus
action like Rush Hour series, then also look elsewhere. If you're
looking for great looking sci-fi graphics like ID4 then also look
elsewhere.
Imagine a much prolonged version of IT or Dreamcatcher, both of
which were Stephen King novels that became movies (didn't
particularly enjoy either though).
If you've read the comic, you will appreciate the effort in
trying to recreate the story (which is very difficult). If you
haven't read the comic there'll be lots of questions and gaps. If
you expecting it to be like Death Note then you will sorely be
dissappointed because they are different types of shows.
High expectations sometimes cause high dissapointment, but I
believe the box figures achieved in Japan are purely because it
rides on the popularity of the comic.
If you really want to just go for story either read the comic or
watch a different show.
