Jujutsu Kaisen 0 - Movie Review

Jujutsu Kaisen Zero is a prequel film, the anime and manga series that so many know and love including myself. This film is about a young isolated high school student named Yuta who's cursed by his late girlfriend who follows him everywhere and seems to lash out whenever Yuta is in trouble. But once Yuta meets Gojo, he takes him under his wing and teaches him how to control the power of the curse. And I want to say thank you so much to everyone who has continued to pledge for the Shelby Oaks Kickstarter, the Kickstarter campaign for our upcoming independent horror film. I'm so so excited to see the numbers where they are. Thank you so much to everyone who has continued to pledge for that film. It genuinely means the world to me and I am so so grateful. If you want to learn more about the Kickstarter campaign, that link is in the description below. So I'm a pretty big fan of Jujutsu Kaisen. Any show where the main protagonist is exclusively trained by watching a ton of movies is right up my alley. And I thought it interesting that they chose to make the first film be a prequel that does feature some characters from the show, but for the most part, it doesn't feel too connected to the show. There are Easter eggs and things you can appreciate if you're a fan, little mentions of things and perhaps some references that could be experienced in a more meaningful way if you had seen the show or read the manga. But in general, you can kind of just go to this movie and get it really easily. You can be caught up fairly quickly. What I loved about this movie in particular, besides all the obvious stuff that I'll get to, there's a lot more horror imagery in this movie than I expected. In fact, being rated PG-13 surprised me because there was like some little like boys that like ran in the theater all excited and then all of a sudden like blood and shit is just flying everywhere and people's faces are getting ripped off and I was like, damn, this was way more violent than the Demon Slayer movie, which was rated R. The actual curse, the affliction that this boy is under, I thought was brilliant. I was like, oh my god, that would make such a fucking great live-action movie. The idea that these two young kids made an engagement sort of pinky promise that they were gonna get married one day and then she got killed in a fucked-up way and attached herself to him as this cursed monster or being that comes out whenever he's threatened, I thought that in itself could literally be an entire movie. Taken out of context from the school, from Gojo, from the training, from all of that, that could be a film. And when they're like, hey, we have an entire film just in our hero's backstory, you know, they're really giving a shit about the story. They're not just making a throwaway film because they can capitalize on the success of the show. And just like the show, the movie is equal parts funny, horrific, action-packed, and extremely dramatic, also to a comedic extent. And that's what I love about the show. And that's what I loved about this movie. It would be pointless for me to not mention the animation because it is absolutely fucking stunning. It is spectacular. MAPPA. My god, I mean like frame by frame. There is so much movement. There are so many three-dimensional shots that don't utilize CG, that have Maki like spinning around in circles with her blade, cutting up a bunch of shit, or even just tracking around Gojo 360 and his body is 2D, but it's continuing to move in a three-dimensional space. It's kind of mind-blowing, the amount of work that went into this film, and it looks incredible on a big screen. The film also did something that is really tough to do, and that's essentially introduce a brand-new protagonist into a series where you kind of care about somebody else, and they're just saying, nope, here's a new guy. It's a prequel. You may have an idea of some things you're seeing, but just trust us. And I soon found myself very interested in Yuta's storyline, and I cared about him as a character. And it was a very unique way to endear us to somebody. In some ways, he's partially at fault for things that happened to him, and in other ways, it's completely out of his control. That makes him a very interesting character, but you also care about his journey because you recognize how much he's willing to sacrifice, even for people he doesn't know very well. There were some aspects of the storytelling that wasn't quite as fluid as I would have liked it to have been. Sometimes major time jumps happen, and when I say major, I mean like a few months, you know, and you only really get the sense of that because somebody said, oh, it's been three months since he arrived at the school, and you're like, oh really? I didn't feel like that. Like the progression of the character wasn't quite as smooth as it could have been. Also, the third act kind of ramps up all of a sudden. A villain shows up and has to be a villain, and there wasn't a lot of emphasis put on his character. He has a very Frieza-like mentality that he views other people as monkeys. He literally says monkeys, which is something that Frieza referred to all the Saiyans as, and so as a villain, he served his purpose, but I didn't find him particularly interesting, and so I didn't care as much about his battle. But it didn't really matter to me because the movie was just so goddamn entertaining from an action standpoint and from a comedic standpoint, and I think that's what most fans of the show are going to want to see. I don't think this is as good as the Demon Slayer film, but you know, those comparisons are gonna happen, and it's kind of unnecessary, but I always do them anyway because I feel like it's just it gives people a nice barometer. But I think that if you love the show or the manga, you're gonna have a great time with this movie, just like I did. So once again, thank you so much truly to everyone who has taken part in our Shelby Oaks Kickstarter. We have a few days left still. There's some opportunities still to pledge for our film, and every little bit helps. You guys are really making this dream come true for me, and I really cannot do this without you, and I just want to continue to thank you every single day for the generosity that so many of you have shown. There is still time to support our film, and we could use all the support that you are able to give us. Thank you. Once again, that link is in the description below. You guys are the best. Look forward to more videos very soon. If you like this, you can click right here and get stuckmanized.