Watcher At The Realm

The other issue for the live-action moments, which take up probably 60% of the narrative, is the directing. To be more specific, what’s seen on screen does not match what is being said. After Micha’el meets Lady Wisdom, an earthquake hits, and the earth swallows him. He awakes with a start in his bed, where Micha’el and Lady Wisdom have a conversation about who she is and how she’s visited him before. There’s talk of his world shifting, now being vibrant and full of color. But the scene is as muted and dull as earlier, with the only difference being that the first sequence is at night, and this one is during the day. Andrews tries to make up for it by superimposing colored outlines over the characters and objects… several seconds after the dialogue about color has happened. This has nothing to do with how big or small a budget a production has and everything to do with inattentive filmmaking skills.

While all that may sound like Watcher At The Realm is bad, it isn’t; it’s just really rough. All those flaws disappear in the awe-inspiring anime moments. The colors, designs, movements, and use of animation are all stunning. There’s a high level of detail in each drawing, and no two characters look alike in any way, shape, or form. The animated characters move with lightning speed but still display a full degree of motion. It is incredible stuff to watch play out.

“The colors, designs, movements, and use of animation are all stunning.”

A number of moments utilized both animation and live-action, and these are breathtaking as well. The drawings add a sense of wonder and scale to the plot while still having a direct tie into what’s happening and not just being done for its own sake. If the entire 90 minutes were animated, this could have been one of the best films of the year.

Watcher At The Realm is one half of a film that is barely passable, squeaking by due to the uplifting message at the end and originality of the plot. The other half is impressive on every single level. The quality disparity on display is enough to give audience members whiplash. But the anime/superhero scenes are so good, and the story is so thoroughly original that this is worth watching once.