Mad God Review
9/10
There are some films you get almost immediately and don’t require any pondering. Mad God is not one of those films. You may not be familiar with Phil Tippet by name, but you definitely know his work on the original Star Wars, Jurassic Park, Robocop, and Starship Troopers, among others. He is a legend in the animation world. Mad God has been in development for around 30 years and I could tell. The film looks absolutely gorgeous. It feels like a genuine passion project hand-assembled by master craftsmen. You can pause the film and bathe in the majesty of the details in each frame. It truly is a living and breathing world. Not one you would want to vacation in, mind you.
Animation has a peculiar reputation in the U.S. Many people still associate it with kid’s films. There seem to be two extremes mainstream-wise when it comes to the public perception of animation. It’s either family-friendly fares like Disney and Pixar or adult comedies like South Park and Rick and Morty. Animation is thought of as its own genre and relegated to a separate category at award shows. That is unfortunate since it can be used to create incredible worlds and stories. The reality is that animation is not a genre, it is a storytelling medium like any other. It encompasses all the genres that live-action films contain.
The only reason it often isn’t seen that way is that the medium is underutilized in the U.S . Studios don’t do enough to push the boat out and try new things. Japan has been light years ahead of us for years when it comes to mature storytelling in their animation. Studios in the U.S could do so much more to create compelling adult narratives in animation. They just choose not to because they think there isn’t a big enough audience. Mad God is an example of the endless possibilities in this medium.
So, what is the film about? That is an excellent question. To be honest, I am still processing that. Watching the film is a surreal experience. There is minimal dialogue beyond occasional noises. All the exposition is communicated visually. Trying to keep up with all the world-building requires your focus. The film does not spoon-feed anything. We start with an introduction to a character credited as The Assassin. He is descending into a horrific nightmare world. He is lowered past these many layers of hell itself. Through this journey, we are treated to magnificent and twisted spectacles.
This is a world that is built on self-destruction and devouring the innocent. A place of endless turmoil and suffering. There are colossal machines that grind the living into fuel for their masters. At one point there is a row of giants strapped to electric chairs. As electricity shoots through their bodies, a revolting sludge cascades from their twitching frames. This is fed into the gaping maw of an equally unpleasant creature waiting below. The slime then takes a journey through countless pulsating machines until it is deposited into a device at the bottom that uses this unknown substance to birth faceless humanoids that carry out menial tasks and live as slaves.
Did you get all that? Since there is no dialogue, all this is shown in a series of incredible images as The Assassin walks by. Why he is called The Assassin is unclear for most of the film. This is a narrative you must piece together gradually. The world presented in Mad God is not one we can understand completely. It is deliberately alien and strange. There are multiple grotesque moments that some may find off-putting if they are squeamish. I wouldn’t blame you for giving up on the film before the halfway point. It can be a challenging watch. Writing about it is difficult as well since I don’t know if my interpretation of what happened is accurate.
As The Assassin traverses the landscape, we get an incredible view of this crumbling place. The faceless humanoids are routinely killed by the various monstrosities populating this place. Some don’t even last a few seconds before being crushed by a monolith they were trying to lift or eaten by one of the many nightmare creations. There are some times when the pacing can slacken. Much of the running time is characters moving from one place to the next. Also, the use of live-action moments was jarring. Perhaps that was purposeful, but I found it sometimes took me out of the film when I saw real actors interacting with the world.
If I had to summarize the film overall I would say it is about Death and Rebirth. This horrific world The Assassin is sent into is a perpetual cycle of self-cannibalization. Burning it all to the ground would be a mercy. It took me until the last 30 or so minutes of the film to have any grasp on what I thought was the story. Even then, I could be totally off-base here. Tippet has been tight-lipped about the story on purpose. What you get out of it will range wildly from person to person. You should submerge yourself in the journey without overthinking the story details.
Once I stepped back from my initial bewilderment, I found Mad God to be a unique and extraordinary film. This is one of those rare times when I can say wholeheartedly that there is nothing like this film. It is disturbing, perplexing, horrifying and a bit like being punched in the brain. By the end of it, I had to sit for a while to process what I had just seen. Some may be put off by the cryptic plot, but for me the whole experience was captivating. I would say that is a good sign that a film has made an impact.
