While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

One of the best movies of the year! Incredible from the beginning to the end.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

Great movie. Not sure what people expected but I found it highly entertaining.

CLAMP, it could be argued, have never really respected their characters. It's a pity, because so many of their characters and series have such amazing potential and are interesting as they are, but the stories surrounding them and the ultimate resolution of the plot are often badly-handled. In particular, CLAMP tend to do at least a passable job on series and then essentially black flag them on the last lap, ruining the entire work by way of a poor attempt at an ending.This is both the strongest and weakest aspect of X, as a film: it is blessedly brief. If it were any longer, it might develop the characters and make it infuriating that none of them really manage to survive. So in that respect, it's good that it is so condensed. But on the other hand, it's a pity that none of the fights, while interesting, are anything close to being impressive struggles. It's just some random people with interesting character designs in mortal combat. A character's final battle should be their most impressive, but that doesn't happen here. More or less all of the fights are brief, unexceptional, and confusing. And since we have no real emotional investment in any of them (aside from some hasty tries at back-building emotional connection with some of them as they're shuffled off), there's absolutely no tension whatsoever whether or not they'll survive.It's also a pity that there isn't more buildup or more development of the circumstances. Too much time is spent on Kamui, and yet he doesn't manage to be compelling or sympathetic, just bland. Things happen simply because the script dictates, which is a common weakness in CLAMP works, rather than them actually having any seeming logical prompt. Kamui appears in a cape and flies around Tokyo upon his return for a good half-hour, for no good reason. Fuuma, despite his reasonable demeanour, immediately starts thinking he's Kamui and displays the most incomprehensible moustache-twirling villain psychoses. Where did any of this come from? Nothing in the plot led up to this; it just happened without reason.There are also plenty of logical errors. Arashi draws a sword from her body without any detrimental effect, yet Kamui's mother (who for some reason must be nude and has vast, spherical breasts) and Kotori are both killed by the exact same thing. Hinoto says she cannot see, hear, or speak, yet Kanoe speaks aloud to her and she clearly hears and understands. Fuuma nonchalantly knocks off a few people without any motivation to do so. Nobody has thought to question the massive electrical drain BEAST must present. Likewise, not a soul has questioned the gathering of a bunch of random people in an extremely important part of the government building. The questions of destiny, choice, and strength are reduced to window-dressing by a group of people who only ever arbitrarily do anything.Kotori is pulled into a dream and runs out from it, only to receive real damage, yet when Fuuma very clearly stabs Kamui, nothing actually happens and the animation becomes awkwardly stilted as Fuuma vanishes. What was that about? Satsuki's relationship with BEAST is also not well-defined, and its actions toward her are completely at odds with what a computer system would logically do -- which is, to act logically -- and makes the whole thing smack of 'because I said so' scripting. Kigai is in the film and has his characteristic weapon, yet his powers are given to a movie-only character who never appears anywhere else. Could they not have planned this a bit better? There's some grotesque content which is clearly included simply to satisfy the preferences of its genre when it was made, which is to say over-the-top violence, blood, apocalyptic scenarios, and boobs. X satisfies all of these in abundance, and in many cases without legitimate justification. It ends up detracting from the scenario, rather than enhancing it.And the less said about the 'ultimate showdown', the better. As anticlimactic as all of the fights are during the film, the last is the least interesting of them all. The ending itself is laughably melodramatic and manages to piddle away what little was built up by that point.It's a shame, because the Japanese voice acting is excellent, the music is evocative (except 'Forever Love', now marred irreparably by the surviving group members reuniting to exploit their past popularity), and the visuals are stunning. The animation is so smooth and so polished, so detailed, so painstakingly created. Everything but the actual plot came through, and that's especially a shame with something that has the potential to be interesting. Watching it, it's enjoyable only if the viewer completely switches off his mind and lets the images wash over him. The lack of cohesive plot or cultivation of any attachment to the characters enables this, at least, but it doesn't make for a good film.In short, X is roughly tantamount to all of the blood-and-guts-and-boobs OVA productions that were so popular for American anime distributors to release in the 80s and 90s. Take any one of those and up the budget, and you have X. It's got violence, it's got blood, it's got a vaguely-defined apocalypse with a bizarre melange of various religions, and it's got boobs. It's not surprising that this was released in the US, and it's even less surprising that some people were all over it. It's practically tailor-made for the US anime market.As for the rest of us, the things it omitted were a bit too insurmountable, chiefest of all being what every film really should have.That is, a coherent plot.

'X' really isn't the great movie I expected it to be. The first time I watched it,I didn't read the manga, so I basically could not understand nothing about the story: I only watched deaths. And that's what this movie shows: deaths. Being totally the opposite of the manga where we can understand each character and know their stories,X the movie is not very well elaborated and we only have a preview about the great characters that are behind all the story. Because every single character, being a Earth dragon or a Heaven dragon is important and interesting. (specially, in my opinion,Fuuma, Kamui,Seiichirou, Subaru,Yuuto and Satsuki). I will not even write what the plot is all about, because the movie really stinks for everybody who really enjoys X' mangas. By the way, go read them instead of watching this film.

I'll say it straight out: I'm an anime fan, but the anime has to fit a certain niche. I'm not a big fan of comedy, so it can't be the silly anime, and I'm not real big on fantasy or science fiction. Like, at all. So when I mention that I love anime, those who know me aren't completely unsurprised. "X", a full-length anime feature directed by Rintaro was recommended to me by a hard-core anime fan who knows my limited criteria because of its utter lack of comedy and its fairly straightforward storyline.The fate of Tokyo lies in the balance (when doesn't it?) when two sides, Dragons of Earth and Dragons of Heaven fight to gain control. The Dragons of Heaven want to protect Tokyo and its inhabitants, and the Dragons of Earth want to go back to a nature-loving society, where the people don't matter, and the Earth is at peace. Kamui is asked by Hinoto of the Dragons of Heaven to help their cause since he has other-worldly powers. By joining the other six warriors, they will be able to protect Tokyo and its citizens from the seven Dragons of Earth. Led by Hinoto's younger sister Kanoe, the Dragons of Earth soon are joined by Kamui's best friend Fuma who has been designated as Kamui's twin; whatever side Kamui joins, Fuma has to join the other. All Kamui wanted to do was protect Fuma and his sister Kotori, and now he's got Kotori in a coma and Fuma fighting him for the domination of Tokyo.While the story is fairly simple, boy is chosen to protect the world while his best friend unfortunately fights against him (For just one example see Wars, Star in your local library's card catalogue) , what isn't simple is the number of characters involved in this story – at least 17 if you pair it down to just the two sides. Over the first half of the film is spent establishing the back story and the characters, so by the time the real action started, "X" was starting to really lose me. Basically, I wanted them to cut the novel and make with the action. When they did, I was not disappointed, and the film ended well and not without a few surprises, but I think that it was just a little too late for me to make the film anything better than just "okay". Additionally, and this is just a purely aesthetic criticism, but I am REALLY not fond of the animation style in "X"; I believe it's pretty standard in Clamp anime, but the pointy chins and ginormous eyes of the character designs are just not my cup of tea. Hey, I'll admit that it's a pretty minor quibble, but anime has to be held up to the same stylistic standards as live action films and as a lover of art I tend to look at character design when I watch my anime. "Cowboy Bebop" and even "Evangelion" or "Lain" contain some really slick animation where I can really appreciate them as "art". As minor a consideration as it is in my overall assessment of the film, I just didn't feel this way with "X".It probably looks like I disliked "X", but I really didn't. If I had I would have felt that I had wasted my time watching it, and that is far from the truth. There just was nothing that propelled it from average to great, the way I perceive most of Miyazake's films or recent animation offerings like "The Triplets of Belleville" or "Perfect Blue". "X" is seen as a classic anime and all of the elements are there if you're a die-hard fan, and it should be seen if you do enjoy anime. I'm glad I did, but I honestly don't need to see it ever again. 5/10 --Shelly

This is X. It's an anime title about an apocalypse; where two groups of chosen people, the dragons of heaven and dragons of earth, have to fight for how it's going to end. That's about it. Given this, you may think X is a simple film. You are wrong.I'll start with the gore factor. This is in NO way a child's cartoon. It's a blood soaked movie that ends with a character's head being cut off (sorry, I hope that didn't spoil anything). The main issue is the storyline. I'm not sure which came first, the show or the movie. But I do know this: if you've seen the series first, you're in for a much better show. This film is full of wrong and opposite endings, and if you observe and pay good attention, you'll figure out a big twist.Animation is smooth. It's like a fall leaf gently gliding over a still pond with a plastic bag dancing from a gentle breeze above......... well, you get the picture.Tracks. They are...... mm, not really suiting. If only they kept Sadame from the series....... Sound is a whole different issue. The sound is great. Very smooth.All in all, this is a pretty good movie. But if you lookin for movie night movies, this is FAR from it. It's smooth, it's good storyline; simple, yet a thinker movie, and simply amazing. Clamp's art is dazzling, and they don't use computer effects. I would rate it:[*] [*] [*] [*] [*] [*] [*] [*] [ ] [ ] 8/10