Into the Sun feels a little late to the party, tracking far behind both chronologically and in raw cinema quality the better of the more recent
vintage (read, last quarter-century or so) "American-law-enforcement-officials-in-Japan" movies, the sub genre probably best defined by the proficient
and largely
enthralling films Black Rain and Rising Sun, two pictures obviously sporting bigger budgets and more robust
and satisfying source material but still pretty much the standard-bearers for these sorts of stories. It's a surprise Into the Sun isn't titled
Black Sun, which would be a fitting "tribute" to its predecessors and also something of an apt negative double entendre seeing as how the
film is largely a blotch on an otherwise good genre. Into the Sun is mostly a lazy, slow-paced, wholly inconsequential and dramatically vacant
Direct-to-Video motion picture that stars Steven Seagal on the precipice of irrelevance (he would "star" in the abysmal Attack Force a year later) as an American returning to his Japanese
roots to, what else, solve a crime and kick some behind.
Hi. Do you have the new Kirby video game?
CIA Agent Travis Hunter (Seagal) is one of the most skilled operatives in the U.S. arsenal. He's routinely sent on dangerous undercover missions
around the
globe -- the latest in the Golden Triangle -- but he's never faced a more deadly mission than he will find on his home turf. When Tokyo's
governor is brutally assassinated, the feds call in Hunter to find answers. He works with the local director, Agent Block (Die Hard's William Atherton), and is paired with Sean Mac (Matthew
Davis), a rookie agent with little
trigger discipline and no understanding of Japanese customs and culture. Official believe the assassination may be linked
to Tokyo's growing narcotics and Yakuza problem. As Hunter investigates, his life is turned upside down, leading him down a dark path towards
brutal revenge.
Into the Sun suffers from a major feature-length problem: there's just not enough story to make a crisp, narratively and structurally
sufficient ninety-minute movie. The picture is
ridiculously paced, so slow it feels two or three times longer than it really is, particularly in an excruciatingly dull middle stretch. The story is
nowhere
even close to absorbing let alone casually interesting, certainly nowhere near enough to make the grind of a watch worthwhile. Between throwaway
elements, recycled plot devices, genre cliché,
and even a sense of disinterest and lethargy from the cast, the movie shows no real avenue of escape from the doldrums of its plodding plot. Seagal
looks bored in the opening minutes -- during his helicopter scene with former collegiate and NFL star running back Eddie George in particular -- but
he does
recover nicely enough through the film and particularly by the end, even considering some bad dialogue and repetitive action. At least he still shows
some skill with
the sword and hand-to-hand combat, but the man-in-black, for all his physical effort, just can't overcome the go-nowhere sluggishness of the plot.
When Into the Sun turns to action to save itself, the end result is both a blessing and a curse. The picture delivers some incredibly
gruesome swordplay, showing deep wounds and spilling plenty of blood, going so far in one scene as to continually slash at a character's head to
terribly graphic
but at the same time nearly comedic effect. Seagal, whether through stamina, skill retention, or slick editing, shows proficiency in the film's
action scenes, faring not quite so well as while in his prime in movies like Under Siege and Hard to Kill but nevertheless still showing an ability to carry a movie
of this variety through his physical prowess alone. Sadly, the action is very much one dimensional. By the time the picture reaches its climax, it's
as if a live action recreation of a video
game has broken out, a recreation in which the hero methodically makes his way past a number of enemies on his way to battle the boss at the end
of the stage. It looks good and works well enough
for a production of the caliber, but it's also terribly straightforward and structurally unimaginative.
Into the Sun isn't a blindingly beautiful Blu-ray, but Mill Creek's transfer gets the job done and mostly satisfies if one keeps the disc's budget
roots in mind. It's quite smooth but not detrimentally so. Details are still rather robust and complex, whether elephant hide and grasses in the early
Golden Triangle sequence or later in the urban jungle of Japan. Skin textures and clothing lines are suitably revealed, and the image enjoys a generally
crisp outline. Colors are quite vibrant, from jungle greens to hot sports car reds, and the palette captures the many neon and other exceedingly bright
lights and
hues of big city Japan nicely enough. On the down side of the ledger are some scattered edge halos that are never overly pronounced. The image shows
little in
the way of banding, blockiness, misguided black levels, or wayward flesh tones. All in all, this is a watchable, dependable low-budget transfer from Mill
Creek.
Into the Sun features a heavily aggressive DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 lossless soundtrack. In fact, it's often too aggressive, failing to find pinpoint
realism and sacrificing clarity in exchange for raw power and excess noise. At film's open, listeners will experience harsh, muddled elements that might
work well enough in support of raw action -- there's plenty of gunfire and explosions that flow from every corner of the soundstage -- but that lack the
nuance to truly immerse the listening audience into the mayhem. It's not at all precise, but at a very fundamental level it's quite entertaining. Much
the same may be said of the rest of the track, whether music or subsequent action effects. It's all quite heavy but never truly focused or thoroughly
convincing. The track does find adequate spacing in music and acceptable clarity even at booming levels. There's decent bass at a club, fair exterior city
atmospherics, and a quality sense of space and distance when thunder booms in chapter twelve. Dialogue is mostly even and front-middle focused, but
it does go a little shallow at times, notably during a meeting between Hunter and Block as heard in chapter three. Of note is that Japanese dialogue, of
which there is quite a bit, does not auto-subtitle with the subtitle option turned "off." Listeners who require subtitles will need to manually turn them
on whenever Japanese dialogue
begins or simply give in and leave the subtitles running for the duration.
Into the Sun certainly proves itself a step or three above the absolute worst of the unfortunate Steven Seagal-Direct-to-Video collaboration,
but make no mistake about it: it's still a slow, linear, little-thought production that slogs through a bland and overplayed story with no payoff save for
some relentless hack-and-slash video game-like swordplay at the end. Precious few real emotions, unoriginal characters on both sides of the coin, and a
generically thin plot line all point to Into the Sun as a movie that's destined to be eclipsed by the best of vintage Seagal and forgotten in a
universe in which it's but one of countless many DTV wannabes. Mill Creek's Blu-ray release of Into the Sun contains no supplements. Fair
video and audio are
included. Skip it.
