Angel's Egg

I wrote this for a class, which explains why it's a bit more analytical/spoiler-filled.

I'm a bit divided on Angel's Egg stylistically. It has a unique look which serves its purpose, and the animation is fairly well done. But there are many lingering shots of either simple events or nothing at all, that seem to drag the film out without adding much substance. Did we really need to watch the two characters sit motionless in a dark room for what had to be literally at least three minutes to establish the scene? I say no.

The aforementioned characters are nameless, and it makes sense, as they have no personal details, not remembering who they are or why they're there. Like in most experimental film, they're not there to be people but to be tools for the story. She has an egg, and he wants to break it. Pretty straightforward and nonessential.

The whole work seems to be a comment on religion, particularly Christianity. Water is everywhere, and towards the end the world is flooding. The man tells the story of the ark, and at the end it appears that they're living on a giant beached ark. His weapon is in the shape of a cross, the symbol of Jesus' death, and he uses it to destroy the egg, the symbol of Jesus' birth. There is nothing in the egg, yet the girl held onto her belief in it for so long, perhaps a message that religion is meaningless. The girl seemed to age to maturity upon her death in the water, but around that time the movie ceased to make sense and I sort of lost focus against the onslaught of weird imagery. Message films are fine, but I prefer it when they don't obscure it with layers upon layers of abstraction.