Have you been able to see the film yet? Did it meet your low expectations?

Not yet

Saw Death Kappa! (where are my priorities??)
Movie was ok at best. Movie was fairly dull to be completely honest.
Once the battling started it was rather impressive.. Nunchucks from nowhere was neat.
I basically could not recommend the film to anyone.
Lots of crappy holes in the plot. At the start we are introduced to a town full of deformed freaks. ...and then they never return.. I mean,.. Literally for zero reason.
If you are hardcore about giant fighting lizard films then go ahead and check it out; Just don't expect much.

I had a chance to watch Assault Girls on Bluray on Friday and it was....unique. One shouldn't expect Oshii live action to be epic by any measure and I wasn't necessarily disappointed by taking this approach. The effects were fairly decent by Japanese movie standards (although decidedly a cut below the few Yamato clips I've seen to date) but nothing was particularly noteworthy either.

For anyone who's heard a few of his interviews and/or monologues then you'll certainly find the @10m opening monologue the epitome of all that is bad and good about Oshii's obsessive reiteration of the clash between reality and that which is virtual/perceived. Ultimately the movie does little to reinforce this notion as it primarily takes place within the game world.

It's yet another of his self-insertion tales as the familiar downtrodden man surrounded by "untrustworthy" women (an indicator of his home life that he's often alluded to in countless interviews). I also though that it lingered a bit long on slow pans of the mood-building panoramic vistas, which were admittedly quite striking in their bleakness, but the resulting pace will likely get much of the same criticism as the .Hack franchise received; most viewers understandably expect a bit more action from a purportedly game-centric title. Instead there is a lot of walking and/or standing and looking toward the horizon.

Lucifer (one of the player characters we follow along with) was freakishly bizarre and left me with inexplicable nightmares about mimes trying to strangle me with various kinds of pasta. (This will only make sense to those who've seen the movie. Don't say you haven't been warned...)

Very minor spoiler but...

Assault Girls and Vampire Girl Vs. Frankenstein Girl just arrived. Seen a lot of people talking about these titles. More so than most other titles. No one seems to have much good to say.
I'm wondering now if I will think it was worth the purchase. We'll have to see.

Robogeisha: would you be completely ridiculous for me to claim that I thought this film would take itself a tad more seriously? Machine Girl has a nearly perfect balance of ridiculous happenings and outrageous gore surrounding a story that the film takes rather seriously. Robogeisha is just silly all over. ..and for that reason I sometimes found myself a tad bored.
I would suggest that people consider seeking a manner to rent or view the film & make their own opinions. I'd really like to hear what other people think.
I watched the film with the dub,.. Perhaps this was my first mistake?

I'll see if I get around to watching Assault Girls soon.
..but it doesn't look especially violent.

Not in the least. Despite being live-action I'd classify it entirely as "cartoon violence", even when a player-character dies it very closely embraces the night bloodless "virtual death" you'd expect in a simulated world typically including a respawn sequence (sometimes to humorous effect).

I've been itching to get my hands on Yojimbo ever since I heard that it was the source story for A Fistful of Dollars. In the mean time I picked up a copy of the Blood:The Last Vampire live-action movie which I'm hoping to round up some friends from the anime club to watch it with.