For the record, given the number of rounds the Lawgiver is capable of expending from such a tiny clip, one can only assume that despite the grotesque diameter of its barrel and the sheer force of impact, each individual bullet is microscopic. Even the conventional ammunition must be hyperaccelerated to a significant fracion of the speed of light to produce the effects we see on screen. Or perhaps each round is stored in a dehydrated state à la Loonie Toons and there is some chamber of fluid at the back of the clip with which to pop the ammunition back to full size within the chamber. Alternatively, perhaps only the special rounds are physically stored in the clip and the conventional weapon is actually a miniature particle cannon driven by a supercharged battery.

Most likely, though, all of the above.

I really wasn’t expecting such a brilliant movie when I thre down my twelve dollars to partake in it. An interesting setting sets up engaging and creative action sequences sandwiched between equal moments of horrific aftermath and humorous interlude while still somehow managing not to fetishize the entirely uncompromizing violence and still execute some valid character development. All of this is wrapped in a surprisingly thematic Megacity One, whose distinguishing factor is that it is at first difficult to distinguish from modern metropoli.

The opening sequence of the movie is a dry exposition set against a fly-by of the city, and at first it’s easy to think that you’re just looking at some stock footage of New York or Los Angeles. That is until you see a web of overpasses that’s just one knot too complicated to be real, or a building that’s just a bit too much higher than those surrounding it, or come to the sudden realization that you’ve just panned contunously across fifteen blocks without seeing a single piece of foliage. It kind of brings the Megacity home for me, and I will certainly be going through those opening moments frame-by-frame when they’re printed on some domestically-enabled medium.

Ja.