Review of Appleseed: Ex Machina (2007) by Alan C — 25 Mar 2008
For those of you who like anime, this movie may yield mixed results. The original Appleseed, made in 2004, blended the traditional anime style with CGI. The results were a beautiful amalgamation of high tech and traditional Japanese cell drawing.
It angered some anime fans because of its step away from tradition, but many (like myself) thought it looked really cool. Three years is a long time in the computer world, and the results are spectacular.
If you disliked the style before, you will hate it more. The characters are fully modeled in 3D CGI with cell drawn animation over it. What this has done, is it has given a very "stiff" medium (CGI) more humanity by adding depth and expression to what can sometimes seem inhuman (like the "dead eyes" of The Polar Express characters).
The story is better fleshed out in this installment as well. First, to understand Appleseed, you need to know that it takes place after war has wiped out much of humanity and there are small city states that are vying for power.
Within these city states there are 3 types of people, humans, cyborgs, and bioroids (robot clones). The mythology is a tad cloudy, but it doesn't matter as much in this one. This follows a group of police officers in the largest city-state Olympus.
We have Briareos (a cyborg more robot than human), his love interest and fellow human police officer Deunan, and Tereus. a bioroid version of Briareos before he got a robot head. They uncover a plot by a terrorist to take over the minds of everyone to become "one voice" in an attempt to have world peace (the old freaky "one robot mind" thing that has been a scare tactic since Communism came on the scene).
What takes place is pure mech and gun porn with lots of explosions, big guns, and crazy robots that looks really cool. If you like anime, check it out for yourself. Even if you are not a fan of anime, but like computer animation or animation in general, this may get you excited about this medium.
Check it out! 8/10.
This review of Appleseed: Ex Machina (2007) was written by Alan C on 25 Mar 2008.
Appleseed: Ex Machina has generally received positive reviews.
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