Review of Origin: Spirits of the Past (2006) by Jean-Francois V — 23 Jul 2009

"Origin" is a pedestrian, CGI-filled version of Miyazaki's Nausicaa without any of the magic. It is about a little girl who wakes up several centuries into the future, when the world is divided between three factions: "The Forest", which controls the water supply; the Neutral City, which is at peace with the Forest but dependent on it for water; and a militaristic city that uses heavily polluting industrial processes to extract its own water independent of the Forest. Of course, the girl will disrupt the balance between these three societies, as the boy she falls in love with turns into an "augmented" being with Superman-like powers...

I never felt any interest in what was going on onscreen and slept through the second half, which I then watched in fast forward to get an idea of where the whole thing was going, but I really didn't care. I much preferred "Brave Story", which Gonzo produced the same year, and the TV series "Last Exile", which they produced in 2003.