This is taken from the Manga written by Masamune Shirow. The same author as Ghost in the Shell. So right off you know the source is good. Both Appleseed and Ghost in the Shell have a cult following due to this man's careful laid out creation.
We are a century in the future. The world has almost destroyed itself by war and the only way to attain peace is believed to be by diplomacy. This is conducted by bioroids (artificial lifeforms) that have no emotion to cloud their judgment. They are the diplomats and governors of this society so that humans can live their lives without the threat of war. This city that they live in is called Utopia.
The two lead characters of the movie are Briareos and Deunan. Two strong headed warriors that work in an elite police unit called E-Swat. They are basically special forces for the police in the city.
They live in a society where half of the inhabitants are bioroids, grown humanoids. They are there to keep the emotions of humans in check since it apparently is the belief that human emotion causes all of this. I personally don't see the difference between the two races/species, but that is the concept.
The animation is an improvement over the first movie. There was a lot more care given to making the people more realistic and the city seemed to be more alive and real in this movie than the first. Other improvements include more emotion/relationship between Briareos and Deunan, it made their connection seem real and heartbreaking at the same time.
From a visual standpoint, you will not see a more beautiful and comprehensive CG film pre-2007. Yes I still think FF:The spirits within is more beautiful (in its own way), but it does not have the depth/level of detail in the environment that this movie has. Ex Machina is captivating to watch, even at DVD quality. But if you have the set up then only watch this on Blu-Ray, you will not be disappointed.
The action is intense. More intense then any other film I can think of atm. Now this is not necessarily a good thing as I will rant on about later. But if you love pure action then you will like this film.
The only other point of interest in the film is the personal conflict between the lead characters of the film. There is a battle of anger, love, regret, etc; associated with the love triangle that is Deunan, Briareos, and Tereus. It is an interesting side note to the story but I felt they could have done so much more with it. But at least it was there and it did make me think.
The action scenes seemed to have the same flaw as Disney's Alice in Wonderland, every scene was trying to out compete each other. So instead of having a final climax, you had climax after climax, after climax. One energetic/exciting scene following another. It gets to the point that you just want the movie to end. Just get to the point and stop taking forever to get there. The small shining point is the scenes are not duplicates of each other, there are differences you can pick up with each one.
Originality is also an issue. I didn't see anything I haven't seen before. In fact a lot of the scenes seemed to be a tribute to The Matrix. I saw a lot of similarities between this film, The Matrix trilogy, and Ghost in the Shell. The last part of the movie seemed like a foggy mirror image of the fight scene in the docks of Matrix Revolution. The moves that Deunan performed reminded me of Trinity. Coincidence? Maybe. But my bet would be that someone inside wanted to pay tribute to The Matrix trilogy. And the Matrix Trilogy of course pays tribute to The Ghost in the Shell.
Realism was a problem for me from the beginning. Cyborgs in the film are supposed to be super human and do amazing feats. Yet the one person that does the most amazing feats is 100% home grown human. I'm like Whaaaat? The stunts performed by Deunan are impossible for anyone to perform one right after each other. It just blows the mind a little bit. Now I don't mind a little exaggeration here and there, but the moves done were just blantant superhuman stunts with no real explanation in how she could do this. At least the first movie kept to some realistic physical standards.
Another issue what the supposed lack of emotions of the bioroids. This was not done well and it was clear that the bioroids did have emotions, including aggression. Neat idea on paper but I think it was too difficult a concept for them to do realistically in a movie like this. A bioroid fighter without emotion is just impossible.
I like movies that have a message in them and this movie doesn't disappoint. You could easily sit around at a coffee shop and discuss the finer points of technology, cloning, AI, etc. for hours after watching this movie. But does it really tug at my heart? Does it cause me to be inspired for humanity. Do I want to make a difference in other people's lives after watching this? No. And that is the one big thing I think was missing from this movie, the message within the story just did not make an appropriate entrance. It just sat in the corner hoping to be overlooked.
The key players Director: Shinji Aramaki Screenplay: Kiyohito Takeuchi, Todd W. Russell Source Material: Masamune Shirow
Ratings Yahoo users: C+ Yahoo critics: None listed Metacritics users: Not listed Metacritics critics: Not listed Rotten Tomato community:2 rotten, 1 fresh; nothing else listed. Rotten Tomato critics: Not listed My score: 4.29
MPAA rating: PG-13
Running time: 103 minutes
My End Line. After reading what I wrote I think I was a little harsh with it. It is a good movie with a lot of flaws. It is action/anime with some humanistic elements and a societal message. But it only makes it into my top 20 anime and there are better movies out there to rent/buy before this one. But if your an anime obsessed individual the I suggest picking it up on Blu-Ray. Otherwise I recommend you rent this, it isn't a bad movie at all and definitely worth renting. If you own Blu-Ray equipment then you have to see it on that format.
Based on the manga from renown creator Shirow Masamune, in this movie, Deunan and Briareos are both partners and lovers. As members of ESWAT, the elit...More at HotMovieSale.com
This computer-animated feature continues the story of Deunan Knute a woman warrior whisked away from the ruined battleground where she lives to a dist...More at Family Video
Epinions.com periodically updates pricing and product information from third-party sources, so some information may be slightly out-of-date. You should confirm all information before relying on it.
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.