Appleseed: Ex Machina (2008)

I don't have much original to add. Its an okay action film, and it moves as an action film, but it is almost totally devoid of the philosophical musings that make good anime so interesting.For all the bragging the principles do in the special features, the animation really isn't all that great. The characters have plasticy skin and look more like moving action figures then people. About the only hair motion we see is Duenan's and that move in large clumps.Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within was much more sophisticated in its animation and render technology back in 2001. IMDb wont let me post the URLs to the images to compare, but a quick google will show you exactly what I mean.

It's rare in the movie industry for someone to get a second chance to correct a huge mistake. Director Shinji Aramaki and writer Masamune Shirow get the chance (courtesy of legendary director/producer John Woo) to correct their mistakes.Both corroborated on "Appleseed" but the much-hyped film suffered from ordinary animation and a rather pedestrian plot line. There was also an inordinate amount of blood and the character of Hitomi came across as goofy and far too light.This time around, Aramaki and Shirow have crafted a much better plot and have amped up the animation through CG. Though not as good as the CG/animation mix in "Ghost in the Shell: Innocence," it's better than the original. The only problem is that CG still looks too smooth, as if the skin is made of porcelain, limiting the full range of emotions.The story, of course, centers around the elite police unit known as ES.W.A.T. and their efforts to combat terrorism in Olympus, one of the cities that popped up after a worldwide non-nuclear war wiped out half of humanity. The new cities, of which Olympus is the most advanced, are controlled by bioroids, who are genetically bred without the negative human emotions that generally cause most wars.As you can imagine, if people are trying to wipe out the World Trade Organization, they're naturally going to hate Olympus. Two of the most experienced ES.W.A.T. members are Deunan Knute and her lover/partner Briareos, though "lover" is a stretch since he's more and more a cyborg with each hospital stay. Deunan is much more spry in this version, demonstrating some nifty acrobatics that you know John Woo had a hand in recommending.The leaders of Olympus want to convince the world to unite all of their communications satellites in a bid to get the edge on terrorists. Ironically, this conference takes place during a mysterious terrorist attack that sends Olympus' human and cyborg population into a rage against the police.The story interweaves a personal storyline as Briareos' latest injury forces the department to send Deunan a new partner. Because of the bioroid technology that uses the best DNA available, Deunan's partner is Tereus, a replica of Briareos before he became a cyborg. This causes natural angst, especially when it seems that the mysterious force turning people against the government might be affecting ES.W.A.T.'s cyborgs.Though we see plenty of shots of Deunan and Briareos in action, we get to see the rest of the ES.W.A.T. and the Olympus police in action, especially in the last third of the movie when all hell breaks loose in the city, thanks to the very system of uniting the satellites that was supposed to stop terrorism and bring peace. Some of the scenes are quite jarring, but without the blood. The action scenes move smoothly and the shooting of the guns and explosions are much better than one might expect from CG.The characters are fleshed out better, especially Deunan's and Briareos' turbulent love affair (of which we get to see some background finally). Hitomi's character doesn't get enough time on screen, but when she is seen, she is more mature than the gibbering, drunken idiot of the first film. The costumes are spectacular and Woo brought in actual costume designers for many of the styles.The DVD is slim on features, but does have commentary from Woo, Aramaki and Shirow, as well as a "making of" featurette on the CG technology. It does offer several languages, as well as subtitles.Ai Kobayashi repeats her role as the voice of Deunan, but Koichi Yamadera (Togusa in the "Ghost in the Shell" movies and TV series) takes over Briareos. Yuji Kishi (Yamadera's co-star in "Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex") is excellent as Tereus, though he needed more screen time.Overall, this film is light years better than the original. Shirow and Aramaki make the most of their second chance and so should you.

I enjoyed the 80's version of Appleseed when I was a teenager and when I learned of the 2004 reboot I immediately went out and got myself a copy of the DVD. It was pretty damn good and figured that it was a one-off. But now we have this sequel which proves that there is actually loads of potential and imagination in the Appleseed universe and certainly enough to warrant further sequels.Denaun Knute and her mostly robotic, rabbit-eared boyfriend Briareos are still working for ESWAT in the Utopian future city of Olympus when a new personal device, a sort cross between a cell phone and a holographic visor, goes haywire and turns the population into a bunch of techno-zombies. Briareos suffers seizures of his own too and a duplicate of his old human form has been recruited to work with them and save the city from this mysterious evil.Yes, it's nonsense. But entertaining nonsense and a weird cross between Robocop, Star Trek: First Contact and The Matrix]. But the animation is gorgeous and the story and action absurd enough to keep your attention.Come on, John Woo, give us another 'un.

May contain possible spoilers!Tt was decent. The previous installment of Appleseed from 2004 is way better, but this was pretty cool. Definitely better than Disney/pixar movies. Quick capsule review: the terrorist attacks continue to assault the city of Olympus and its up to Deunan and Briareos to save the day. Yippee ki yay. This doesn't seem to be directed or written as well as the others and the animation is a little different, but it is similarly based on the manga comic book by Shirow Masamune.They mention the rebuilding of the bioroid lab, but that is delivered by a brief scene that never goes anywhere in that direction plot-wise. There is no mention of the reproductive organs they made happen in the last movie. They did show the holes in the pyramid where the giant walking platforms had climbed up in the last movie. There was the new character, the bioroid clone clone who you think is going to be a big problem when things go bad, but he just ends up being a big waste of plot space. The new enemy is really cool looking, but dies much faster than its goons. The ending was really bad. The 2004 movie was heart-wrenching at the end just like the 1988 movie because the climax had built up real good and got stuck in suspended animation at the last second, but this was just over and done with real quick.When it was done I didn't have any questions of morality or images of mortality left in my head as I did with the previous two Appleseed movies. It was just over with nothing left. This movie definitely suffered from a bad screenplay. Someone was hoping for a quick dollar, but didn't make a big splash. It is truly a shame that this movie was made and didn't live up to the standards of film-making set by the other Appleseed movies.It is worth a watch, sure, and was entertaining to some degree I admit, but I would rather re-watch the 2004 Appleseed than see this one again. That one had more action and way better music and the writing was excellent. I think the animation was actually much better also. 2004 Appleseed rocks my world. 2007 Appleseed is merely OK.