Appleseed (Movie)

The first in a line of very well animated CG adaptations, this insert of the franchise is what got me hooked on Shirow Masamune's works. Well, his earlier "works".

I loved everything about it, from the cell shaded motion capture to the awesome soundtrack. This is a title I suggest to non anime fans and count alongside Pixar in quality. Mecha designs are amazingly detailed, the behind the scenes plotting brings the drama to a boil, and we're treated to a look at Deunan Knute's past that even the manga never gave us.

If you haven't seen it you should, and pick ... up the album too, trust me.

First and most importantly, regardless of how generic the film itself was, I will forever cherish it for introducing me to Good Luck by Basement Jaxx.

OH GOD GOOD LUCK IS PURE PERFECTION... THAT 30s INTRO WAS ONE OF THE BEST INTROS OF ALL ANIME, yes, up there with Evangelion and Cowboy Bebop, I said it!

Aaannnnd after Good Luck ends it's all downhill from there.

Set in a world where more stable bioroids take the reins of governance from emotionally unstable humans, the philosophical conflict serving as the basis of the plot is a solid one, with very believable motivations for the villainous human military staging a ... coup to retake power - it's as realistic as humans can get, and the moral conflict over reproductive rights of bioroids as sentient individuals is equally pertinent, forcing us to confront our own fear of others who are different, and reinforces the moral lesson that regardless of difference, the rights of individuals should never be suppressed due to violent discrimination.

Why is the plot and philosophical discussions about expanding definitions of humanity so rich? Remind you of another philosophical work exploring synthetic humanity?

Yes Masamune Shirow wrote Appleseed before the more fleshed out Ghost in the Shell, yes, you can go see the anime now.

I'm saddened to say, unlike Mamoru Oshii's GitS adaptation that enhances the source material, here the brilliant plot is DRAGGED DOWN by mediocre animation and generic characters - the characters aren't humans, they're BARBIE DOLLS with fixed joints that walk like robots. Character development is equally laughably AND tiresomely cliched, a literal pain to endure until action scenes save us from being bored to death.

It's an interesting case study when compared with Oshii's GITS to make us appreciate the subtle ingenuity of true cinematic craftsmanship. Without the rich source material propping it up the film is nothing on its own.

Except Basement Jaxx, I'm going to put that 30s on a loop until I'm brainwashed by it.

Based on the manga from Masamune Shirow and directed by... (Hold on a second... let's see... AH!) Shinji Aramaki - man behind such works as... I suppose he previously directed “Part 3” of Megazone. You know: the Weakest Megazone 23 OVA. He directed that. Therefore it comes as no surprise, that this movie is as much of a cliched jumbled mess of a ideas as it is. And don't even get me started on the dated CGI that ruins almost every single character design (except Briareos).

Appleseed (2004) is a CGI Blockbuster Action Sci-Fi Movie that somehow takes a Simple Story/Concept and ruins much of the ... fun or intrigue surrounding it. Perhaps the most telling way that it accomplishes this is by breaking every single rule of "Show don't Tell" and spoonfeeding every fucking detail in every single conversation possible. That last part might be a little exaggerated, but Jesus Christ, it comes pretty damn close to it.

With a Fitting introduction surrounding an opening 6 minute action scene with no context or investment, all filled with dated matrix esq. timelapse sequences. A little after it wastes no time and It quickly ruins Hitomi by turning her from a fun-loving party-girl to a hollow exposition dumping machine. She has one scene that remotely resembles emotion and it’s an "on-the-nose" cliched dialogue about "love" and "anger" instead of the "show don't tell" from the 1988 Movie with Hitomi trying and failing to flirt with guys, while drunk from the partying.

In fact, Most of the Characters just feel like stiff versions of their original counterparts. Deunan is mopy and depressed instead of being a fun-loving badass. Briareos is stiff, unusually bitter and cold for much of the runtime rather than being a Man of Steel Armor with a Heart of Gold. (In the same vain as perhaps Alphonse from FMA.) Athena's role in the Movie is confusing and never expounded the same way it was in the Original, despite this movie's longer runtime. Hitomi is ruined the most perhaps, going from her bubbly charming personality to this boring CGI husk of a person.

The Witty Comedy that gave the Characters a sense of lighthearted fun, likeability and breathing room between the Drama is also GONE! Not even just toned down, it simply isn't there. I do not remember there being a single joke. Not even from Hitomi, it makes the characters downright boring. It's instead replaced with constant usage of exposition that is placed without any respect to the context of its scenes.

Perhaps the Biggest Flaw of this Movie is the lack of Good Villains and a complete Lack of Moral Ambiguity. This is not to say, that every good story needs it, however, when dealing with philosophical themes it fails miserably precisely because of a lack of ambiguity. The Main Villains of this Movie are TERRIBLE. In direct contrast, the villains in the 88 Anime were compelling, their motives were reasonable and understandable. They had a coherent ideology and real sense of purpose. "DA Ebil Cliched Military" Villains pale in comparison to 'the Terrorist and the Traitor' from the first Movie. They have no clear reasons for disliking the Biodroids or the Order of GAAIA, other than "oh, they're just ebil natzeees!" it's ridiculously black-n-white, one-dimensional and plain childish. What this means for the Themes is that it makes them one-sided, simplistic messages that are NOT open to questioning, or disagreement, which ends up becoming a detriment to the conflict and the themes, thereby making them NOT compelling.

The Action Scenes all focus on being as bombastic as possible, trying to squeeze as much action into the scene as possible instead of intricately delivering with planning and/or skill. (i,e; the shooting scene near the end of the first movie, or the arrest of the terrorists.) There are only about two scenes that are anything close to providing good action. There is also a considerable lack of stakes (until the very end) which makes it plain boring to watch.

Around an hour into the movie, we finally get an effective flashback scene that is done half-decently, right after which we return to the same "ebil military", exposition dump, "tell-don't-show" crap, with 4 plot-twists in quick succession, making the plot feel bloated and overdone, much like the graphics.

Speaking of which, the Dated CGI becomes an eye-sore after a while and Janky-looking Character Animation ruins the emotions that the characters are supposed to express. Couple that with the Horrible Soundtrack, with hipster music and compositions that sound like they belong in a 2000s B-movie or low budget video-game.

Which is why I am completely lost and confused as to why this is rated higher than the 1988 OVA that did far more with far little. It's a shame that adaptation is acknowledged less as it was significantly better. The only thing that the 2004 Film has over the 1988 Film was the Dub. The Dubbing was an improvement, obviously because more modern dubs tend to be better produced, however other than that I could not see a single thing that this Film did even moderately well.

4.5/10 (Bad CGI Blockbuster Movie from the Early 2000s, with much of the cliches of that Era.)