Appleseed Alpha

I found about this franchise with the trailer of Appleseed Alfa post by IGN, “from the creator of Ghost in the Shell”, but is not recommendable to compare because after watching the four movies all i can thing of is “Transformers”, mediocre and disposable entertainment made for a wider audience. Don’t get wrong, the movies are not bad… just mediocre.
Have you ever see a movie and something stupid happed; something that doesn’t make sense, you ask yourself why it happens and answer is “well, y it’s a movie”. You haven realize (or don’t want to accept it) but suspension of disbelief has die ... in front of your eyes, in that moment, the 30-40 minutes that the movie has left will be a tedious job ratter that an entertainment. Things like “my plan depend of this bottom, when I push it I win and you lose and … oh you fire at the bottom, now a will not be able to push it, now we will go with plan b that is the real climax of the movie”. This happens in the first movie (Appleseed 2004), without spoilers i will say that i didn’t care in what follow that scene. Every cliché of sci-fi, cyberpunk and action movies will be developed during the entire series.
The original OVA of 1988 its the best movie, its mediocre, but mediocre 30 years ago, its a masterpiece, (adding that i watch this one in third place), Deunan doesn’t fight between being a badass and a damsel in distress for Briareos, they’re just a team , there is a debate of Olympus as a necessary evil ratter OUR ONLY HOPE, even the death of nameless characters matters more, because are presented as uncontrollable casualties, and not the “people dying, shit gets serious” way.
I guess I should talk about Alfa. It’s Metal Gear (Revengeance to be specific) direct by Michael Bay, its one hour dubstep video with a couple of cool designed characters (designed, not develop), and you can’t complain about dubstep, the soundtrack of all four movies is nothing more that whatever people was hearing a that time (like I say entertainment for a wider audience). Appleseed isn’t bad, none of the for movie are bad, but don’t compare it with Ghost in the Shell, don’t compare the bioroids with the ones in Blade Runner (this ones are flat and un-dimensional, their emotions have being restricted so they have an excuse), don’t compare soundtrack, visuals, story, nothing with the big names of this genre, Appleseed will always lose, its not bad … Just Mediocre.

Appleseed Alpha, or Appleseed α is a computer-animated military science fiction cyberpunk movie. It had an advance digital release on July 15, 2014. The movie is set in different series of events, so you will not have to watch alternative versions of it, which aired a long time ago, only to understand it.

Appleseed Alpha focuses on the early days of Deunan Knute and Briareos in the 22nd century, as they start their journey throughout the ruins of New York in search of the mysterious city called Olympus. Deunan Knute and Briareos are hired by criminals to help them deal with the robots that seem ... to hinder them a lot. On one of these missions, our duo encounters Iris and Olson, who are on a mission, too. It is later revealed that Iris and Olson’s mission is somehow connected with what Deunan and Briareos are looking for.

Appleseed Alpha’s weakest part is, of course, its story-line. One can write a novel simply by listing things that the story-line of Appleseed Alpha does not explain. And believe me, there are many aspects this movie does not touch upon. Indeed, it has one of the worst story-lines you will ever find, but the good thing is that you will not have to watch prequels, read manga, or look for some additional information only to understand it. No. Appleseed Alpha relies only on a) animation and b) soundtrack.

All in all, I would not argue that this movie has, perhaps, the most stunning animation I have ever seen in my life and that its soundtrack is amazing, too. But a better story-line is something this movie does not have. Of course, if animation is the only criterion you care about, you should definitely watch this movie. If not, do avoid it.

By the way, this movie has superb English dubs.