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Name: Lucas...
is a hyper-advanced cyborg- his body consists of all of his active drives; his memory of all of his active sources. These are all variable, but on a periodic basis his bio components crave energy and sleep and remind him of his basic identity-layer (yes, I crave sleeping)...

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Appleseed 3D Live Anime Review

To be honest, my impression of the Appleseed 3D Live Anime was very negative after watching it. For this 109 minute feature, I can confidently say that in terms of graphcs and animation, Appleseed is indeed a pioneer and a job superbly well done. However, considering other elements of the film it is a big disappointment.

To be systematic though I will score (out of 10) the various aspects of the movie based on different elements. Let's see what kind of results we get eh? The scales are as follows (I will try and keep to this consistency when reviewing other films next time):
10:         Perfection! Must watch and a masterpiece!
08-09:   Minor, ignorable flaws. Excellent film in general.
06-07:   Above-average film.
05:         Just average. Lots of room for improvement.
02-04:   Depending on the score, something is seriously not right.
01:         Don't bother. Unbearable to watch.

Note that the following is graphics intensive

Graphics and Animation: 8/10

While undoubtedly superior, and much better than most 3D CG movies I've seen up to date, there are still some areas for improvement I think. The toon shading techniques were impressive, but sometimes the character's movements appear 'stiff' and you can visibly make out the "joints" of the modelling frame. Also there's a need to improve on the aspect of texturing the clothing of the characters. The mechanical animations- Landmates, Multi Legged Gun Platform, vehicles etc. are very nicely done. This is one aspect of the movie that impressed me the most.

The landscaping and rendering of Olympus is also up to par. The towering Gaia and Tartarus control buidings are prominent landmarks. The general atmosphere and systematic organization of the city is also very well represented. And yeah, it brings many joys during the sunset scene where Deunan's Guges flew across those majestic Gun Platforms! A sight to behold for any Shirow fan I'm sure!

So pretty!

So, generally no complaints on this aspect of graphics and animation, except that there is room for further improvements.

Story Plot: 2/10

And that is a very generous score. If I were to summarize this movie in one sentence, this would be it: Sex for Bioroids, humans go nuts. Yes folks. The message I get from this movie is that Bioroids wanted to have sex, humans get really scared and jealous so they decided to destroy the Bioroids. Worse, Deunan was told to hold on to Bioroid sperm for most of her life. When the humans failed to stop the Bioroids sex plan, the physically old but childish in mind elders of the Legislative Council decided to take away human's pleasure of sex instead, and used Gun Platforms to achive this no less! (This is beginning to sound like Hentai! ^_^|||)... So you can imagine, or maybe its just my sick twisted mind :P...

This little pendant has dodgy contents...

Seriously, this Appleseed movie plot is riddled with holes. The movie was going fine up until Hitomi and Deunan were attacked by a bunch of Munma-republic-like Cyborgs. Pardon me, until today I don't know who they are, why they attacked Deunan, and who ordered the strike. The whip-like weapon looks ike the one employed by Munma Republic Terrorist borgs in Hypernotes and hence I refer to them as such. I enjoyed the battle scene, but at the same time, stunned and thinking what the hell... no explanation on the attack? This was when I started to have the feeling that this movie is probably going to be disappointing.

Mystery Attackers...

Then we have the terrorist attack on the 3rd Generation Bioroid facility. Knowing after confusingly watching the movie that this the work of Hades and gang, why bother with the research facility? Surely they must know that the D-Tank is the sure-kill target to wipe out Bioroids. In fact, General Uranus said that was the plan when they were persuading Deunan to destroy the Appleseed. Why wait until the Appleseed plan was formed by the council for them to take such drastic action? If Briareos is the mastermind behind the terror attack and Athena is aware of this, surely they must have anticipated the complication that might arise for the existing Bioroids in Olympus that require longevity processing? Or was Athena pushing for New Human (i.e. Appleseed) all along while unaware of the Seven Elders' controversial plan?

 
Terrorist Landmates attacked the 3rd Generation Bioroid Research Facility

When we get to the part where Deunan discovers her childhood lost memories, via some cutting edge Virtual Reality projection system, again I can't really make sense of what's happened. So, this projection is activated via an old disk, which apparently only works in Dr Gillian's old research lab in the middle of the ocean. The program terminated after "they" shot Deunan's mom. What happened to Deunan after that? Where was her father in all this? How did the Appleseed get inside her father's gun? How did Deunan find out that the murder of her mother was in fact the work of the Seven Elders? Why can't Athena just tell Deunan about the Appleseed instead of going in a big circle to let her find out in such a traumatic way? Again... unsolved mysteries. Also, we get to the part where Hades starts mouthing off... and we don't really know why he gets so pissed off apart from some hint that he was forced out of ESWAT under Deunan's father. No explanation offered on his relationship with Deunan and Briareos, why was he so mad at them, or Carl Knute... It is quite irritating.

Deunan's mom was in fact the founder of Bioroids, and surprisingly for a bunch of senseless killers, Hades and gang did hesitate for a long time with idle talk before doing anything to either Briareos or Deunan.

Then we have the compulsory "before I die" beach scene (no Woman-machine Interface going on here so don't get excited! :P), despite explicit orders from Bri to go after those Olympus Elders and what did Deunan do? Stayed with Bri until morning (did Briareos 'die' or just shut down?). I don't know whether this is because she's feeling sentimental, or Briareos had a brain-fade asking Deunan to leave for Olympus without any form of transport! Yeah, I suppose she could swim, but even with a Guges it took her up to evening to reach Olympus! I'd rather watch the sunset scene with the Gun Platforms rather than this and it won't make the slightest difference.

"Listen... you must run or swim to Olympus... @_@ hm."

The battle with the Gun Platforms was another weird sequence. The battlescenes are really nice I must admit, and the Gun Platforms are perfectly rendered. But surprisingly, Gun Platform No.8 got crushed by two buildings just by passing through them. I'd expect more from "the most powerful sword" of Olympus... And for some unexplained reason, Appleseed borrowed a page from Ghost In The Shell when some 'ghost' mysteriously completed the password to stop the gun platforms. Wonder if the Ctrl-Alt-Del trick works on these Gun Platforms' OS....

Multi Legged Gun Platforms will protect your city! (maybe)

 
A Ghost In The Shell moment in Appleseed... Honestly sometimes my PC is harder to shutdown than this Gun Platform when it hangs on Windows ^_^

The story concludes with even more questions, now that the Bioroids have reproductive ability as "New Humans". How will the Bioroids reproduce? I Don't know. Was this Athena's plan right from the beginning? Under what terms did General Uranus agree to co-exist with Bioroids? (I doubt this is because of Deunan's sentimental "Bioroids don't kill Bioroids" speech..) What happened to the Seven Elders? (Hitomi shook her head. Could mean anything!!). One thing is for sure though, now that Hitomi can reproduce, I am very worried! ^_^|||

"Mmmm... Sex must be so good!" This is scary... ^_^|||

I find myself looking forward to the next action sequence more than following the story itself...

Characters: 2/10

This is one of the most sad aspect of Appleseed. The character developments are basically zero. Even development for main characters such as Deunan and Briareos, I think has been ignored in favour of more "CG effects". Character building is one of the most important aspects of a film. I feel that even if plots fail, at least if some of the characters makes lasting impressions on the viewers, then at least the movie could be succesful. It is obvious from the start of the movie that this Appleseed is going to be very different from the manga version, so I think there should be ample attention given to the characters' histories and personalities.

The characters depicted in this movie turned out very dry and serious. I was looking forward for some futuristic humour or smart-ass comments, but instead got alot of crying in public and one-dimensional personalities.

There are several things I want to comment about the characters. In this movie, I don't like the way they depict Deunan and Briareos' relationship. I am aware of the need to come up with some kind of unique storyline, but the Briareos as traitor angle and the indifference shown by both for almost 80% of the movie is a torture to watch. Personally for me, a big part of Appleseed is the inseparable bond between Briareos and Deunan and the way they interact with each other. Not to mention that both characters came out very "weak" in this movie instead of the legendary status they are reputed with. Briareos for instance, what's with the blinking LEDs? Is that some kind of cyborg built-in lie detector? It was really funny to watch. Also, there are so many instances of mistakes and fatal tactical errors from both characters.

It's kinda cold and chilly in here...

Sometimes, you get things so ridiculous that it screwed up the entire movie...

Also, the only exposure we get to 'humans' are limited to General Uranus and the hot-headed Hades. Hardly personalities that I think would get to command an entire nation's military. This gave the impression that humans are only emotional, hatred-filled, murderous bastards. I'd like to think that since this movie is being screened to humans, it would make more sense to come up with more realistic, believable stereotypes? I am sure most people are aware of the human nature, and most of the time irrartional decisions were taken in stressful situations. I don't think this is the correct way to approach or justify the Bioroid existence as done by the movie.

 
With characters like these representing humans, I agree with Gaia on the D-Tank issue.

At the end of the movie, the charcter's personalities were easily forgotten, and once again images of stuff like Gun Platforms and Landmates were the only ones leaving a lasting impression. I am worried how this would affect the future Appleseed sequels. If they stick to this background, the effect is going to snowball.

Soundtrack: 8/10

Basement Jaxx! That alone is worth a score of 10! ^_^ Ok, ok. To elaborate more, soundtrack I think, is suitably applied to the scenes and moods throughout the show. Only thing is, while we know Boom Boom Satellites does the main theme, it is quite disorientating to listen to some rock/techno band singing while Deunan and Bri fights off the baddies. Just some fast paced score would do just fine. That's where I deducted the 2 points.

Tactics & Strategies: 5/10

I included this as Appleseed can be considered to have, in some degree, a heavy military / armed forces theme. Again, many flaws in tactics. I was expecting alot better from an ESWAT film, especially one carrying a legendary Shirow Masamune title. Here are some comments on what I consider to be fatal mistakes in some of the major combat scenes (intentional or not, I don't know, just my opinion).

Badside Opening Battle

These baddy cyborgs worked so well in stealth mode taking out almost all of Deunan's team mates. So why the change in tactics in going face to face with Deunan?

Either this tank's targeting system is out of order or Ms Knute can run real fast. Honestly speaking, if I were controlling the tank (software or manual) I'd aim ahead at a moving target's path instead of dead center at the body. This kind of targeting might work with heat seeking missiles, but with machine guns, its just a waste of bullets and artillery rounds. True enough, all that the tank manage to hit were walls and a static statue. Nice job! -_-"

It seems to be standard operations procedure for these ESWAT Landmate teams to do a single line formation while firing randomly at enemy targets. They are lucky those Badside soldiers are just a bunch of thugs with no proper combat tactics. I think its more appropriate for the Landmates to spread out and get some cover, after all, there's plenty of rubble to hide behind...

Bioroid Facility Terrorist Attack

If I were the enemy, I'd drop a grenade smack in the middle of this Landmate formation. Kill four ducks with one bomb.

Nice positioning, Ms Knute! That oil tanker is as big as a whale. Sure enough, the enemy Landmates are smart enough (luckily) to target that big fat bomb. Its a disaster waiting to happen...

After deciding to misfire, I don't see any sense of Briareos just standing there like an idiot waiting to get run over... With such speed and flexibility (as demonstarted while fighting with the "Munma Republic" cyborgs) it should be a piece of cake getting out of the way. Maybe those blinking lights indicate that Briareos' screensaver has activated...

Multi-legged Gun Platform Attack

I have seen people jumping off tall buildings with parachute, but this is the first time I've seen anyone jumping in below a heavy machine literally weighing tonnes! Briareos already blasted a hole in the building so what's so difficult in getting Yoshi to pilot in the Landmate for Deunan?

"Oooh... explosions just occured under both buildings that I happen to pass by... That's odd..."

Sure enough... Spider Sandwich. And this is supposed to be the most powerful machine in the world...

5 points for the effort given to portray some kind of tactics and not just blind action. I'm being generous.

Technology: 5/10

Since this is a futuristic movie, most of the technologies and concepts portrayed in the film can be excused as future concepts. However sometimes there are foot-in-mouth situations. For instance, Hitomi explained quite extensively to Deunan regarding Ultravibrate Gravity System (?) installed in her car during the drive-around in Olympus when they discovered they were being trailed. Despite Hitomi explaining that the steering wheel is just a 'symbol' of making things more 'comfortable' for humans and does not control the car, what did Deunan do? Yes. Yanked the steering wheel for a sharp right turn, and later Hitomi did the same herself. *Puzzled* Seriously, just a simple command from Deunan asking Hitomi to "turn sharp to the right! Now!" that would make things more believeable eh?

"This steering wheel is a fake!"

"Let me just grab the steering wheel and turn a hard right"... -_-"

Minus 5 points! The screw-up is too obvious.

Results: 5.0 Points Overall (Average)

So we have a total of 30 points from 6 categories, giving Appleseed 3D Live Anime and overall average of 5.0 points. That would make it just average. Not exactly living up to its hype.

I purposely avoided referencing this to Shirow's Appleseed original manga (that would seriously lower the score further) and treated this as a separate story. While the graphics and animation looks superb, I wouldn't start recommending this to every person I meet on the street. I showed this film to some friends who are not into manga/anime but could handle sci-fi movies and the only comment I got was "this looks more like video game sequences". Ah yes, so the great Appleseed is reduced to the level of game animation sequences... and a predictable one as well.

I suppose if you are an animator or familiar with computer graphics, this animation would be worth your time to analyse and enjoy because despite the occasional "stiffness" of the human animations, the machines, backgrounds and cityscapes of this film are simply breath-taking. For the general audience though, I don't think I'd recommend this film. It would be better they discover Appleseed through Shirow's original manga.

Great graphics, that I won't dispute...

Despite its efforts to 'simplify' Appleseed for general audiences, I think Appleseed producers have underestimated the modern filmgoer's ability to appreciate and judge science-fiction films these days. It may work in Japan where anime fans are a market force to be reckoned with, but it hardly made any impression internationally. If you remember the 1988 Appleseed OAV, I think it was better overall compared to this new release despite the poor animation quality. Atleast the story and characters makes sense and there is quite an interesting plot. I know that 109 minutes is probably a great constrain, but I am sure there must be a better way to make this work instead of trying to cram as many action scenes as possible, sacrificing a good story plot. I think in the end, I get the idea that this Appleseed movie is more of a showcase of 3D animation and CG capabilities rather than a thought-provoking science-fiction classic.

I took a pretty long time to come out with this review because it is quite hard for me to be honest with myself. On one hand, I am really happy to see Appleseed getting such a high-class makeover, but throughout the movie I find myself unconciously picking faults and unable to really enjoy the movie. In the end, I decided to give it the critical treatment. As a Shirow Masamune fan, honestly I am disappointed, but hopefully we will get better sequels, if any are planned.

To those who want to watch this, please get the DVD, I think its worth collecting. But long-time Shirow fans, try and enjoy the show ok? Lower your expectations and don't cringe too much as I did! ^_^ Treat it as Shirow eye-candy, or as Mamoru Oshii Sensei put it, plot is not important, rather beautiful pictures are the way to go.  - END

posted by: Lucas at 02/28/05 22:12 | link | comments (8) | Category: appleseed

Comments:

#1  04 March 2005 - 19:57

 

I am glad to see more people disliked this film. I was so let down by this terrible production of a more than average Manga.
The lack of character development and plot combined with a lack of emotional moments really makes this show 100% forgettable. GitS GIG 2, that does not look as good visually in some ways, is just so superior in every other aspect. I care about the characters and the directors make you use your head.

Appleseed is a complete waste of money and time!

Bender

#2  05 March 2005 - 07:19

 

After being very disappointed with GITS2 I didn't expect too much of this movie.

I was quite impressed by the models and animation thoughout the movie(!) I've never before seen such good use of it in an anime movie.

This is in my opinion an action movie by heart, so I think the plot isn't that important, although I found it rather good; I've seen much worse recently. No need to explain everything I think.

I am really looking forward to the next Appleseed movie. Thanks Shirow.

Anonymous

#3  05 March 2005 - 13:54

 

I would agree that in terms of graphics and animation, Appleseed is a pretty good showcase, but the story is really not good enough.

I wouldn't think it is a good idea to have too much emotional scenes in any Shirow title, but yeah, Bender has point in coming up with a thought-provoking plot. I think the Appleseed team compromised too much to have this movie appeal and simple to understand for the general public. They underestimated the new generation of moviegoers and sci-fi fan I believe. If the general public can accept films like the Matrix, I don't see why Appleseed needed to be so.. errr... shallow. Films like Matrix, Sky Captain, or even Blade Runner should be the standard for Appleseed, not Final Fantasy >.< Btw, the graphics for Gig 2 is fantastic enough in my opinion ^_~

Anyhow, what is over, is over. I was looking forward to showing off Appleseed to my Shirow & manga ignorant friends, but after watching it myself, I don't think I want to anymore.

This Appleseed movie would be excellent if it was a game though. For a 109 minute feature film, I feel it is just not good enough. But hopefully, like what Stand Alone Complex did for GITS, maybe the next Appleseed sequel or TV series (if the rumoursare true) will be a better representative of Appleseed.

bis2501

#4  10 July 2005 - 10:59

 

just watched the show, I agree on most points, it is disapointing (no Sudo!) but
I think you left out an important facet. Maybe it was my setup, (only 7.1 DTS) but i think the sound editing was terrible. I mean the music to sound would fade in and out, like a terrible student film. I haven't heard mixing this bad since the early days of digital sound, also the music appeared to be encoded at waay to low of a data rate. Anyways, the film was ruined for me by the terrible sound.

Anonymous

#5  14 July 2005 - 04:09

 

Man, you actually liked the horrible way in which characters were made? It looks almost as bad like in Reboot more than 10 years ago. Just compare with the FF:tSW few years ago already!

Anonymous

#6  24 August 2005 - 14:51

 

Agree; shame they took the plot of Book 1 for the start and end, but levered it apart and carmmed in the Hades/pendant/mother/sex rubbish in the middle -why, when there was already a perfectly good plot lying there waiting?

Anonymous

#7  24 October 2005 - 03:03

 

hmmm...whoever wrote this review must have only watched this film once and been too busy browsing porn during that time. the part about the plot revolving around sex, in a very vague sense, possibly. bioroids are not able to reproduce therefore their population can be controlled. the elders did not use the mobile fortress to stop humans from having sex but rather to kill humans altogether so the bioroids could maintain their utopia.

the steering wheel in the car did control the steering. deunan said it and hitomi agreed.

eswat using bad tactics. of course they will use bad combat tactics. i felt that was apparent since it was stated that they were recently formed and 'rookies' when it came to combat. that was evident when deunan took out all the officers during the training exercise.

the d-tank wasn't a 'kill all' for bioroids but for humans. briareos was behind the attack on the bioroid facility to make athena push to have the appleseed research started again. athena had no idea about briareos' involvement in this. athena was pure to dr gillian's request to peacefully coexist with humans and to be somewhat of a 'protector' for the future of both bioroids and humans.

i could keep picking apart your review but i'm not going to. i fully enjoyed the movie and i think you would have enjoyed it more if you paid more attention to the obvious. i agree some things were not fleshed out leaving possible holes in the plot but what movie/story doesn't?

Anonymous

#8  27 November 2005 - 10:42

 

Yes I too agree that this review has not taken into consideration on how big this feature film had become. One thing that I noticed, is that the whole argument with ESWAT's bad tactics has to be removed. I mean, since when did the grunts start using good tactics. In fact when did anyone on any movie start using perfect tactics, becuase not even on war movies do tactics come in place precisely. I believe that ESWAT was lined up to create a dynamic scene, where you see them all fireing and plowing down their enemies. Also, You my friend are a Fucking idiot if you dont know why those cyborgs attacked Dunen. They wanted to stop her from thwarting the elders' plan in making the bioroids the only species on the planet. seriously dont critisize something if you dont understand it!

Anonymous

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