DVD
REVIEW: APPLESEED EX MACHINA

03/09/08

Based on the 1985 manga
created by Masanume Shirow, Producer John Woo and director
Shinji Aramaki combine talents to bring to live once again
these magnificent franchise to its second CGI movie
installment. Appleased EX Machina had brought these splendid
story to a whole new levels, with impressive details, action
sequences, and a brilliant story that certainly outdoes its
predecessor. The great thing about the movie is that it is
not targeted to any specific audience, people not knowing
about the original story, or the first movie, as well as
returning fans will not be disappointed with this
mesmerizing adventure. The movie is rated PG 13 for
action/violence and strong language, and will be available
on March 11 2008.
It is the year 2031, the remaining survivors of the third
non nuclear world, biological engineer being Biorods and
cyborg robots have managed to set their differences and live
in peace in the utopian metropolis of Olympus, ES.W.A.P
agent Deunan and her cyborg partner Briareus are there to
make sure that peace is not disrupted, Until an stealth
attack on the cyborg them aware of a possible terrorist
threat. With the attack, Briareus is severely injured and a
new partner is assigned to Deunan, a Bioroid named Tereus,
which is engineer from Briareus’ DNA, so not only Deunan has
the pressure to solve the case, but also a sentimental
tension to cope with her new partner. Soon she discovers
that the threat is going far beyond cyborgs, it is targeted
to the whole population and can be the cause for another
world war, and that it is going to take exceptional teamwork
and trust in each other from this trio to stopped.
Appleseed EX Machina evolves from its original film in all
aspects, this time the animation, sound, action sequences
and music are better and more pleasurable to the eye than
the first one. There is not doubt that there is a
contribution from John Woo in this film: the marvelous gun
fights, the camera angles, and the focused on detail are
just examples of this contributions, This plus the geniality
of Aramaki in preserving the distinguish characteristics
from its original version creates a wonderful world that is
not just pleasing to the eye but also in stimulating in all
the senses. The CGI animation improved drastically from the
first film, the characters looked more realistic and less
cartoonist, facial expressions body movement, and emotions
are better depicted, not only for the human characters but
for the cyborg and biorids as well, and the cities and
environment although futuristic and imaginative give also a
more sense of realism making the audience relate to them.
Nonetheless, it could have been much better, since in some
scenes it looks like you are watching a cut scenes from an
old 32-bit video games. Character design was done incredible
amazing specially in the non human characters, the emphasis
in detail is successfully used, in most of the scenes, you
could see the screws and nuts and these will not disappear
in the next frames. Sound and action sequences are
skillfully picked, the sound track helps the audience to get
in the mood for the movie, and the fights were exceptionally
choreograph.
Appleseed EX Machina is without a doubt a most have for
anime fans, its storyline script and plot are as appealing
as popular anime Ghost in the Shell. It has all the right
elements to entertained young audiences like robots, action,
and friendship, at the same time it touches issues that will
captivate a more mature audience like politics, ethics,
love, and mythology. There is no mistake that the war
between man and machine is an interesting theme for Sci-fi
movies, movies like Terminator, iRobot and The Matrix are
example of its success, nonetheless in Appleseed, we also
see a point of view where is not man against machine instead
it is a mutual cooperation between them to fight a bigger
problem: crime, this and the different styles used makes
Appleseed an instant anime classic.
VIDEO:
Widescreen Version enhanced
for widescreen TVs
AUDIO:
English,
French, Spanish, Chinese, Korean, and Portuguese
English, French, Spanish, Chinese, Korean, and Portuguese
SPECIAL FEATURES:
The DVD comes with a basic
menu of special features, nothing special in this section,
keep in mind that the movie is what makes the DVD worth,
however for many fans of anime the features might result
instructive.
Team Up: Jhon Woo and Shinji Aramaki - Two top
talents, an action movie master, and a legend in the anime
world, Share Appleseed vision: here we hear these two master
tell us about their relationship, insight, and visions
during the production of the film, and how their style merge
to produce the film.(16:26)
Revolution: animating
EX Machina - New Technology Breakthrough Powering
this Instant Anime Classic: it is basically the making of
feature, it is discussed how all the animation process was
done. And the voices of each character(18:37)
Commentary: watch the
movie with the filmmaker commentary
RATING BREAK DOWN:
FILM REVIEW |
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VIDEO |
 |
AUDIO |
 |
BONUS
FEATURES |
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Review
By Milo
milo@smartcine.com
People Movie Review
Appleseed EX-Machina
Chyna Doll |
90 |
Appleseed is a great
movie to watch. If you loved the series
on Cartoon Network (Yeah I was a fanatic
for watching stuff on Cartoon Network)
than you'll love this movie. The
features are great and the action scenes
are totally out of this world. I would
recommend people to watch this movie. If
you love Japanese anime than add this
one to your collection. |
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