Appleseed: Ex Machina

I'm not a huge fan of anime or 3D animation, but i am a fan of great animated movies that have substance, a story-line that holds from the beginning to the end, thorough and not rushed out character development, great scenery and camera shots that make sense for the moment.

There are many things i liked about this movie, and a some i didn't like.

Some might say that the animation in this movie was flawless. I say it was not and it has nothing to do with opinion. It has something to do with fact and what is capable to be done. I believe that the animation could have been much, much better. The still objects such as the city, buildings, and vehicles were definitely excellent, but the people didn't stand, move, or talk realistically enough and nowadays it is possible to come VERY close to that - but it seems like they ran through that and didn't put enough effort into it. I'll just assume they had a time limit and that was the least of their worries - a lesser worry than the story-line should be.

So I assume than the story line and character development would be the main focus here, since little was done to better or outdo the first Appleseed movie. I have to say it was in a way equal to the first. A few things i liked the most about this one was the interaction between the character or Deunan and Tereus. The chemistry was well illustrated, and I wish the envelop was pushed a little further and there was some type of physical contact, kissing or something, anything more than just a hug. This way to explore love in a different between a human and a biologically engineered human being that is the copy of someone that you still love.

The cinematographic was entertaining, but the music wasn't that great. I can't stand the upbeat electronic music and wish it had been replaced by something more suitable like some different electronic music that made sense for the movie and the action scenes. A few times i felt trapped in a rave club or some rave party, which i enjoyed when i was in high school, but never enjoyed in a good Sci-Fi movie. I would have stuck with organic or industrial sounds for effects.

Overall this movie isn't better or worse than the first. It's very entertaining and i greatly enjoyed it.

I saw this movie on Blu-ray, and it was fantastic!

On the surface, the Appleseed Ex Machina may appear to be a glitzy, shoot'em-up anime mecha action show. And on that, it is fabulously rendered. But there is more, much more in the offerings for those who are willing to appreciate them. For those with open mind and are willing to peer into the multi-thread story lines, they are in for visual delights that are woven with thought-provoking ideas about: the pursuit of utopia leading to dystopia, introspection and what makes us human and authentic, coping with the past and really facing yourself to find a path forward, the self-actuation process of a clone, and (corny as it may sound)­ unwavering love that transcends the human-machine line.

Call me trite simple but I LOVE it!

Those who are highly critical of this 3D anime movie might have missed great offerings from a fairly new medium. There is no need for such innate fears of CGI – it will never replace human actors (those that tried, for instance, the Final Fantasy: A Spirit Within, flopped utterly in such attempts), but it will expand the anime genre and broaden it with fantastic visual appeal.

Regarding the Blu-ray video quality, some "Blu-ray experts" did not think it was crisp enough for Blu-ray. Well, my take on it is that the softness is deliberate, in part to help focus the viewer's eyes on the important parts of a scene, and in part to heighten the human aspects of the story. It says this movie is not all about the CGI glitz but that it has gone beyond that so the viewer can enjoy the highly stylized actions and romantic moments.

The video bit rate is fairly good, generally range from high teens to around high 20s Mbps. It's not the best encoding, however, because you can see some color banding (when the color gradient is supposed to be smooth) and, occasionally, jagged line definitions. There are only a few compression artifacts that I could see. By the way, I thought the CGI rendering STYLE, was excellent – it sort of infuses the feel of cell animation into the smoothness of 3D CGI animation.

Regarding the audio quality, it is excellent in both spatial/channel separation and clarity. The dialogues are fairly easy to pick up. One nick-pick of mine is that I would have liked to hear the techno music pumped up higher during some of the kick-ass action scenes – you know, to let our neighbors know how much we are enjoying watching an incredibly tight futuristic-action flick. The English dubbing was quite good (good enough that it didn't detract from the feel of the movie).

The ending seems a bit hurried, and is far fetched (like so many anime movies). I would love it see the last parts filled-in and polished a bit more so that it's more poignant and warm at the same time.

It is a great 9-star to me. It's worth seeing just for the CGI effect. If you do see it, hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

"Appleseed: Ex Machina" is not the future of Japanese Anime' (Japanese animation) but it's still a very entertaining animated feature done in the spirit of its predecessor "Appleseed" (2004), and other classic Anime' such as "Akira" (1988) and "Ghost in the Shell" (1995). It's also wise to not overlook the contributions of American sci-fi like "Blade Runner" (1982), "The Terminator" (1984) and "RoboCop" (1987), with a little helping of "The Matrix" (1999) for extra measure.

"Appleseed: Ex Machina" comes to us from Hong Kong action veteran John Woo and director Shinji Aramaki. It's a continuation of the Manga (Japanese comic book) by Shirow Masamune, who also wrote ye old "Ghost in the Shell." "Ex Machina" is a visually dazzling animated feature from Japan that's almost completely CGI with a little bit of hand-drawn animation and motion-capture work. The story is rich in thematic ideas and intelligence, namely Greek mythology and the unconditional love between humans and machines, but it could have used a little bit more polishing in the character department, allowing "Appleseed: Ex Machina" to rise above above-average storytelling. The characters also seem a little one-dimensional, too.

The film follows the adventures of a paramilitary task force called E.S.W.A.T. and its operations in 2199 Olympus, a futuristic utopia where humans, cyborgs, and bio-engineered human beings called "bioroids" are attempting to live in perfect harmony. However, a series of random terrorist attacks perpetrated by cyborgs and humans alike threaten to throw Olympus into total chaos. As it turns out, these humans and machines have come under the influence of an unknown electronic signal that hacks into their nervous systems and they then become the unwilling servants of a malevolent computerized entity.

Thrown into the action is the plucky female E.S.W.A.T. warrior Deunan Knute and her cyborg lover/partner Briareos as they investigate these bizarre occurrences with the other members of their unit. Things become complicated when a bioroid named Tereus, who resembles Briareous in his human form, joins their unit and threatens to come between their relationship. But these three must put aside their differences to face an even greater threat that promises world destruction in its wake.

From the opening moments of this stunning animated feature, I was pretty drawn in. I can tell that this was a very expensive piece of Anime' from Japan. John Woo's influence is everywhere in "Appleseed: Ex Machina," not limited to dual-wielding weapons and flocks of birds appearing before the action breaks out. Like I said earlier, problems arise with some fairly deficient characters, but with enough action and special effects splashed across the eyes of this viewer, it's only a minor complaint.

Japanese Anime' continues to be a rapidly evolving genre of film-making that shows no signs of going away any time soon. It is clear that more groundbreaking Anime' does need to come out if the genre plans to make a big splash in the West.

8/10

I've never been a huge fan of John Woo. I think Hard Boiled (1992) is one of the greatest action films ever made, and I liked The Killer (1989), A Better Tomorrow (1986), and Bullet In the Head (1990), but we need to be honest with ourselves and recognize that this guy sold his soul to Hollywood in the mid-1990s and hasn't made a great film since 1992.

He has, however, completely destroyed a sequel to one of the best American movies of recent memory (Mission Impossible) by over-Hollywoodizing a uniquely non-Hollywood film made by Hollywood. That's quite an ironic feat that he should be particularly ashamed of. Now we have Appleseed: Ex Machina (2007) to add to the list of Woo-ish debacles over the past 16 years.

This sequel to the exceptional anime drops the ball in a number of respects, yet still proves to be a marginally entertaining movie. The most obvious fault is that numerous events are near copies of science fiction movies from the West, thus making this endeavor much too conventional for a Japanese anime. In addition, the storyline wasn't as well-conceived as the original. Luckily, this movie has just enough positives to earn a watch. The protagonists are very likable characters, the plot is engaging, and the visuals are very good. The action scenes don't reach the levels of exoticism or quality of the original, but they are still moderately entertaining. In the end this is a very flawed picture that will only satisfy anime action junkies that can look around some mediocre elements. I'd give it a 6/10 compared to an 8/10 for the original.

Now, there were some very specific Woo-ish aspects that really annoyed me. First and foremost are the doves. Yes, there are heaping amounts of flying doves in this Japanese anime film! Why the hell is John Woo so obsessed with doves? Yeah, they provide some ironic symbolism during action scenes, but using them to the degree that he does I have no doubts that he touches himself to pictures of doves when he's alone at night. And the fact that he uses these little birdies in almost every one of his movies proves to be almost as annoying as Rob Zombie's habitual use of white trash folk in his movies. Yes, it's that annoying.

But wait. Maybe I'm jumping to conclusions regarding just how much influence Woo had in this watchable (yet severely disappointing) sequel. So I fired up the Special Features option on the DVD menu and watched the 16-minute "Making Of" featurette that focuses specifically on John Woo's influence as a producer. It provided some much needed information regarding just how far this has-been shell of a director has fallen. Let me run down some of the statements made by the Japanese director and producers of this film:

"This is the first time a big time Hollywood director has tried to tackle Japanese Anime."

So Woo isn't even recognized as a director of Chinese cinema anymore. How quaint. No one in this "Making Of" feature even mentioned his Chinese filmography.

"Japanese producers wanted to expand into the Western market and saw that working with John Woo would be a good match."

Nice. If your name is dropped by someone as the foremost expert in Hollywoodization, would you really take that as a compliment? Man, this guy has really hit rock bottom.

"John brought his years of experience in Hollywood to it."

Well, he certainly brought all of the negatives of Hollywood cinema to this production. That was obvious from watching the movie. How many times do you see a Japanese Anime film copy scenes from I Robot and The Matrix Revolutions? Yes, it's really, really pathetic.

The most enlightening statement was with regards to the preliminary Japanese storyboards.

"John took a look at it and came up with some really great notes."

What was particularly hilarious about this statement is that on-screen you see John Woo's head shaking in a disapproving, almost disgusted manner while watching the initial storyboards. It's almost like he's saying to himself, "This is way too Japanese for an American audience. We need more slow-mo shots and conventional elements to reach a wider audience and make more money." Nice job Johnny boy.

Director Shinji Aramaki apparently conceived Ex Machina to be nothing more than a tribute to Woo's work. He says:

"We devised the Cathedral scene before John showed up to pay homage to his work."

It's really too bad that Aramaki was so accommodating to implementing all of Woo's ideas into the film. It effectively crippled a movie that should have been as good as the original.

I hate to say it, but John Woo is a no-talent has-been who has only harmed the international film industry since making Hard Boiled in 1992. I have no problems with him making tripe in America. Heck, that's what American cinema is for. But don't you DARE to take your new-found money-grubbing mediocrity to Japanese anime.

Someone needs to stop this guy before he attempts to wreck another Asian movie.

From the first minute on the movie was playing, I was in love! Appleseed Ex Machina, is brilliant! The first installment, when I discovered it a little over a year ago, was good; an exiting journey in cool environments and with a captivating story. Ex Machina, takes that to the next level.

The action scenes are better, the motion capture is grander and the camera movements even sweeter. The whole movie long your in that world. Feeling all the emotions displayed by the beautiful, yet still traditional anime-style looking characters. The storyline is beautifully symbolic and the characters a dream to come true! Their cool, strong and yet so human.

I wish more 3d movies like these where made, with so much tender, love and care for the materia that is sometimes so underestimated by the grand audience. I take my hat of for the amazing team that has been working on Ex Machina - it's incredible from beginning to start and I can't wait to watch it again!