Some strong characters and a solid aesthetic cannot save this film from a pervasive sense of averageness.
The film starts promisingly with a tense sequence conveying just how hostile this world feels towards humankind. The robotic designs are equally horrifying and sleek, and the suits of armor used by the humans give a rugged warlike appearance to even the likes of young teenagers.
Where the movie goes wrong is its excessive exposition. Story beats are given essentially at random with long gaps between any action and characters wear their motivations on their sleeves leaving nothing to surprise the watcher. One comes to no deep revelations about the nature of this world and although I constantly expected my expectations to be subverted, they never were (which I guess in a way was a subversion I suppose). Despite spending so much of the run time having characters mull over the big plan and introducing two mysterious android characters the movie just never deviates from what one would expect from a generic post-apocolpyic film.
Moreover, characters will speak thoughts aloud and say things that could easily be left unsaid. So much of the world remains a mystery by the end of the film I wonder why they even bothered explaining what they did. Leaving more gaps and using some visual story telling tools would have gone along way to make the experience more fluid.
I don't want to make it sound as though the film is all bad, because there are definitely some things to like here. The characters seem genuine and the voice performances are solid. There are some beautiful shots in the film as well. I loved the look of the larger robots, menacing in a techno-godlike sense, and there is a sequence where one of the characters enters this worlds version of the matrix that was tastefully done. When it is not excessively cgi-ed the film can be quite breathtaking, just don't stare to much at the stiff character faces.
Blame! has a bit of romance, a bit of action, and a bit of intrigue, but I would not say it executes any of those elements superbly, certainly not in comparison to the titans in the sci-fi animation genre. Ultimately I would say the package just ekes ever so slightly above average. If you are a fan of post-apocalyptic sci-fi and won't mind a few underwhelming moments it's worth a watch, but if you are expecting Blame! to surprise you and take the genre in interesting directions, you are best giving it a pass.
The film starts promisingly with a tense sequence conveying just how hostile this world feels towards humankind. The robotic designs are equally horrifying and sleek, and the suits of armor used by the humans give a rugged warlike appearance to even the likes of young teenagers.
Where the movie goes wrong is its excessive exposition. Story beats are given essentially at random with long gaps between any action and characters wear their motivations on their sleeves leaving nothing to surprise the watcher. One comes to no deep revelations about the nature of this world and although I constantly expected my expectations to be subverted, they never were (which I guess in a way was a subversion I suppose). Despite spending so much of the run time having characters mull over the big plan and introducing two mysterious android characters the movie just never deviates from what one would expect from a generic post-apocolpyic film.
Moreover, characters will speak thoughts aloud and say things that could easily be left unsaid. So much of the world remains a mystery by the end of the film I wonder why they even bothered explaining what they did. Leaving more gaps and using some visual story telling tools would have gone along way to make the experience more fluid.
I don't want to make it sound as though the film is all bad, because there are definitely some things to like here. The characters seem genuine and the voice performances are solid. There are some beautiful shots in the film as well. I loved the look of the larger robots, menacing in a techno-godlike sense, and there is a sequence where one of the characters enters this worlds version of the matrix that was tastefully done. When it is not excessively cgi-ed the film can be quite breathtaking, just don't stare to much at the stiff character faces.
Blame! has a bit of romance, a bit of action, and a bit of intrigue, but I would not say it executes any of those elements superbly, certainly not in comparison to the titans in the sci-fi animation genre. Ultimately I would say the package just ekes ever so slightly above average. If you are a fan of post-apocalyptic sci-fi and won't mind a few underwhelming moments it's worth a watch, but if you are expecting Blame! to surprise you and take the genre in interesting directions, you are best giving it a pass.