Ekusu makina (2007)

User Rating:

7.2/10   

Director:

Shinji Aramaki

Writers:

Masamune Shirow (characters)
Kiyoto Takeuchi (screenplay)

Release Date:

20 October 2007 (Japan)

Genre:

Animation | Action | Sci-Fi

Plot:

When a paramilitary task force called E.S.W.A.T. and its operations in the year 2199 Olympus, a futuristic utopia where humans...

Plot Keywords:

Cyborg | Anime | Android | Mecha

Cast

Ai Kobayashi	...	Deunan Knute (voice)
Kôichi Yamadera	...	Brialeos Hecatombcales (voice)
Yûji Kishi	...	Tereus (voice)
Kong Kuwata	...	Aeacus (voice)
Shinpachi Tsuji	...	Commander Lance (voice)
Gara Takashima	...	Athena (voice)
Rei Igarashi	...	Nike (voice)
Rica Fukami	...	Yoshino (voice)
Takaya Hashi	...	Dr. Kestner (voice)
Miyuki Sawashiro	...	Hitomi (voice)
Yasuyuki Kase	...	Yoshitsune (voice)
Takaya Kuroda	...	Arges (voice)
Naoko Kouda	...	Dr. Xander (voice)
Atsushi Imaruoka	...	(voice)
Ken Yamaguchi	...	(voice)

Also Known As:

Appleseed 2 (Japan) (working title)
Appleseed Saga: Ex Machina (International: English title)

MPAA:

Rated PG-13 for action/violence and brief strong language.

Runtime:

USA:103 min (DVD version) | Argentina:105 min

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Certification:

USA:PG-13 | Singapore:NC-16 | Argentina:13 | Australia:M | South Korea:12 | UK:12 | Japan:U | New Zealand:M

Company:

Digital Frontier

Movie Connections:

Follows Appurushîdo (2004)

Soundtrack:

Rescue

Fantastic Action & Romance Superbly Captured in Blu-ray

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.