Appleseed: Ex Machina

Deunan and Briareos are police in the ESWAT team. Having saved the world in the previous installment, they have been awarded a life of danger and anguish. That's the new world for you. Anyway, somehow they get tangled with the villain in an improbable sequence of events, then he pretty much takes over the world, even if he was dead, only to be defeated in the end in a huge battle with a Borg cube. What is not to like about that?

Anyway, to me it seemed like the animation style didn't progress at all since the 2004 film, perhaps it even went to worse for some reason I can't just put my finger on. Also the story, as action packed as it was, seemed lazy. The typical Woo action scenes didn't impress either, as they go against any reasonable military training I can think of.

There were some interesting parts, though. The Briareos bioroid and the interactions between the characters were funny enough, the villain method of capturing the minds and hearts of consumers (now you know where the Apple in Appleseed comes from :) ) and some hidden gems like the quote "A human, a cyborg and a bioroid working together... Only in Olympus". It was nice to get a glimpse of the world outside Olympus, too.

Bottom line: they tried too hard. I also watched the English dub version, which may or may not have taken some soul out of the film. It was enjoyable to watch, but a simple story dragged on by useless action scenes (and by useless I mean not furthering the story) can only go so far.