Appleseed Alpha

Watched #AppleseedAlpha....

Basically it's an anime sci-fi action movie.... A guy thing. The animation is so brilliant that sometimes it looks like a filmed movie. The action sequences are good. The characters are very cool with cyborgs, drones and robots. The chief characters are a two humans and three more cyborgs. The weapons are pretty cool and so are the villains....

Done saying all that there ain't much after that.... There ain't any sub plot. The main plot I a bit predictable and something we are used to. Over that the second part is full of serous goofs. The kind of goofs we see in sub standard action movies where good guys survive everything,gets new vehicles out of nowhere etc....

#watchable....

Appleseed is one of my favourite anime series of all time. I think the magic of the series is the relationship of Deunan and Briareos, which is the main "glue" which holds the series together.

This movie cements that with an early look at their pre-ESWAT days, (Especial Weapons & Tactics) for those not in the know.

Unlike the first movie Appleseed and its follow-up Ex Machina, there are no glittering towers of beautiful buildings or people/bioroids living in a harmonious Utopia in the city of Olympus. This is a bombed to Hell urban landscape of mankind's own making and Deunan and Briareos do their best to exist in it while keeping sane and still in love with each other.

The CGI is good, NOT great, but still very good at conveying this while the story, involving stopping a madman cyborg from kick starting another war is involving and action packed.

It's also nice to hear David Matranga and Luci Christian continuing to do the voice acting for these two, I don't think Appleseed would be the same with these two talented voice actors.

Our two heroes do their best and there are moments of real passion of dialogue in the movie, also some fun moments with witty banter while they take down battle droids out in the dust bowls of former cities reduced to dust.

In summation, if your looking for a great intro to the Appleseed story, this is a good place to start, you'll see great action, good anime and a hint at the end of a follow-up movie which will no doubt continue their relationship when they reach Paradise (Olympus).

I've been a big fan of Appleseed ever since I first bought the original VHS back when I was 17. The franchise saw reprints of the Manga come and go until the reboot and the 2007 sequel, both of which I also really enjoyed. This particular movie, despite being from the same creative team, is sadly not in continuity with the others and is a "soft retelling" of how Deunan Knute and her rabbit- eared cyborg boyfriend Briareos fought their way through a post-WIII America before arriving in Olympus City.

It is by no means bad, but still a bit of a disappointment. I will chalk this up to the fact that Sony have gotten their dirty hands on the franchise since they have a long history of mis-managing pre- existing properties. This instalment honestly feels and looks more like one of the disposable CGI Resident Evil movies than Appleseed. There is a decent atmosphere in the empty cities and quiet, lifeless deserts but it doesn't have the gloss and tech that I am used to from this series. The tech on display here is old and war-scarred, adding a riff of grubbiness to it that I'm not used to. Plus, there's very little to identify with, Deunan seems to be the only pure human with no bio- mech augmentations. I know it's a clichéd criticism to make of such movies, but it did honestly make me feel like I was watching a video game cut-scene. A bit more of the human element would have balanced things out and eliminating that truly, truly, utterly awful soundtrack would have pushed my final score a little higher. The soundtrack was honestly so awful I was disappointed that there was no Japanese track on the Blu-ray. I would have happily read subtitles if it meant the removal of all those terrible hip-hop sounding songs.

I don't know what Sony were thinking. I liked the Japanese textures of Appleseed, and their attempts to Westernize it just don't sit well with me as a fan. It's worth watching but definitely the least appealing in the entire series so far.

Another solid entry in the Appleseed series. Action packed with a solid story line. It is beautifully rendered and if you have the option to see on blu-ray, choose that one. The character designs are excellent (well for the main character especially). The storyline would have greatly benefited from a multi episode arc instead of being crunched down to 90 minutes, but it delivers in the end, and lets you look forward to the next in the sequence without beating you over the head with the half-assed open ending. There were so many plot points that could have been expanded into their own episodes, I would have much enjoyed further detail on the relationship with Two-Horns and Olympus, and even the backstory of the villains themselves. Solid voice acting and direction deliver the goods and the action is solid and engaging.

I remember little from the Appleseed anime that I saw when I was younger so this is basically me commenting on this movie as standalone. The Third World War came and went, leaving the entire planet in chaos. The story follows two former soldiers that are now working as mercenaries for a thug. They meet a mysterious girl and her cyborg protector and decide to help them out in their mission against some psychopathic bad guys.

The end of the world theme, the political or social commentary usual in Masamune Shirow's work, they are all downplayed, almost not existent. Instead the entire flow of the movie is centered around fighting. The animation is decent, considering it is 3D CGI in its entirety, but when you think about it, they worked with about 10 body models. All the henchmen look alike, for example. They did a good job, but I think the physics looked off for most of the time: nothing gets destroyed unless it explodes, the cars are moving in weird ways and the hand to hand combat is clumsy.

Bottom line: as vaguely as I remember the 1984 Appleseed anime, I remember seeing it. This one will probably be forgotten by the time I save this review. Not bad, but not terribly good either. Animation was decent, but not great, the story simple and the characters formulaic and hard to empathize with. I think the fact that the character I connected most with was the thug, rather than the various heroes and villains, says it all. And I am still waiting for 3D animation to make me feel like a good anime does.