APPLESEED EX MACHINA
October 24th 2008 22:06
Based on the original manga created by Masamune Shirow.
Director: Shinji Aramaki.
Script by: Kiyoto Takeuchi.
Producers: John Woo, Terence Chang, Hidenori Ueki, Naoko Watanabe & Joseph Chou.
Starring: Luci Christian (Deunan), David Matranga (Briareos), Illich Guardiola (Tereus), Quentin Haag (Arges), Melissa Davis (Yoshino), Alison Sumrali (Athena), Shelley Calene-Black (Nike), Hilary Haag (Hitomi), Chris Patton (Yoshitsune), Alice Fulks (Xander) & John Gremillion (Kestner).
Produced by: Ex Machina Film Partners & Warner Brothers.
Released by: Madman Entertainment.
Running Time: 104 minutes. Rating: M.
The other day I realised belatedly that I’d been going at the Green Lantern now for about a year, so a belated happy birthday to all my readers and muchas gracias to all of you for checking out the site and seeing what I’ve been posting through the ups and downs of the last twelve months. Granted it has been a bit topsy turvy at times but I have enjoyed the experience and look forward to keeping on casting the eternal emerald gaze of the lantern onto all things relevant. If anyone out there remembers some of my first reviews back in the days they’ll recall that one of my early reviews was on an anime feature called Appleseed…
So what would happen if you took the creative works of manga legend Masamune Shirow, the talents of legendary anime director Shinji Arimaki and fuse them with the expertise and talents of legendary action film director/maker John Woo? You’d get the movie that is Appleseed Ex Machina, the ‘sequel’ to Appleseed which has been directed by Mr Arimaki, based upon the manga of Mr Shirow and produced by John Woo. When this turned up on my doorstep the other day courtesy of both Australian Post and Madman Entertainment I was in a state of, as Big Kev would say, excitement. It was the chance of a lifetime to see a major anime feature directed by one of the big names in anime production as well enjoying the touch of one of the major action film directors/makers in the last thirty odd years, regardless of the whole east and west shtick.
Anyone who loves anime and action flicks could not fail to have some kind of epiphany at hearing of this particular release along with experiencing a certain feeling of expectation. Its been about three years since the original Appleseed release and no doubt fans have been waiting for this movie with baited breath since it was first mooted, would it live up to expectation? Could it make the grade? The interesting feature of the original anime was that it was effectively canned by all those in the ‘know’ and apparently it was something of a cinematic flop. Certainly here in the land down under it was never a major nation wide cinema release with top billing, yet the ‘sequel’ seems to have all the stops pulled out for it and the ‘critics’ appear to be raving about it.
Now I got a hold of my particular copy of the first film, Appleseed, as I have pointed out at the start of this article about twelve months ago, in October of 2007. The new film which was apparently made last year and only released here in Australia this year (2008) I only received a few days ago; and I have to say my feelings towards it are rather ambivalent. Oh sure I am aware of the film pedigree of its primary movers and shakers (Arimaki & Woo) and have sampled previous efforts of their various works, (Appelseed, Mission Impossible 2 etc). This particular effort I do not feel does any justice towards the talents of such legendary filmmakers whatsoever, in fact after sitting through a full showing of the feature in question I had the distinct impression that the whole thing had been sanitized and sweetened for a mainstream Western audience.
Warner Brothers are apparently involved in the production of this particular feature and after watching it I found it somewhat dull in comparison to the original which emerged approximately four years ago. Unlike the original the packaging of this release is very very slick and geared towards attempting to say this is something special, a fact I should have taken note of as soon as it turned up. Comprising of two discs, one on which the feature itself is shown and the other on which there are various extras along with several trailers et al it all looks so very funky and cool, enough to make an anime or manga otaku just salivate in anticipation. The big flaw is that anyone who has a halfway decent knowledge of the whole cyberpunk genre realises that a major influence in said genre is style over substance and the packaging on this baby whether deliberately or otherwise matches this to a tee.
So you have this feature in your hot little hands, you take it out of the box and place it in your DVD player or your computer and what do you get? Well there is no doubt that there is some truly impressive fight sequences, special effects and CGI that would blow your mind to beyond the orbit of the Oort cloud in the extremities of the Solar System. The entire flick could almost be said to be a homage to the action/drama that has made John Woo the name he is in films both in Asian and Western cinema, along with demonstrating the superiority of Japanese animation and the visionary talents of someone like Shinji Arimaki, and naturally without the manga of Mr Shirow their wouldn’t have been a film in the first place.
All very fine and well but at the end of the day all this mutual backslapping between various legendary names in their respective arenas unfortunately only ends up in producing what I consider being a very average anime. Oh sure the action/fight sequences along the computer graphics in this film are fantastic but the story, the actual meat of the movie sucks. That and the fact that even though it is set in the same fictional universe it seems that this feature has nothing in common with its predecessor, as if that film was an aberration that shall never be mentioned again by anyone in the ‘know’. There is even an entire change in voice cast, as far as I can tell, which maybe due to various talent constraints but does tend to put those who have seen the original work out of wack as they watch this feature and ponder why no one sounds the same. Or the fact that the entire setting in which the drama unfolds looks entirely different.
The original Appleseed in my humble opinion had a lot going for it, effects, great fight sequences, an interesting setting and premise along with a great story. Appleseed Ex Machina seems to be as the title suggests nothing more than a ghost of its predecessor. I pretty much had the plot sussed well into the opening stages of the film, after the first major fight sequence in a gothic cathedral in a nameless city somewhere in Europe. You just shouldn’t be able to do that, regardless of the particular type of film that you are watching at any given time. If you can work out what’s going to happen mere moments into a film, then frankly there is a severe failing in the storyline that has been used as the feature’s basis. That is the flaw in Ex Machina, that the way the plot develops and unfolds is so glaringly obvious it’s almost like you are being hit around the head with a wet salmon ala Monty Python’s salmon dance.
Director: Shinji Aramaki.
Script by: Kiyoto Takeuchi.
Producers: John Woo, Terence Chang, Hidenori Ueki, Naoko Watanabe & Joseph Chou.
Starring: Luci Christian (Deunan), David Matranga (Briareos), Illich Guardiola (Tereus), Quentin Haag (Arges), Melissa Davis (Yoshino), Alison Sumrali (Athena), Shelley Calene-Black (Nike), Hilary Haag (Hitomi), Chris Patton (Yoshitsune), Alice Fulks (Xander) & John Gremillion (Kestner).
Produced by: Ex Machina Film Partners & Warner Brothers.
Released by: Madman Entertainment.
The other day I realised belatedly that I’d been going at the Green Lantern now for about a year, so a belated happy birthday to all my readers and muchas gracias to all of you for checking out the site and seeing what I’ve been posting through the ups and downs of the last twelve months. Granted it has been a bit topsy turvy at times but I have enjoyed the experience and look forward to keeping on casting the eternal emerald gaze of the lantern onto all things relevant. If anyone out there remembers some of my first reviews back in the days they’ll recall that one of my early reviews was on an anime feature called Appleseed…
So what would happen if you took the creative works of manga legend Masamune Shirow, the talents of legendary anime director Shinji Arimaki and fuse them with the expertise and talents of legendary action film director/maker John Woo? You’d get the movie that is Appleseed Ex Machina, the ‘sequel’ to Appleseed which has been directed by Mr Arimaki, based upon the manga of Mr Shirow and produced by John Woo. When this turned up on my doorstep the other day courtesy of both Australian Post and Madman Entertainment I was in a state of, as Big Kev would say, excitement. It was the chance of a lifetime to see a major anime feature directed by one of the big names in anime production as well enjoying the touch of one of the major action film directors/makers in the last thirty odd years, regardless of the whole east and west shtick.
Now I got a hold of my particular copy of the first film, Appleseed, as I have pointed out at the start of this article about twelve months ago, in October of 2007. The new film which was apparently made last year and only released here in Australia this year (2008) I only received a few days ago; and I have to say my feelings towards it are rather ambivalent. Oh sure I am aware of the film pedigree of its primary movers and shakers (Arimaki & Woo) and have sampled previous efforts of their various works, (Appelseed, Mission Impossible 2 etc). This particular effort I do not feel does any justice towards the talents of such legendary filmmakers whatsoever, in fact after sitting through a full showing of the feature in question I had the distinct impression that the whole thing had been sanitized and sweetened for a mainstream Western audience.
Warner Brothers are apparently involved in the production of this particular feature and after watching it I found it somewhat dull in comparison to the original which emerged approximately four years ago. Unlike the original the packaging of this release is very very slick and geared towards attempting to say this is something special, a fact I should have taken note of as soon as it turned up. Comprising of two discs, one on which the feature itself is shown and the other on which there are various extras along with several trailers et al it all looks so very funky and cool, enough to make an anime or manga otaku just salivate in anticipation. The big flaw is that anyone who has a halfway decent knowledge of the whole cyberpunk genre realises that a major influence in said genre is style over substance and the packaging on this baby whether deliberately or otherwise matches this to a tee.
So you have this feature in your hot little hands, you take it out of the box and place it in your DVD player or your computer and what do you get? Well there is no doubt that there is some truly impressive fight sequences, special effects and CGI that would blow your mind to beyond the orbit of the Oort cloud in the extremities of the Solar System. The entire flick could almost be said to be a homage to the action/drama that has made John Woo the name he is in films both in Asian and Western cinema, along with demonstrating the superiority of Japanese animation and the visionary talents of someone like Shinji Arimaki, and naturally without the manga of Mr Shirow their wouldn’t have been a film in the first place.
All very fine and well but at the end of the day all this mutual backslapping between various legendary names in their respective arenas unfortunately only ends up in producing what I consider being a very average anime. Oh sure the action/fight sequences along the computer graphics in this film are fantastic but the story, the actual meat of the movie sucks. That and the fact that even though it is set in the same fictional universe it seems that this feature has nothing in common with its predecessor, as if that film was an aberration that shall never be mentioned again by anyone in the ‘know’. There is even an entire change in voice cast, as far as I can tell, which maybe due to various talent constraints but does tend to put those who have seen the original work out of wack as they watch this feature and ponder why no one sounds the same. Or the fact that the entire setting in which the drama unfolds looks entirely different.
The original Appleseed in my humble opinion had a lot going for it, effects, great fight sequences, an interesting setting and premise along with a great story. Appleseed Ex Machina seems to be as the title suggests nothing more than a ghost of its predecessor. I pretty much had the plot sussed well into the opening stages of the film, after the first major fight sequence in a gothic cathedral in a nameless city somewhere in Europe. You just shouldn’t be able to do that, regardless of the particular type of film that you are watching at any given time. If you can work out what’s going to happen mere moments into a film, then frankly there is a severe failing in the storyline that has been used as the feature’s basis. That is the flaw in Ex Machina, that the way the plot develops and unfolds is so glaringly obvious it’s almost like you are being hit around the head with a wet salmon ala Monty Python’s salmon dance.
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