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Official Synopsis:
John Woo and Shinji Aramaki merge talents to create a futuristic thriller adapted from the popular Japanese manga series by Shirow Masamune (Ghost In The Shell). Special Forces soldiers Deunan, Briareos and Tereus battle to preserve peace in the city nation of Olympus, until a stealth attack by zealots turns the city into a perilous war zone. With revolutionary computer generated technology, breathtaking action and rich storytelling, this fantastic adventure pits man against machine in a battle for survival!
Our Take:
Animated films, when executed properly, have the best action sequences in any kind of film. There is no competition for them, as they can be perfectly designed and constructed in ways that live action movies only wish they could achieve. The 2004 CGI Appleseed is a perfect example of this and now we have its sequel, Appleseed: Ex Machina, which blows its predecessor away.
The first Appleseed film had all the action anyone could wish for but in Ex Machina, we have all that plus some amazing characterization. Really, at its core, this film is a buddy cop film except that it’s set in the future, has a robot as the buddy cop partner, and kicks an infinitely bigger amount of ass.
John Woo has handily slapped his name onto Ex Machina, which will undoubtedly sell more copies of the DVD, but to me it feels like that’s all his name is doing. He saw the first movie, loved it, and wanted in on its sequel. As anything special in filmmaking, Woo has pretty much been cleaned out of creativity and while this film employs techniques that he more or less made famous, I don’t think he had any real input on this one.
There is a rocking two-disc special edition of this set, but unfortunately we only received a copy of the single disc release. But for all you big time collectors out there, I know Best Buy has this in a steelbook case.
Special features for the single-disc set include:
* Team-Up: John Woo and Shinja Aramaki (16 minutes) – An in-depth making-of that touches upon exactly what John Woo’s part in the creation of the film was.
* Revolution: Animating Ex Machina (18 minutes).
* Commentary – Featuring Jerry Beck (Cartoonbrew.com) and Joseph Chou (producer).
Even if you missed out on the first CGI Appleseed, I’m going to go ahead and recommend you watch Appleseed: Ex Machina anyways. There is a lot of history to this story and all the comic material but don’t let that daunt you. Jump into Appleseed world here and now with this breathtaking new CGI film.
Overall Picture:
Movie: A
DVD: B
- Landen Chase Pelish
Staff Writer
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