The Thrasher's Word
Appleseed
Format: Movie (105 minutes)
Genre: Science-fiction, Cyberpunk
Studio: Geneon
Director: Shinji Aramaki
For those of you who are reading this from across the pond, allow me to bring you up to speed on a particular aspect of life in the UK. The anime scene over here is generally pretty lamentable. We here only just recently got a TV channel dedicated to anime (and at present, its selection of shows pretty much sucks), DVDs are hard to come by and preposterously expensive, and, speaking from personal experience, even the individuals most adept in our beloved subculture are scarcely aware of anything beyond the usual DBZ/Naruto/Bleach shounen nonsense. Why is this? I don’t know; maybe we’re just xenophobic as a nation – The Sun is our best selling national newspaper, for Christ’s sake – or maybe it’s our misguided aspirations to the dignified and the high-brow leading us to refute anything animated as culturally valid. Either way, there it is.
Why do I bring this up? Because once again, in keeping with our being behind our cousins in the US, “Appleseed: Ex Machina” isn’t getting a domestic release here until June 2nd, fully three months behind you lucky arseholes, and nine months behind the Japanese. Really, there’s no reason for it, but it’s the way it is, so while we’re waiting, I suppose now would make a good time to take a step back and review that little object of CGI wizardry, 2004’s “Appleseed.”
Shinji Aramaki’s “Appleseed” actually marks the second iteration of Masamune Shirow’s classic manga series, the first being an ill-fated OVA from 1989; though I haven’t seen it, I’m told it hasn’t aged well. The story though, remains much the same. The year is 2131, and Deunan Knute (‘cause y’know, women have names like that in the future and all) is a soldier fighting in World War III; a war which has left the planet devastated, lost any significance or purpose, and – cheekiest of all – has actually been over for several months without her realising it due to a breakdown of communication. After a blistering opening battle scene, she’s tracked down at last by an organisation called E-SWAT, who take her to the newly constructed political centre of the world, the utopian Olympus. Olympus is managed by an enormous computer network named Gaia, and half of its population are genetically engineered “bioroids,” put in place to keep the humans contented and under control. It’s not exactly the sort of thing your local council would set up. Here, Deunan is reunited with her old flame, Briareos… except he’s now a cyborg, having been mortally wounded in an earlier battle. Other than that, life’s pretty peachy. But of course, all is not well in Olympus. Tensions are rising, the balance is being threatened, and it’s up to Deunan and Briareos to meet the threat before Something Bad happens. And so they do.
On the level of a pure action flick, Appleseed is a resounding success; the action scenes offer just about everything you could conceivably ask for. Explosions, cyborg ninjas, explosions, guns, explosions, acrobatics, explosions, gratuitous overuse of bullet-time, explosions… and that’s without even involving the climatic fifteen-odd minutes, which mark possibly the only example I’ve come across of an anime attempting a battle scene on the scale and scope of something like the “Lord of the Rings” films and actually pulling it off. It’s breathtaking, it really is, with “Karas” being possibly its only superior. At her best, Deunan is an ass-kicking babe in the true Lara Croft tradition, and watching her kick ass is a glorious spectacle to see unfold. I’ll say the same thing here that I did for “Karas;” watch it on a big screen, up loud with the lights off, and just try coming out without a smile on your face.
“Appleseed’s” problems begin in those oh-so-awkward spaces between the scenes of pyrotechnic magic. On one level, I have to give Geneon credit; they could have simply stuck in an arbitrary semblance of a story as a springboard for their sensational sorcery of CGI (much like I’m using this sentence as a springboard for my powers of alliteration), but what we get instead is actually very involved. In fact, it may well prove a little too involved for some viewers; when I wrote the phrase “Something Bad” earlier, the capitalisation wasn’t meant as a facetious jibe; it was a mechanism to get out of writing another twelve paragraphs of plot recap, because that’s what it would require. Betrayals, ulterior motives, forgotten pasts, power plays… it’s all there, spiced up with just a little bit of rudimentary philosophy and mythological references. The story would actually make for very compelling viewing, were it not for two fundamental flaws that cripple it somewhat.
Flaw #1: “Appleseed” breaks the cardinal storytelling rule of “show, don’t tell.” If you thought my relaying of the premise earlier was wordy, then strap yourself in, brother, ‘cause you ain’t seen nothin’ yet. There are stretches in “Appleseed” of literally five to ten minutes of nothing but exposition, digging up the nuances and motives behind every double bluff and forgotten past. There’s one particular scene on top of an oil rig, and bloody hell, it’s like being back in front of “The Matrix: Revolutions,” watching Trinity die. Before long, one finds oneself squirming in one’s seat, longing to get to the next fight scene. Somewhere along the lines, I can only assume “Appleseed’s” writers forgot that they only had 105 minutes; a film composed of little but action and exposition leaves little room for emotional attachment.
And that leads me nicely to Flaw #2: Deunan and Briareos simply don’t provoke the empathy which is clearly expected of the viewer. Deunan excels as an ass-kicking babe, but as a fragile, human, multi-faceted heroine, she’s left sorely wanting. Unfortunately, the writers don’t seem to realise this, and the scenes depicting her as a child and the nature of her love for Briareos just end up leaving the viewer nonplussed. She doesn’t really have any distinguishable character traits beyond being a great fighter, and so there’s nothing for us to connect with. The fact that seiyuu Ai Kobayashi puts out a strong performance with the script she’s given, aided by motion capture technology, is only a slight compensation.
This problem isn’t helped by the film’s visual style. Now don’t get me wrong; I’m under no illusions as to “Appleseed’s” significance as technical achievement; correct me if I’m wrong, but I believe it’s the first anime to use full 3D visuals rather than the presently popular juxtaposition of 2D and 3D, and some of the spectacles it presents are vertigo-inducing. The problem lies with the character models; they’re… well, remember that Halloween episode of “The Simpsons” when Homer and Bart inadvertently made the transition to 3D. Remember how their geometric features, expressive and charming in 2D, were rendered superficial and unconvincing when given physical depth? “Appleseed’s” characters have the same problem. Their traditional anime aesthetics, the saucer-sized eyes and stylus-sharp noses, just look out of place in a 3D context. By far the worst offender here is Briareos, his two artificial ears making him resemble nothing so much as a hulking, metallic Bugs Bunny, robbing the scene where Deunan cradles him, wounded, in her arms, of any credibility whatsoever.
But perhaps I’m being too critical here. As has already been established, “Appleseed” is a triumph in terms of sheer action, and merits being seen on those grounds if no others. If you go to see it with limited expectations, in the knowledge that there are aspects which are handled clumsily, then you’ll still emerge happy in spite of “Appleseed’s” flaws. Myself, I certainly found myself involved enough that I intend to bring you the review of “Appleseed: Ex Machina” when it finally deigns to hit UK shores. And with Paul Oakenfold and Basement Jaxx on board, at least it’s got a pumping soundtrack, eh?
LAA Rating: **1/2
Rating System:
* - Horrible
*1/2 – Very Bad
** - Bad
**1/2 – Good
*** - Very Good
***1/2 – Excellent
**** - Masterpiece
