The post is clearly off-topic.  My apologies if that bugs anyone.  But Shirow is always
popular, and I thought there might be some interest.

I saw the Appleseed movie today.  I'm putting down my thoughts on it.  This will include
a hopefully spoiler free section, and another section that might be spoilerish (but
hopefully nothing noteworthy).

Its probably not an issue with this group, but for the curious, the rating is most
likely due to the first few minutes of the movie, where we see some people get pulped
quite messily (similar to what KOTUS does at the start of vol. 2 of the manga...).

Other than this, it would probably rate a PG-13 at most, for violence (lots of explosives
flying around, not as much blood).

Visually, its a mix of incredible backgrounds and mechanicals (including Briareos),
and decent looking humans (including the usual problems with a CGI generated character
holding a clipboard).  It works even when there are humans on-screen, but the
slicker action by far is found in scenes that do things such as hiding the humans
inside landmates.  And speaking of which, the mechanicals in this movie animate very
nicely.  Deunan's Guges is beauty in motion, flying down a city street after
terrorists.  Briareos is unique in being the only character that always looks good
(it helps if you're a full cyborg in a CGI movie).

And the Spider Gun Platforms...

Words cannot express how indescribably cool these things look.

Aside from setting and background differences (there are a couple of key items that
change things in important ways), the characterizations seem to be spot on from the
manga.  And the military is also a key player in the movie, represented by the
general who heads it, and his aide.  Both, of course, are brand new characters.

My recommendation - if you like action, go see it.  The "slo-mo" effects that were
in the trailer are limited to literally the first few minutes of the movie, and that's
really the only time that any gimmicks of the sort are used.  Likewise, if you're

an Appleseed fan, you should also go see it.  The story is weak at points, but it
does get better later in the movie.  This isn't Innocence, but it does sum up a lot
of what Appleseed is about (even if the dialogue and story are weak at times).

And I've always thought that Appleseed was better than Ghost in the Shell.



And for a little more information...

*minor spoilers - nothing too significant should be found here*



Basic background - A massive global war has led to a basic breakdown in many parts
of society.  A professional soldier named Deunan Knute is retrieved from the ruined
urban wastelands by an E-SWAT team from the utopian city of Olympus.  One member of

the team is the total conversion cyborg, Briareos, who Deunan served with in the past,
and hasn't seen in two years (when he was still completely human).  Another member
of the team is Hitomi, who is not a member of E-SWAT, but will instead be helping

Deunan to settle into a more peaceful life in the city. 

Upon arriving, Deunan is informed that she has been brought to Olympus because she
is a skilled combat specialist, and Olympus needs people like her to help police it.
Olympus is a futuristic utopia of sorts that is designed to help humanity overcome

the problems that lead to wars.  Part of this is accomplished through the fact that
a large proportion of the population is made up of bioroids, cloned beings like Hitomi
that appear human, but are not subject to the full range of human emotions (no
extremes, such as hate, anger, and love), and cannot reproduce (Hitomi explicity says,
"No sex!" which appears to mean that not only are they sterile, but they can't engage
in the physical actions).  But recently, the military, under General Uranus
and Colonel Hades, has been complaining about the bioroids, and it appears that they
might be planning something.  Deunan also keeps running into Briareos, who was also
her lover back when she knew him in the past, but who seems somewhat distant now.

And while Deunan is supposedly only in the city because Olympus wants her help with
the police work, that doesn't explain why people keep trying to kill her.


junior

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