Appleseed

[dr_tectonic]

We watched Appleseed last night with bryree. I enjoyed it. The overall shape of it was kind of standard (mecha, bioroid, post-apocalyptic), but it was not overly clichéd -- in fact, now that I think about it, there were a couple things that I predicted as being totally obvious that weren't, in fact, true. And it's a classic, so it can't really be faulted for a little bit of "been there, done that" because of all the things that have copied it.

The animation was CGI, in a kind of cartoonish style for the characters. It worked pretty well. There were some characters that looked kind of artificial, and after a bit we realized that it was mostly likely intentional.

My only real complaint is that I wish they'd been able to integrate some of the big chunks of exposition more smoothly into the action. But I guess that's what happens when you condense four books into a single movie.

(Sidenote: the anime only came out in 2004, but the widely-acclaimed manga it's based on were first published in the mid-80s. I kept getting confused because I first heard of Appleseed ages and ages ago, but it's clearly a very recent movie, so WTF?)

Comments

[toosuto.livejournal.com]

I believe they actually reanimated the film so i is new and is based on the older manga and the older anime as well. I saw the CG version back in November and it made me very much want to revisit both the books and the original film.

[dr-tectonic.livejournal.com]

There's an older version of the anime? I Did Not Know That. That would also explain some of my confusion.

[toosuto.livejournal.com]

I was too lazy to look this up for my first comment.

[drdeleto.livejournal.com]

There must be an older anime. fufachew and I watched Appleseed much earlier than 2004 and since you didn't mention that it had a COMPLETELY INCOMPREHENSIBLE PLOT, I'm guessing you saw a different movie.

[dr-tectonic.livejournal.com]

That might be another factor explaining the large chunks of exposition shoehorned into the action. I remember thinking they were awkward, but they did seem pretty necessary...

[fufachew.livejournal.com]

OMG I totally forgot about that. in fact, I still only have a passing memory of it. Did we watch it in your basement? Why cant I remember that.

Also oddly, I just netflixed it. Just got the 2004 version today. Told myself "self, you never watched this. You should"

So...what was I talking about again?

[drdeleto.livejournal.com]

Yeah, in my basement. Think we watched that, then Grave of the Fireflies.