Appleseed Alpha (2014)

Tied for the best movie I have ever seen

Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

I've been a big fan of Appleseed ever since I first bought the original VHS back when I was 17. The franchise saw reprints of the Manga come and go until the reboot and the 2007 sequel, both of which I also really enjoyed. This particular movie, despite being from the same creative team, is sadly not in continuity with the others and is a "soft retelling" of how Deunan Knute and her rabbit- eared cyborg boyfriend Briareos fought their way through a post-WIII America before arriving in Olympus City. It is by no means bad, but still a bit of a disappointment. I will chalk this up to the fact that Sony have gotten their dirty hands on the franchise since they have a long history of mis-managing pre- existing properties. This instalment honestly feels and looks more like one of the disposable CGI Resident Evil movies than Appleseed. There is a decent atmosphere in the empty cities and quiet, lifeless deserts but it doesn't have the gloss and tech that I am used to from this series. The tech on display here is old and war-scarred, adding a riff of grubbiness to it that I'm not used to. Plus, there's very little to identify with, Deunan seems to be the only pure human with no bio- mech augmentations. I know it's a clichéd criticism to make of such movies, but it did honestly make me feel like I was watching a video game cut-scene. A bit more of the human element would have balanced things out and eliminating that truly, truly, utterly awful soundtrack would have pushed my final score a little higher. The soundtrack was honestly so awful I was disappointed that there was no Japanese track on the Blu-ray. I would have happily read subtitles if it meant the removal of all those terrible hip-hop sounding songs. I don't know what Sony were thinking. I liked the Japanese textures of Appleseed, and their attempts to Westernize it just don't sit well with me as a fan. It's worth watching but definitely the least appealing in the entire series so far.

I'm not too knowledgeable about Appleseed. What I did know is that it's from Japan and that there's a guy running around in a very cool cyborg suit. Enough reasons to watch! The movie left me a weird taste. It's from Japan but overly trying to be American in the story department. An attempt to appeal to the overseas market? Or is it intrinsic to Appleseed since it's origination? I don't know why they chose New York as location. Tokyo would've felt more appropriate for a cyborg with bunny ears. Furthermore the design of the main villains feels really different (read: Western) from the classic Appleseed design of Briarius. Designwise it felt they were from a different movie. It has to be said they look pretty awesome though. Other things gave me flashbacks to legendary video game Metal Gear Solid, like the hidden super weapon, the big elevator leading to it, the design of the sentry robots. Apart from the clichéd plot the characters did feel lifelike enough to sympathize with them. Ultimately it's a movie that mildly entertains but fails to impress apart from the cyborg designs.

Watched #AppleseedAlpha....Basically it's an anime sci-fi action movie.... A guy thing. The animation is so brilliant that sometimes it looks like a filmed movie. The action sequences are good. The characters are very cool with cyborgs, drones and robots. The chief characters are a two humans and three more cyborgs. The weapons are pretty cool and so are the villains....Done saying all that there ain't much after that.... There ain't any sub plot. The main plot I a bit predictable and something we are used to. Over that the second part is full of serous goofs. The kind of goofs we see in sub standard action movies where good guys survive everything,gets new vehicles out of nowhere etc....#watchable....

While the film is fairly entertaining, the story feels very much like a first episode of a series. The characters only go through minor development and the plot seems like a side-track of their lives, leading to the beginning of another journey rather than to an end in itself.The animation of tech, the cyborgs (e.g. Briareos) and landscape are top notch while facial expression of human characters could have used quite some more brushing up. Perhaps the studio should have decided to utilize motion capturing. What is especially annoying is the ever-flowing hair of the female lead Deunan. Where should all this wind come from? In small closed spaces it is most conspicuous but even in the open it seems strange to constantly have that much wind. It could be bearable if the motion of the flowing hair at least would not be so unnatural.