Reviewed by Sam Unsted
Stars the voices of (English version): Luci Christian, David Matranga,
Allison Sumrall, Shelly Calene-Black | Written by Masemune Shirow & Kiyoto Takeuchi
UK certification 12 | UK RRP £19.99 | DVD Region 2 | Runtime 100 minutes | Directed by Shinji Aramaki
It’s 2199 and a non-nuclear war has wiped out half of the Earth’s population, but in its wake has been created Olympia, a utopian society. It is in this utopia that the leaders of this new civilisation have congregated to discuss the issue of creating a worldwide network of security satellites to secure the safety of humanity’s remaining few. We follow Deunan, a member of the ESWAT team of elite police charged with peacekeeping for the summit amid growing chaos in this world. Add to this that Deunan is in a relationship with her part-cyborg partner Briareus, a coupling which is thrown into chaos after Briareus is injured in battle and is replaced by Tereus, grown from the DNA of Briareus and resembling her partner in human form.
If the plot even begins to sound complicated in that description, you likely won’t follow anything that occurs in the latter half of the film. The basic premise and structure is fairly straightforward utopia-as-dystopia sci-fi stock, the main characters finding they are fighting against a megalomaniacal dreamer whose desire to create a utopian society leads to one of our leads becoming a lone fighter against the corruption of humanity. It is stock but it’s a decent story which elevates this film above the normal quality of its anime peers. The love triangle aspect isn’t great but it’s not mawkish or badly-handled so you’ll forgive it for being so utterly out of place with the rest of the story. The general way these films work is to create a stylised and often pretty visually stunning world with blow out action scenes and healthy-helpings of slow-mo that are undermined by an overcooked and convoluted story. This doesn’t have that and it is all the more enjoyable an experience for doing so.
Having praised it for having a plot, it seems churlish to criticise the same thing but this one’s problem is that it has plot coming out of its ears. The story becomes so lost in itself and adds about three more twists than it needs, not killing the enjoyment level but certainly forcing you to have a minor chuckle when just one more layer is added to the conspiracy. The animation is reasonable but when put up against the twin towers of modern animation, Studio Ghibli and Pixar, it can’t keep up. The society they create is straight out of any Philip K Dick story and it all resembles a massively elongated cut scene from a decent sci-fi shooter video game. It’s fine but it fails to capture the gravitas of this future and so renders the story entirely emotionless. As a whole, it will be enjoyable to those already entrenched in the anime world and may attract people who see the potential the medium has for great storytelling when the action is put to the back.
EXTRAS **** Extensive and impressive array of features on the making of the film, mostly from a technical standpoint. It also includes some bits with John Woo, the film’s producer who is homaged a great many times throughout, which are fascinating in places