ANI-MOVIES, *Appleseed Ex Machina

Appleseed was the second of Masamune Shirow's manga that got anime adaptation back in 1988. Shoot ahead to 2004 and Genesis Survivor Gaiarth director Shinji Aramaki took the reins of an all-CGI animated movie remake. Despite the dated cel shading, this Appleseed was successful enough to get a sequel in 2007 by the same studio Digital Frontier. Appleseed Ex Machina had the additional bonus as being the only animated production by action film guru John Woo, and they let you know that at the beginning of the film with a flock of doves. The animation got an upgrade, even though it still maintains that mid-00s 3D which crosses the border between great looking action but uncanny valley.

Taking place two years after the original film, mankind survived a global war by creating huge metropolises made up of not only humans, but cyborgs, and bioroids that are artificially created humanoids with enhanced abilities. One of these cities is Olympus which is threatened by terrorists, so to combat this is the special E-SWAT force, two of its officers are from the last movie, the nimble lady Deunan and her giant cyborg partner Briareos who fought by her side during the war before he lost most of his body. Briareos is taken out of action after a hostage situation, so Deunan is temporarily teamed up with Tereus, a bioroid made from Briareos' natural DNA. So, now there's a slight love triangle going on with Deunan's devotion to her true partner who happens to be a big hunk of metal, and the new guy with the same looks and behavior of the man she knew before his accident. An underground organization called Halcon threatens to destroy Olympus as they planted nanites in the latest mobile devices that mind control its victims. Halcon plans on taking control of the world's satellites to subjugate the planet, so Deunan along with her old and new partner have to launch a Matrix-styled assault on the Halcon headquarters filled with flying robot drones.

Appleseed Ex Machina is a step up for a cyberpunk feature finally bringing some high-octane action to the mix and abandoning the heavy exposition that weighed down the 2004 movie. It's clear that Shinji Aramaki borrowed a little from the Wachowskis when he turned up the volume on the fight scenes, however you still get a gratifying feeling after watching it. The best thing about this movie is that you can see it on its own without seeing the original, in fact it's probably better if you don't. Aramaki followed this up a few years later with a pseudo-prequel titled Appleseed Alpha which was more of a post-apocalyptic flick instead of a cyberpunk thriller, but you could also skip that and just enjoy this one.