Appleseed

APPLESEED, a 2005 anime film from Shinji Aramaki, suffers from the malady of the tronhead: a focus on the technically achievable at the expense of the actually valuable.

Consequently, APPLESEED looks great. The animation is top-notch, the action sequences both organic and fantastic, the world reasonably complete. However, APPLESEED's story is derivative and uninteresting. Additionally, the voice work, particularly by stars Jennifer Proud and Mia Bradley (who appear to have no other credits), is so squeakily thin and bad that it detracts from the audience's ability to suspend its disbelief.

Here's the story: it's a dystopian future, blah blah blah. A super soldier fights against blah blah blah. She's recruited to join an elite unit that protects a utopian city where all is not what it blah blah blah. There's a Hallmark Card moral and a dull wrapup, and whenever the picture isn't blowing something up or shooting something to bits, it drags more than HOW TO MAKE AN AMERICAN QUILT. Frankly, I just didn't care about this world or the people in it, at least partially because I didn't find anything new there. How many dystopian futures have we seen already? How many betrayals by authority figures? How many generals gone mad?

If the filmmakers had followed the Pixar path of devoting at least as much time to story and character development as to technical execution, they may have had a winner on their hands. As it is, however, they merely have a series of pretty pictures, best viewed with the sound off. Too bad.