Appleseeed Alpha (2014) Review

My original plan was to do a review of the first Appleseed movie (2004) then Appleseed Ex Machina (2007) then Appleseed Alpha (2014) just doing it in chronological order of the time each movie was released but since Appleseed Alpha is the prequel to both Appleseed and the Ex Machina I've decided to do that first hopefully making it less confusing in term of events timeline. 

I haven't done an anime review in quite a while since I'm mostly caught up doing movie reviews since the year started. So why not do an anime review that is also a movie as well.

Appleseed Alpha is set up to be both a reboot and a prequel to the Appleseed movie or at least I think that's what the idea they were going for. There's just a lot of inconsistencies compared to the film I'm guessing they opted to base this one more on the manga this time around.

The movie is based on the comic book by the same guy that made Ghost in the Shell, The film is about a female soldier named Deunan Knute and her cyborg partner Briareos trying to survive a post apocalyptic world. But now they suddenly have to save this mysterious girl they just met from danger

The film plays more like an episode rather than a movie with story taking the backseat in exchange for some world building and action and unnecessary dialogue. I guess the movie would be great if you're watching it for the first time and haven't watched the first two Appleseed movies that came out before this to compare. The plot just involves Deunan and her partner saving this girl from trouble.

First of the way the dialogue were delivered lacks emotion and as sound robotic as the actual robots in the film. Deunan looks far older than what she looks in the first two films or even compared to the manga itself. Not to mention they move slower.

Visually the film is amazing with photo realistic rendering you won't find anywhere short of a high end video game cut scene. Sadly this visual is greatly limited to just post apocalyptic settings. In fact the action scenes are the best part of this film. The movie is directed by the same director as the first Appleseed, Shinji Aramaki but takes off in a different direction as the first Appleseed film namely the parts about the city of Olympus.

Appleseed Alpha is a good popcorn movie if your fan of Bladerunner with a mix of Madmax and big freaking robots in the mix. It doesn't offer much in terms of plot aside from save the girl from the bad guys type of story but great fight scenes here and there. If your after a little more story then you're better off watching Appleseed and Appleseed Ex Machina which fortunately Ill be reviewing soon as well.