In a world torn apart by a devastating Global War, two
soldiers continue a seemingly eternal struggle to survive. They are Deunan Knute, one of the best of the
best; and Briareos Hacatonchires, an advanced Cyborg with exceptional
capabilities. Deunan dreams of traveling
to they whispered city of Olympus. But
she and Briareos appear to be slaves to the wasteland and those who will pay
them enough to live to fight another day.
Then, one day, the pair come across another lost duo on a secret
mission. With a deadly army in hot
pursuit, Deunan and Briareos steel themselves for the battle of their
lives. The price of failure is
death. The price of victory…a slim
chance at paradise.
As you may have guessed, not only is Appleseed Alpha a
prequel story, it’s also a sort of alternate telling. The big give away to this is Briareos, who we
learned in the prior two films didn’t become a full Cyborg until after he got
to Olympus. On the one hand, it doesn’t
make sense to not stay in continuity with Appleseed and Appleseed: Ex Machina
(though both films can be watched without the other for context really). On the other, there’s no way you’re doing an
Appleseed movie of any kind without your two leads in the way we’ve always seen
them presented. So no, no flesh and
blood Human Briareos. In spite of this,
I’m surprised Appleseed Alpha works as well as it does, even if it finishes the
trilogy having learned nothing from core criticisms plaguing each of the three
films.
I must say right away: this is easily the best looking of
the Appleseed Trilogy. Released in 2014,
ten years after the first film, Appleseed Alpha’s visuals feel like the epitome
of Shinji Aramaki’s vision, how he always wanted these movies to look. Gone are the cel shaded CG, replaced with
photo realistic CG that makes Appleseed Alpha look pretty damn close to a live
action movie at times. Of course, the
proper point to judge the visuals of an Appleseed film is Deunan and wow she
has never looked so real. I’m not sure
if character design with it’s my favorite Deunan. But this is as close to a flesh and blood
representation of Appleseed’s gorgeous poster girl so its pretty
impressive. Taking place in the
wastelands of the old world (to be more precise in and around New York City),
Appleseed Alpha’s visuals do a good job of brining a post apocalyptic landscape
to life. Everything is rugged and
decayed or even worse than that. Run
down vehicles, decrepit buildings, the kind of setting you’d get from Mad Max
or Terminator Salvation is all here.
That said, this film is gorgeous, no complaints there at all.
As for our leading duo, this is a very different version
of Deunan and Briareos we’ve seen and yet theyre stronger than ever on screen
together. Their character models tell
you all you need to know right off the bat.
While Deunan can look amazing no matter the dirt and dust, Briareos
shows plenty of wear and tear. He’s not
the shiny model we’ve seen in the previous two films and his visual state
echoes his mental condition. Deunan is
clinging to hope that she and Briareos can eventually find Olympus and start a
new life while Briareos is just focused on what happens from moment to moment,
trying to keep himself running and keeping the woman he loves alive. Yet, the two still have solid banter and compliment
each others attitudes perfectly with Deunan’s smart ass optimism and Briareos’
dry realism. After the first movie
basically sidelined their personal stories to build the world and Ex Machina
threw in the added wrench of Tereus, I’m happy to say that Appleseed Alpha has
officially given me my favorite versions of Deunan and Briareos.
While the setting looks pretty and Deunan and Briareos
shine in the wasteland, Appleseed Alpha continues the trilogies trend of
delivering less than compelling stories.
Much like Ex Machina, Alpha’s tale of survival and search for hope is
nothing we haven’t seen before but is only kept going by the lead duo we know
and love by now. Even as the shortest of
the three movies, Alpha seems content on going as light on proper story as
possible in favor of getting from one action sequence to the next as quickly as
possible. Character moments that work
for Deunan and Briareos in between are all well and good. But there’s no overall gripping narrative for
them to latch onto and much like Ex Machina, the end tale is something we
haven’t already seen in a great many other scifi stories. And don’t worry about the big bad who needs
to be taken down, Talos. There’s so
little depth to his character that even he feels as disposable as the rest of
his cronies, who are all basically just cannon fodder for Deunan and Briareos
to take down. Thankfully, Appleseed
Alpha gives us one wild card antagonist in Two Horns, a Warlord in New York
with a lot of fun personality who acts as both enemy and ally to Deunan and
Briareos throughout the film.
Oddly enough, despite the obvious change to the
backstory, Appleseed Alpha works best when it just focuses on Deunan and
Briareos and the action scenes (though they do lack the stylistic touch of John
Woo that made Ex Machina’s so memorable).
If you’re looking for something super deep or incredibly clever, sorry,
this isn’t the Anime film you’re looking for (guess you could say the same
about the other two films as well). As a
final chapter in the trilogy, Appleseed Alpha goes all in on what worked in Ex
Machina and continues the evolution of the CG animation style to give us one
helluva good looking film. Just wish the
story could match its majestic visual flair.
Who knows, maybe the Appleseed XIII TV Series finally got that right.
6/10
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