This movie centers on a Japan that has advanced beyond everyone in the field of robotics to the point where they begin to augment humanity itself. The world worries that such advancement would eventually remove the human soul, a UN resolution is passed forbidding any android technology. In retaliation, Daiwa Heavy Industries, the world leader in supplying robotic technology, convinces Japan to remove itself from the UN and enter a period of isolationism, expelling all foreigners and imposing an electronic shield around the island.
The movie itself takes place many years later, when no one remembers the last time they met with a Japanese citizen. A tip indicating that a Daiwa executive was to be on US soil results in finding that several political leaders have been killed and that a Daiwa executive was the killer. A team is tasked with infiltrating Japan to investigate what is going on. The team is headed by Leon, Vexille and a couple of others serving the role of red shirt security types that give us spectacular death sequences. Leon was the last non-Japanese citizen to be in Japan and left someone behind. Vexille is Leon’s girlfriend and is the protagonist for the film. Once in Japan, they discover just how far the technology has gone, what it has done to the Japanese people, and the insidious plans for globalization.
This is a political allegory about nationalism, how one country sees itself as superior to everyone else, and that cutting itself off from the world at its ultimate expense forces the rest to clean up the mess left behind. Intriguing plotline, but the protagonist to this story is not a strong enough character to be the medium from which to see events. Vexille is too shallow a character in such a rich world filled with more compelling ones that it’s distracting. The story once in Japan fell apart, as the exposition into what it means to be human was more compelling than Vexille’s continued survival, much to the detriment of the film. Add to it what appears to be a step back in technical wizardry from the folks who brought us Appleseed and I simply am disappointed with this entry.
Don’t get me wrong; aside from the problems with animation and broad daylight scenes, it is a decent entry showing off the current animation capabilities. I felt the story fell apart once in Japan, as some logic holes prevented me from enjoying the last third of the movie. See it if there is you want to see something new, but there are better entries in the genre and from this producer.
Ambivalent.
