Appleseed: Ex Machina – Blu-ray Disc Review
February 28, 2008 – 11:29 PM - Posted by: Justin SlussTags: Appleseed, John Woo, Shinji Aramaki, Warner
has an average rating of 6.0 on IMDb
1080p in VC-1 on a 50gb disc
Dolby Digital 5.1 @640kbps
are ALL in HD & worth the watch!
– 
– 2007
– 104 minutes
– Warner
Buy it for $23.95 @ Amazon.com
— Review written by Justin Sluss
The Movie Itself is Produced by John Woo and Directed by Shinji Aramaki. It’s the next installment to the franchise that was last visited in the 2004 Anime film “Appleseed” which Shinji Aramaki also Directed. This whole franchise is based on the widely popular Sci-Fi manga (comic) from Masamune Shirow who is also responsible for “Ghost in the the Shell.” The story is a continuation of the film “Appleseed” as I mentioned earlier so for those not familiar with it (like myself), I’ll tell you what the story involves and such. This follows the lives of two partners and lovers, one who’s human and one who’s a cyborg.
“Deunan” is a beautiful young lady and her partner (lover) “Briareos” is now a cyborg due to wartime injuries he suffered in the first film. Our two leading characters work with “ESWAT,” the elite forces serving what is known as “Olympus” where they call home. The two partners find themselves at a test as Briareos suffers another injury leaving him “off duty” for a while (so-to-speak), long enough for a new character to come along named “Tereus” who bears a very striking resemblance to Briareos before he sustained his first injuries that left him as a cyborg.
Tereus is assigned to be Duenan‘s new partner while Briareos is injured. She too (just like viewers of the first film I guess) immediately begins to notice the similarities in his physical appearance to Briareos before his injuries that left him in cyborg form. We immediately find out that’s because he was biologically engineered after Briareos by the ESWAT. This new type of creation is called a “Bioroid” which I guess is believable considering the date is supposed to be like 2133 or something. With all this to take in, we’re given a pretty weird main plot but here goes. Our main characters must fight to save the “Eden” of sorts that it is their home, “Olympus” from an attack by cyborg terrorism. The cyborg terrorism attacks kind of resemble zombie attacks only because it uses a device like an “iPod” or something in the future that a large majority of the people have on them most of the time to induce mind control. Yes, mind control. Hey it’s hundreds of years in the future, don’t question it!
This has a somewhat decent story to it in ways and obviously some great action scenes in it thanks to the Producer John Woo so it proves to be worth a watch to fans of both his work and/or “Anime” films. It’s not really the best film I’ve ever seen in this genre but it does have some nice points to it, namely the visual style which I’ll begin to discuss below.
Video Quality on this release is 1080p in VC-1 on a BD-50 (50 gigabyte Dual-Layered) Blu-ray Disc. First off being an “Anime” film done in CG computer animation with some motion capture elements this isn’t your average “old school Anime” it’s got a whole new futuristic look to it with the animation style. I personally never saw the original “Appleseed” which this is a continuation to but I have seen some footage of it and this is really a major improvement visually. It’s not quite what I’d call “EYE CANDY” in Hi-Def but it does look very nice. The color palette is really vibrant as you’d expect, very solid black level which leads to a somewhat crisp presentation.
The lines at times seem really defined with good amount detail but in some darker scenes do feel just a bit soft at times. Overall though nothing really worth complaining about here. This looks good, it didn’t jump right off the screen at me or anything but it scores a very impressive “4 ½ Star Rating” for video quality which isn’t anything to frown upon. This is sure to please the fans and (for example in my case) help make new fans with a very nice High Definition visual presentation from Warner Brothers.
Audio Quality on this release is sadly only in Dolby Digital 5.1 @640kbps. I have no clue why Warner lately hasn’t opted for newer audio formats like Dolby TrueHD or Uncompressed PCM for example. This does however manage to do the trick and really get the job done, so-to-speak. Right off the start you’ll notice a really good rear channel presence and great amount of LFE with bass that sure to shake the room with the opening credits. The music used in the film is delivered wonderfully and really helps set the vibe. The dialogue is delivered perfectly clear on the English 5.1 track. The sound effects such as gunfire, explosions and such all sound pretty lifelike and very much work accompanying the film. This deserves a “4 Star Rating” overall for audio quality and it’s a shame that Warner didn’t opt for TrueHD or PCM. I’d probably rated that slightly better but no real complaints here.
Bonus Materials are presented in HD (both 1080i & 1080p) video with Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo sound.
- Audio Commentary with the Filmmaker (Director Shinji Aramaki)
- “Team Up: John Woo and Shinji Aramaki” (16 minutes) takes a look at the collaboration between the “Action Movie Master” and a “Legend in the Anime Word” as they share their vision for the “Appleseed” series.
- “Revolution: Animating Ex Machina” (19 minutes) takes a look at the new technology used in this different style of CG “Anime” film.
- “The Appleseed Chronicles” (20 minutes) is a documentary of sorts on the history of this Anime phenomenon.
- “East Meets West” (19 minutes) takes a look at how the Anime phenomenon as it’s referred to has made fans now in both cultures. Even in our United States a new fascination with Japanese culture has started over the past few decades.
Overall these bonus materials are really impressive in terms of video quality (ALL being in HD) and also very lengthy. No complaints here in the slightest bit, it’s just I’m not the world’s biggest Anime fan. I will say however this really does prove worth the watch if you enjoyed the film. Great effort on bonus materials from Warner Brothers, easily worthy of a “3 Star Rating” or maybe perhaps more to a bigger Anime fan.
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