Appleseed (1988)

 

So here we are, watching this old OVA for the first time despite having seen all the other offerings since. The politics and philosophical aspects of the reimagined 'Appleseed' 2004 offering and its sequel, 'Appleseed Ex Machina' which had a Western flavour. And then the prequel to those movies, 'Appleseed Alpha' which had possibly the best CGI. This 88 OVA however, is totally original and is in no way connected to those other three movies. This is where it all started.

Sooo the plot is what you might call, a bit generic, a bit unoriginal, truth be told. As I've probably mentioned in my reviews of the other movies, director Kazuyoshi Katayama clearly took MUCH inspiration from a set of classic American sci-fi movies of the era. It's quite easy to see a lot of influence from movies like 'Blade Runner', 'Aliens, and 'The Terminator' straight off the bat. After WWIII, the powers that be construct a city for humans, cyborgs, and bioroids: the city of Olympus. The bioroids are essentially worker robots that take care of admin duties, civil operations, diplomacy, and governance. Above everything is the supercomputer Gaia, which is like a robotic brain, naturally.

However, not everyone is happy in the city, and one disillusioned cop, Charon, is secretly plotting with a foreign merc cyborg terrorist (whose second mission is to pinch a super flying tank mech thing to deliver to an outside force also intent on destroying Gaia) to destroy the supercomputer Gaia via another bioroid's DNA. This particular bioroid has been encoded with a shutdown override to prevent Gaia from being taken out directly.

The reason? Well, Charon's wife killed herself after growing depressed living within a city where humans had no control. Charon obviously holds the city, and Gaia, responsible. Same for the outside force; they also hate the artificial control and the fact that artificial bioroids control humans. So, it's down to the humble city of Olympus police force to stop all this, or more specifically, ESWAT (Enhanced SWAT or Extra Special Weapons and Tactics). A heavily armed anti-terrorist unit with top operatives Deunan Knute and Briareos, a cyborg with a human brain (I can't pronounce those names either).

Seems like some hypocrisy there though. Charon and the outside military force are all unhappy with genetically engineered bioroids and supercomputer Gaia essentially controlling humans (seems understandable). They refuse to accept artificial life ruling; however, they are quite happy to utilise a cyborg to get their way? One wonders if they would turn on any cyborgs once they gain control back from Gaia.

The basis of the story is a bit basic, which surprised me; this did feel like a bit more of an all-out action affair rather than an insight into the issues of mankind being run by artificial life. The basic building blocks of Asimov are there, but that's as far as it goes. You could almost be forgiven for rooting for the one cop who wants to fight back against the machine; but needless to say, his methods are extreme, and he gets entangled with the wrong people. Obviously , on the other hand, you could ask yourself why any human would want to fight back against a society run by an artificial life system whose entire aim is to make life as easy and pleasant as possible. Classic dilemma, the humans are comfortable, but are they free?

As for the actual anime side of things, well you can tell this is an older feature. The animation is a bit rough but lovely, in that classic Saturday morning kinda way. Think along the lines of those classic 80's kids' action cartoons that had that anime vibe: Bionic 6, Thundercats, Galaxy Rangers etc...Appleseed fits right in amongst these cartoons, but just add some death and blood. I liked it a lot; it has that retro 80's vibe running through it. It looks a bit rough around the edges, but at the same time a bit gritty and more realistic. I love how weapons in anime always look really detailed and accurate to their real-life counterparts. I also loved the unique futuristic designs on the mech suits and augmented humans, a now very classic cyberpunk look that runs through this franchise. The sound effects they use for the weapons are also really kick-ass and meaty, love it. Anime tends to really nail weapons, especially real ones.

For the actual soundtrack, this is something that Japanese anime loses me on. Many anime have such odd choices in music for different scenes. You could have an epic firefight, mech battle, or monster mash, yet in the background you'll hear some dainty, lighthearted tune that is completely wrong for that moment. Either that, or you get some silly jingle, again, straight out of a Saturday morning kids' cartoon. The music can be really hit or miss in anime, if you ask me. So many times something kick-ass is happening, and I'm sitting there thinkin', this would be so much better with a rock tune in the background.

It's strange to say this, but overall, for me, this is one time where an original anime doesn't quite live up to the later remake, sequel, and prequel. Heck, even the CGI is pretty good in those later features. Whilst this is obviously a classic anime that is very enjoyable to watch, I just felt the story wasn't fleshed out as well as the later features. I adore the somewhat janky dated visuals, but this first offering just felt a bit hollow and generic; nothing really jumped off the screen at me. This might be down to the fact that this anime isn't that faithful to the original manga graphic novel. I can't compare the two as I haven't read the original source material. This does kinda feel like a simple 80's action flick, but animated. Not a terrible sounding I know, but I just expected this to be a little deeper.

7/10

Starsky & Hutch (2004)

 

Anyone else remember when the likes of Owen Wilson and Ben Stiller were a thing? An entire series of throwaway movies with the 'Frat Pack'. Wow! Seems like a lifetime ago.

This movie was the perfect distillation of both the movie adaptation trend of the mid 90's to mid 00's, and the continuous use of said Frat Pack. During this time, it seemed like every TV show ever was going to end up with a movie adaptation, whether it was a good idea or not. Often, it wouldn't be a good idea and would lead to awkward issues due to political correctness clashing with old narratives. In turn this would then lead to changes being made, which obviously ruined the nature of the original TV show.

So, did the iconic cops and robbers TV show need a movie adaptation? No, not really. Was taking it down a more comedic route a good option? Actually probably yes, going by the 'Miami Vice' movie. But was it a good idea to go down the more spoof route with Frat Pack actors, rather than try for a proper comedy with a proper story? I would say no, this could have been a decent cop comedy, the spoof/satire element was not required in my opinion.

And here lies the entire problem with this movie. This isn't a movie, this is essentially a collection of comedy sketches cobbled together into a movie. There is no story here; it's virtually a long TV comedy show that aimlessly trundles along from one sketch to another. Now don't get me wrong, the comedy is good, in places, but as a movie this just feels pointless. The thing is, you already know what the gags are gonna be about (if you know the TV show and the era). Sure enough, one of the first gags we get is about Starsky's (Ben Stiller's) perm, because of course.

Once you get past the fact that both Stiller and Wilson do look good as Starsky and Hutch, their attire is spot on, they do look good with the car, and they are able to recreate the 70's vibe nicely, well that's it. Most of the movie is just recreating or homaging scenes from other movies. Admittedly these scenes do look good: the 'Easy Rider' scene, 'Saturday Night Fever', and of course the Ford Gran Torino is perfectly recreated and looks good in every scene. But that is the entire movie, that's all you get. There is nothing much else on offer here. How many times do we see the 70's era spoofed? Hardly original stuff, even when this was made.

If you like the sophomoric slacker-esque comedy style of the Frat Pack movies, Wilson's laidback style, and Stiller's wide-eyed over-the-top madness, then you'll love this (and that counts for all of their movies). Even if you're too young to know about the original TV show, the ease of Stiller and Wilson's comedy will get you past that problem. Although, you might not get some of the references. Bottom line, this entire gag would work wonders as a quick short, sketch, or half-hour show, but as a movie it's just pure padding with a super generic plot. I mean, if you like car porn, then there are some cheap thrills to be had with the Torino, I guess. In time, was Starsky and Hutch ever more than the iconic car? This movie wasn't, the whole thing virtually hinges on that classic vector stripe and a perm.

4/10

Bubblegum Crash (1991)

 

Taking place one year after the events of the original OVA series 'Bubblegum Crisis', we find that the superheroic Knight Sabers have disbanded and gone their separate ways, leaving MegaTokyo at the hands of crime and corruption. But predictably this situation cannot last, so the girls must regroup and get back into the firing line. So essentially, we have three more episodes of more of the same, just a little dumbed down this time.

So the first main difference here is, in 'Crisis' we got eight episodes that ranged in length. This time we get a mere three episodes, but all three are around 50 minutes long. The second main difference is the plot; in Crisis we got eight different stories set in the same time period and locations. Almost like an anthology. Here in 'Crash' the three episodes are just about in continuity and form an entire movie split into three parts. Is this better or worse? Well that depends on you, myself? I prefer the anthology style a little more because there's more scope for different stories and they are more easily digestible.

The first part sees the AD Police in MegaTokyo struggling to combat a team of bank robbers in power suits. The criminals (under instruction of a mastermind) are after special AI components that can make Boomers more Human-like. After seeing how the four main female protagonists have been getting on since splitting, they eventually reunite as the Knight Sabers to battle the threat. The second part sees one of the company's (Zone) researchers go rogue, killing his team and stealing the latest AI technology, 'Adama', a very Human-like Boomer in terms of speech and behaviour. And the third part sees a virus infect all Boomers citywide, causing them to attack Humans. Turns out this virus was unleashed by an old enemy back from the dead.

Now, I'm not a fanboy of this franchise, nor do I know all the ins and outs of the stories, but the original series was clearly much darker and more violent than this follow-up. You could almost say that the original series was simply more adult-themed than this sequel. Now this is not to say that I disliked this sequel series, no Sir, but for whatever reason, this was a much lighter tone overall with less violence and even comedic moments. Admittedly I did find the original series to be a bit too close to certain Hollywood sci-fi movies in terms of visuals and whatnot, but it definitely packed a punch. 

This time around, a lot of the movie feels more like a standard Hollywood action flick with moments of buddy-cop camaraderie. The first and second parts heavily revolve around the rogue group 'the illegal army' who are trying to steal top-secret AI tech. This merely felt like watered-down cops and robbers in mech suits, whereas the actual Boomers in the second part clearly take a lot of influence from 'The Terminator'. It's funny how all the evil Boomers are square-jawed, good-looking, buff guys that look like a mix of Schwarzenegger, Dolph Lundgren, and Michael Biehn. A lot of it feels like 'Universal Soldier' too, but obviously that came a year later.

The second part also introduces the new super AI child-like Boomer Adama, which comes across like something out of a Spielberg movie or a Disney animation (the eyes). At the same time, rogue Zone researcher Dr. Yuri looks suspiciously like Sting at his blonde peak. His huge combat Boomer being another generic spider-like tank (this future isn't overly inventive in the design department). The third part kicks off with the very unoriginal concept of a virus corrupting all Boomers, making them go dangerously insane (minus any actual on-screen bloody violence). Unfortunately, it soon devolves into a massive battle against a huge, highly generic, tentacled, bio-mechanical, cybernetic monster in downtown MegaTokyo. I feel like all sci-fi anime movies have something like this at some point.

Despite these complaints, the movie still looks beautiful. The plot and tone might have taken a dip here but the visuals certainly haven't. Maybe they aren't quite as sharp as the original, but overall the science fiction all looks authentic and super cool. The action is smooth, slick, and puts many live-action offerings to shame. The sound effects are also as good as you have come to expect from anime action. Personally, I love all the gun sound effects, reloading, ricochets, impacts etc...The originality may be lacking but the artwork and animation certainly aren't.

So, in terms of whether this was good or not, yes it is good. Whilst it doesn't have the same tone as the original, I think I actually preferred this sequel in terms of engagement and understanding. Yes this sequel is a bit watered-down, but I just found it a bit easier to get into; the plot didn't feel as in-depth and political, which just made the whole thing chug along more smoothly for me. Although I can't deny that the return of one character felt cheap, his master plan felt Saturday-morning cartoonish, and the resort to body horror with big monsters felt totally out of place when compared to the original Blade Runner-esque scope. Nonetheless, this is most definitely a highly polished science fiction romp with plenty to get your teeth into.

7/10