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REVIEW: Appleseed: Ex Machina

ikillchicken: You're not really being fair, since you forgot to include the FMV from FF7; nor is that the actual art used in most of the game, either.

ikillchicken: You're not really being fair, since you forgot to include the FMV from FF7; nor is that the actual art used in most of the game, either.

Static fingers, muted expressions and 'spottability-of-animation-bones' are all characteristic of Videogame cutscenes due to budget/time/priority issues - these sort of issues clearly don't belong in a feature-length movie.

That's a bigger problem on the American side of CG than the Japanese side, since animators in the latter country care about fluidity, while our animators blow money on realism. For example, that CG teaser for RE: Degeneration I found off Anime Nation looks way more alive than most of Beowulf.

This is really not true at all. American-produced CG films are much more advanced in terms of technique and realism.

I would say there isn't any other country in the world that's producing CG animated films at the level America is, and that's basically always the way it's been.

99 percent of the Japanese-animated CG films I've seen are still using chopped-up framerates as a way to save money;

It looks choppy, cheap, and amateur.

I realize you have some bizarro bone to pick with Beowulf, but if you can honestly look at literally ANY of Pixar's films and tell me that any CG anime has managed to reach that level of pure skill, nuance and technical ability in terms of computer animation,

I can agree with you, if you mean that the technique involves realistic talking cartoon animals. But for genuine atmosphere and emotion, the Japanese have it in the bag.

The Empire Strikes Back did the same thing. What's your point?

The same can be said for Shrek.

Um, actually the Pixar people hate Beowulf, too, and use the same arguments against it as myself. My personal issue with it is it lacks a sense of illusion. [I.E. You can probably tell where they pulled the strings.] And having the skill to paint isn't the same as having the skill to effectively tell a story, which is why the company's desperately mining material from "Doc Holiday" and "Short Circuit"-since they've effectively tapped the "30s cartoon homages in 3-d" well dry.

The Japanese do not have it in the bag, heck, FF7:AC didn't pull it off for atmosphere or emotion in the least. I see far more emotion and atmosphere in Ratatouille and The Incredibles and Monster House than I see in the likes of AC.

Wow, a film over 2 decades old, kudos to you for making a piss poor point as usual.

Shrek was many things, but choppy and cheap and amateur aren't one of them.

I should hope you can tell where they pulled the strings since it was all motion capture

and I should hope you're familiar enough with anatomy to recognize where joints bend,

I also find it funny you point the finger at US companies for rehashing ideas, remaking and using common themes when I could easily argue anime is just as cliche and redundant if not more so than US film.

I love anime so much I can not establish an objective viewpoint regarding US animation. I hate anything produced in the US and think anime and the japanese are infinitely better in every way.

Sure, the Pixar films had brighter color schemes, but AC had a sense of involvement in the situation and setting.

A film which is considered a classic after being over two decades old was my point.

That's your opinion. It was definitely considered sub-par to even Pixar enthusiasts, just like most of the CG films at that company.

Motion capture doesn't always mean "let's drag the image with an arrow" on a computer. Roger Avary was arguing that that kind of thing had been done since Snow White, but the models in Snow White were clearly used as references for the final product, not the final product in themselves. Even I'm going to concede that for Pixar.

At least the Japanese side occasionally tries to do something different with the material, or take it in a new direction. The American side just changes the setting.

You obviously haven't been paying attention to my admiration for people like John K. No, I don't hate anything produced in the U.S., just whatever comes off more corporate than creative.

There's a romantic angle in this one? SWEET! I love the way Deunan and Briareos play off each other as a couple in the manga, and their general lack of emotion toward each other except for those horrifically forced scenes (even though the plot clearly stated they were involved. -eyeroll-) in the first movie annoyed me to no end.

In fact one thing that is annoying me about modern anime is that so many directors/writers/producers feel they need to cram long winded philosophy into their stories. Most of the time it feels out of place and grinds the pacing to a halt. Its nice to get inside a character's head and find out what makes them tick but do we need them to spend ten minutes quoting a "101" level textbook? No. Rambling on and on doesn't make your show smarter or deeper, it does the opposite.

AC had more involvement than the Incredibles and Monsters Inc and the like?

It's easier for people to forgive the low technical merits of something over 20 years old than something that came out yesterday.

So Pixar enthusiasts didn't like the technical merits of a domestic CG fil in direct competition with Pixar? Wow, color me surprised.

But choppy, cheap and amateur? Even taking in to account that it is not as good as what Pixar produces those terms don't really seem to apply.

It's an opinion shared by most who view the industry from an objective point of view rather than "OMG I didn't like the story so it all sucks" or in the way you do; "OMG, an American company was involved so it all sucks!"

Oh yeah, the likes of AC and Appleseed were such incredibly new and innovative concepts.

AC was able to bring a video game into a realistic setting without having to dumb down the special effects or cut out important parts of the story. Appleseed actually incorporated CG mech into the story, instead of just in the background like that Gundam special.
While I wouldn't call that new or innovative, either, it was definitely a step in a new direction for FX.