Audience reviews
14 · Sample from the first available page, separate from the total number of ratings.
B2Reviews
There is one thing I can say against Ex Machina; it's not the motion capture style bluescreen recording that it's predecessor was. It's purely CG and character movement can be a little quick and jerky. That's about it. Well that and we didn't get a soundtrack here in the states.
Otherwise we have a well executed Shirow Masamune mecha film with the best duo in the genre: Deunan and Briareos. Like most of the franchise it's not directly attached to any other title except through source material, so it's meant to stand on its own. This also continued the trend for a less humorous and more action oriented Appleseed story, and I ate it up.
Story wise we have a plot to turn the latest tech product against it's customers, for a unique method of zombifying people. But Briareos is a target as wel…
Read at the sourceBurdop
It's basically anime fansl meet gamers in 2007... All of the CGI is very dated and i'm was pretty satisfactory at its time of release, but simply doesn't hold up. What makes up for the lack of interesting character design and quality of the CGI is the background the background atmospheres *are* satisfactory. The story really doesn't do anything for me either, its just feels like another sci-fi save the world robots and viral disease etc plots. It's kind of like if you jammed together a few ideas that would draw interest in gamers and anime fans alike and then just put them there and them just being cool is supposed to be the meat and potatoes of the film; and then make it from 2007... yeah the CGI just looks so terrible, i really cant get over it. Unless you have nostalgia for watching thi…
Read at the sourceluvsdaheat
Prada to the Rescue!
Minor Spoilers!
The story was waaay below par, as were the flat acting of the CGI characters themselves and their expressions. Geez it was like watching a high school play at times! Sorry to say, but it was bad directing I think?
There were some cool "Woo" action scenes that raised my scoring up - but not enough, not enough to bring it past an overall 6/10! They were too short, too choppy and too formulaic. We've come too far, to take steps backwards!
Look, I love a good gun fight - well-executed mass carnage. We didn't get it here. And while much of the movie sucked on so many levels, the clever and sexy use of Prada saved this movie from oblivion, for me. I mean, c'mon! The camera loved those heels! (the dress wasn't too shabby either, am I right?). Prada pulled…
Read at the sourceThe_Magpie
Beautiful AND great visual design AND a nice soundtrack. BUT a rather thin plot plagued by plot holes AND moments of sheer ludicrous stupidity AND formulaic twists and turns. On the upside the writer must be one hell of a Trekkie and general Sci-Fi freak because, get this, the bad guy is essentially The Borg, and the final boss-fight is with a couple of streams of Matrix Sentinels inside a gorgeous levitating Borg Cube, culminating in a showdown with the evil Borg Queen . BUT its very fun to watch. So it gets a 7.
Read at the sourceplaymakerzam
The plot was okay, it was again complex and well made, but not a masterpiece. While the First movie focused on the issues of the co-existence of Humans and Bioroids (Artifical Humans who can't feel anger nor hatred) this time the movie focused on the vulnerability of our cyborg friends through mind control. It was stated by the enemies in the film that mind control can erase individuality which will then eliminate, again "self-will", which is the root of greed, anger and other bad stuff. The show also focused on ethical issues with bioroid again when a new character named Tereus was introduced. Tereus is designed from the DNA of briareos which makes him the mirror image of the human Briareos. Tereus' introduction also stirs up things for the relationship of Deunan and Briareos, specially w…
Read at the sourceformosan
I can tell a show is failing to hold my attention when I pause the video and take a break from watching for a few minutes. This movie looked so good that I paused it several times and rewound the video several seconds just to take a second look at some beautifully depicted landscapes.
The story is shallow but very well-paced. It's not terribly original and the characters are not going to win a Nobel for literature, but the characters are likable and I enjoyed the story as much as I might enjoy a good Hollywood movie. The director is John Woo, so this feels much more like an action movie than a typical anime or sci-fi story.
There is no deep thought involved in the story. There are beautiful visuals and less sci-fi terminology than might be expected. The world does not feel cyberpunkish…
Read at the sourceDefaultmp3
Story: Like Appleseed, the story was relatively standard fare. However, this time, the overall tone and presentation felt much lighter. At the same time, I felt that the story overall was actually quite weak. No plot holes, but at the same time, very little plot twists.
Art: Being much newer CGI than Appleseed, Appleseed Ex Machina looked absolutely dazzling. I have never seen Advent Children (having of never played any FF games, I figured I would be totally lost), I would not know exactly how good it looked compared to that industry standard. However, I liked to think of it as Halo 2 is to Halo 3 in terms of graphics as Appleseed is to Appleseed Ex Machina: the first one looked fine, if not a bit dated, while the second one was a sheer orgy for the eyes.
Sound: I have not yet DLed the…
Read at the sourcedeunan
I am somewhat disappointed. As an action movie it is quite nice, but that's all - somehow.
The story in the end is quite ordinary, and this time i did not recognize some background that you might think about on a philosophical level.
The music is done well. Partially modern, partially like extrapolated into the future.
Oh, the movie was produced by John Woo (director: Shinji Aramaki). Maybe that is the reason why it - in my opinion - turned to the wrong direction ?
Conclusion: Hollywood-like sequel: You can watch it, but it cannot keep up with its prequel.
Read at the sourceDolorDecorus
Having not been a big fan of the first Appleseed Movie (I may have to watch it again to see why I didn't care for it), I was pleasantly surprised by this one. I tend to watch anime and films as entertainment, and as I am easily entertained, unless some film or anime committed some grievous Alian Sin, I tend to like them a lot.
Ex Machina was a good film, not a great film, but a good one and very entertaining.
Story: The story was not particularly strong. I have seen the story and it's subplots plenty of times. I did like how everything seemed to tie into together towards the end, but it was quite simple and no brainer...just like any other action flick bent more on excitement and less than substance. We have the main plot with cyborgs and humans going a bit crazy and acting...well...zom…
Read at the sourcekiriska
I've not seen the original Appleseed, but I've been told the two movies aren't connected at all. Still, not having seen the first meant that I had no idea what to expect for the second...
STORY - The sypnosis given on this website is crap (as is ANN's, since that's where it came from) and the information it highlights has little importance in the movie, Wikipedia's summary is a little better, though still lacking in proper details. I suppose those summaries are sub par in part because the movie's complexity, though. There are actually several smaller subplots interlinking throughout the Ex Machina, and the grand scheme the characters must overcome is not clarified until maybe halfway through. This makes for some interesting crossover between the substories, but it also means that someone…
Read at the sourceSuperBeatBoy
Let me start off by saying im a huge fan of Masamune Shirow, i have been for many years and i continue to be. Now thats out of the way, i'll start the review. Huh hem...
Terrible film. Beyond moronic in its execution, the digital acting is absolutly atrocious, it all comes off terribly cheesy like a midday japanese tv drama. Briarios ducking behind people in a suit at a party to surprise Duenan was beyond hilarious for all the wrong reasons, characters raising arms and biceps in the air shouting out their determination. Made me laugh out loud.
The film which has the legend John Woo producing it, so you would expect alot of crazy action going into it. If i remember correctly theres only about 3
action setpieces in the movie. Story wise, you can predict everything from a long way off. I…
Read at the sourceneotran
As far as I know, this shouldn’t be named Appleseed...
There is no real story; the 15 first minutes are there for nothing. You can even guess all major events 20 mins before watching the scene.
The art is what make cry the most. What happened of the winning cell-shading system? Every character are now made with regular 3d frame with almost no expression except their eyebrow… Some of the character changed so much from the 1rst movie.
For example, who would have told who was Hitomi in the movie if no one told it? And for Nike??? Where the hell is the sexy secretary Nike? I was sure she was one of the bad guys before Athena called her by her name.
As for the sounds, it’s not bad at all. I’m not picky for that as long as you don’t play country music (no offe…
Read at the sourceBeatnik
Mod Edit: This review may contain spoilers.
This film starts off with the most illogical SWAT attack on a building ever, consisting of Deunan just basically throwing herself at the enemy, not a care in the world if she alerts other bad guys either through her bullets blowing crap up or the dispatched baddies not reporting in.
Why are UN diplomats even being held hostage in a cathedral? No explanation given, its all just part of this John Woo produced disastrous attempt at cool posturing. That is all that's on display here, one ridiculous pose after another.
Ex Machina goes through every cliche in the book. Dialogue about a daughter from a secondary grunt character = person who will obviously die later on. A character who appears early on who looks like a ghoul = obvious bad guy revealed…
Read at the sourcepsygremlin
So, which camp does “Ex Machina” fall into? Without a doubt, the “like” crowd. maybe even the “like a great deal” crowd. Possibly even the “lo-”… no, let’s not go there.
So, what’s so good about it? Well, firstly they’ve gone the 100% 3D CGI route,which, as with any technology, just keeps advancing in leaps and bounds, and the imagery used here far surpasses anything else I’ve seen to date. Buildings and backgrounds are captured in magnificent detail (the Gothic cathedral in the opening sequence has to be seen to be believed); lighting and textures are first-rate (well, to art-ignoramus me anyway), the characters are fully integrated into their surroundings (now that I think about it, maybe Appleseed 2004 didn&…
Read at the source