Appleseed Ex Machina Combo HD DVD and Standard DVD [HD DVD]

Customer Reviews

Stunning visuals lacking substance.

2008-07-24
I second many of the reviews here in recommending the high definition version of the film. The visuals are simply amazing. The detail is crisp, and the animation is fluid. Out of all the high definition films I've seen this one impressed me the most with its visual clarity.

The story content of the film is disappointing when compared to the first film or the graphic novels. The story, while more complex than the previous movie, is poorly paced and far too predictable. The plot seems to be more of an excuse to string together the fantasticly over-the-top John Woo action scenes.

Perhaps my expectations were too high. Based on Masemune Shirow's other works, such as Ghost in the Shell and the earlier Appleseed stories, I expected a much deeper and well organized story.

This is a fantastic film to demonstrate the power of HD, but don't expect a huge emotional payoff when the story's over.

I am really impressed

2008-07-24
I purchased this blu-ray a while ago and never watched it till last weekend. And I have to say I am really impressed. The quality is amazing and in FullHD it is a real eyecatch. That is what High Definition stands for.

I enjoyed watching this flick. But as I am not that huge anime expert / fan I cannot tell you if this fits in the Appleseed Universe.

I do not regret buying this disc. But I think rental would have done it as well.....

good animation and music, thin plot and naive dialogue, cool pradas

2008-07-18
you can see john woo's hand prints all over this one. the plot was thin, the characterization shallow, the dialogue naive. nothing like the "ghost in the shell" series. the height of this was when our hero pouted, jumped up and down and left the party almost hysterically and dramatically like a distressed school girl when she found out she had to stick to her new partner even though her old one (so obviously her lover) was up and running again. she was depicted as acting extremely unprofessionally, by assuming that she has the right to be outraged at a change of partner, just because she happens to be in love with him, and therefore suggesting that she potentially will be more than willing to jeopardize any larger goals for as long as she and her lover cum ex-partner can work together. a lot of other scenes could have been made more elegantly, but this was the worst. perhaps many years from now, advance psychological research may found that being emotionally entangled with the person you partner up with professionally is a healthy thing, especially in an extremely high stress profession like our heroes here. but even so, unless it is part of the story that human beings have by then evolved into a highly specialized being, where being a good combat soldier means loosing some of your maturity, or, they are so advanced that our hero is in fact a highly trained ESWAT soldier by the time she was 12 years old, this lover cum war combat partner dynamic was clumsily done, and the whole thing came across awkward and embarrassing.

also, how idiotic is it to traumatized someone by giving her a biological copy of her lover's former body as her professional partner to replace her still-existing-now-machine ailing one when it is widely known in the story that she has an emotional attachment to the latter?? i figured some of the old sciences must have died during all those wars which preceded our story here, one of them must be psychology. and perhaps some of the old political system too, is olympus a democracy? how come national decisions were made by the two women rules alone?

the movie is nothing like its trailer. it is boring to watch a lot of the times.

other than that, it has beautiful animation, great music, and some cool pradas (anime has a habit of dressing their women as elegantly as pole dancers. it is nice to see that prada managed to get involved here. pity fashion can't help the quality of movies. sex and the city anime anyone?)

Exmachina Greatness!!!

2008-07-09
I really loved the storyline and graphics. I'm not going to spoil the movie for you but if you loved the first Appleseed then you will love ExMachina.

Appleseed Rocks!

2008-07-08
This DVD is a sequel to the movie released in 2004 [Appleseed (Widescreen) (2004)] not a remake. This is a "must see" not just for Appleseed fans but for all fans of Japanese Anime. The bonus features are entertaining and informative. Add to cart, you won't regret it. (AliasQTip is a real person, not a paid celebrity.) :D

awesome!

2008-07-05
The next installment in the Appleseed franchise Appleseed: Ex Machinaavailable on DVD! Produced by John Woo and Directed by Shinji Aramakiand featuring next generation CG technology Appleseed: Ex Machina isback bigger and badder!Based on the manga from reknown creator Shirow Masamune in this movieDeunan and Briareos are both partners and lovers. As members of ESWATthe elite forces serving Olympus they are deployed everywhere troublestrikes. The two fighters find their partnership tested in a new way bythe arrival of Tereus who uncannily resembles Briareos before thewartime injuries that led to his becoming a cyborg. At the same timeOlympus finds itself under a stealth attack . Cyborg terrorism deadlynanotech zealots and rioting citizens are just some of the threats thatDeunan must contend with as she fights to save Olympus.System Requirements:Running Time: 104 minutesFormat: DVD HD Genre: SCI-FI/FANTASY/FANTASY Rating: PG-13 UPC: 085391200659 Manufacturer No: 120065

John Woo's greasy fingerprints all over

2008-07-05
Appleseed the original movie (from the early 90's) was great. Appleseed the CG update from a few years back was also great. This sequel is awful. The creative hand-off from Shirow Masamune to John Woo could not have been worse. Woo, you'll remember, gave us such heartwarming tales as "Face/Off" and "Mission Impossible 2". His signature idiom is that violence is *beautiful*. In CGI, that becomes an even MORE flawed premise than it is for live-action film because the constraints imposed by physics are removed. Most directors of anime are content to continue modeling such normal forces as, say, gravity or anatomy. But that apparently gets in the way of Woo's violence-porn story. In the future as envisioned by Woo, EVERY man is a muscle-bound spartan god, EVERY woman is a gorgeous D-cup. Woo is also in love with Matrix-style slow-motion spinarounds, his theory being that if a little of it is good, then gobs'n'gobs of it is better. The film speed slows down so often so we can watch superhuman gymnastics or visible bullet-trails that I wanted to ask the movie if I should get out and push.

Visual problems aside, the story is nothing to write home about. There's some vague use of the idea of human/cyborg tension and the awkwardness of meeting your own clone, but it goes nowhere and is dumped in favor of a villain whose "I'll-rule-the-world!" monologues make Doctor Evil look nuanced and believable. At one point, the villain's lieutenant commits suicide and I ran the DVD back three or four scenes because I couldn't figure out why. But I still couldn't figure it out and I'm pretty convinced that either there's simply no reason for it or else they accidentally edited out whatever reason there was supposed to be for it. Even the hero's dialog jangles like a handful of loose change.

I never thought I'd watch anime that I enjoyed so little as this film.

Good anime, good plot, good film

2008-07-04
A very good new story for the appleseed series. Is good (not excelent) in all the film aspects, but it worth every penny.

Good not great

2008-07-03
The story was pretty interesting, and the action was phenomenal. However, I thought they could have done better with the character animation. Final Fantasy had better animation. Still, the movie is is still worth watching.

Awesome!!!

2008-07-01
This movie was amazing. It's especially great when you see it in HD. Although the format is pretty much done, there's no sense in getting rid of it being how you already spent the money on it. This movie has an awesome story line and is really easy to follow. The ending is fantastic too. I highly recommend this one to anyone.