I suppose an average score is sufficient for this movie. The story was not bad...it wasn't great, but it was good enough to hold my interest. However it gets a little complex at times; basically, just try to remember that Olympus is a separate city from the rest of the Earth, the latter being ravaged by global war and chaos. As the human race kills itself elsewhere, Olympus survives because of a coexistence with a kind of modified human race called Bioroids, who are like humans only with subdued emotions and renewable life cycles. Meanwhile a computer system named Gaia was designed to monitor both humans and Bioroids, and make decisions for the city based on what is best for both races.

Then you have to remember that the "Appleseed" and the "D-Tank" are the two crucial items for the fate of the city. What each of them does, specifically, is a detail I won't describe here, both because I don't want to spoil anything, and also because I'm not entirely sure I know myself. Then you need to distinguish between the ES.W.A.T., which seems to be some kind of third-party force, the O.R.A., which is the Olympus Regular Army and which is composed entirely of malintentioned humans, the Elders who supposedly interact with Gaia, and a woman named Athena who is apparently the Prime Minister of Olympus, although I didn't even know that until I read it in an online description.

If that's not enough, you'll have to distinguish between the robot soldiers, the android soldiers, the partially robotic cyborg soldiers, and the human soldiers wearing robot armor...and of course the human soldiers in regular clothes, and the Bioroid soldiers in regular clothes. But once you've got that down, you should be ready to go.

Anyway I'll admit that it wasn't as bad as I make it sound...somehow I managed to at least know the gist of what was going on. Also, if "hardcore" scores points with you, you may want to check this out, because there are some pretty cool battle scenes. However, the creators took a big risk by animating this the way they did: that is, using flat-shaded 3D animation. Animators have long sought to achieve the style of 2D with the fluidity and freedom of 3D, but this technique of flat-shading was, in 2004 (and still today), in its infancy, and it shows. The characters in Appleseed will have brief moments of beauty, but spend the rest of the film looking like plastic dolls with terrible lip-synching. The music was pretty bad too, in my humble opinion.

In conclusion I'd say this one is for animation buffs only, simply because there aren't too many films made in this kind of 3D-anime style, and it almost manages to pull it off (although ultimately it fails). Also, like I said, it might be worth it if you get a special kick out of robot fight scenes. But all things considered, I'd say "Appleseed" is nothing special.

If you’re looking for a masterpiece or a work of art, look elsewhere because Appleseed it's not by any chance one of them. Instead it's a really, really good action flick in an unoriginal but interesting post-apocalyptic world, the sci-fi plot moves between the usual machine vs human conflict and ecological message (sort of, since deals mostly with scientific experimentation and genetics). The animation is nicely done, and shines for the art department, since it always gives that illusion of "anime" without actually being 2-D. On the other hand the motion-capture surprise me, since it look more realistic than other more CGI heavy productions, the overall characters and action move really fluently.

So yes, like I said, if you're looking an award winning animation, or complicated character development, simply putting it, you won’t find it here. This is raw action, and I must confess that although the first ten minutes or so are unoriginal and boring, have a little patience and you'll receive and intense and entertaining experience. What truly caught me was the amazing blend of action and the soundtrack, which mostly uses American electronic bands. I was simply amazed by the opening animation, the sound of "Good Luck" (Basement Jaxx) blend perfectly with the futuristic images. And by last minutes I was so excited and nervous that I couldn’t even breathe!!

I now this is kind of shameful, but believe me, if you like sci-fi, anime, or a simply a smart action movie you'll surely like this. It’s that good and possibly that underestimate. If not at least it's worth a rental, since you can't miss with this one.

This is one of those that if I hadn't been watching it for the purposes of profiling and review for Keyframe I don't think I would've watched past the 45 min mark... which is probably a good thing, because the movie improves greatly after the first hour. I think this story would've worked better as a series as the movies opens with a decent fight sequence and then pretty much dies for the next 50 minutes. There's backstory and expositon which is all laid out in a generally blatant and boring way. I think if they could've spread things out more over the course of a series, built up the intrigue and mystery before revealing the big who-done-whatzit... but alas, this is a movie and you really do have to just wait until the better part when things start making sense.

While you are waiting you will likely be distracted by the toonshaded 2D/3D look of the film. In some places--like the opening fight and the big climax at the end--it looks pretty good. In other places--like Prime Minister Athena's character design and some sequences within daylit Olympus--it looks outright ugly. Animation-wise, it's obvious that most of the characters are motion-captured although it isn't the worst mocap I've seen. Some of the facial animation and emotion works, but some of it doesn't... it's better than Final Fantasy but that's not exactly high praise.

I watched the English dub, and you're likely going to end up being rather distracted by the voice acting as well. Everytime Deunan said "Briareos!" in a slightly vapid, longing way--regardless of what happened to be going in the scene--I literally cringed. The only thing that saved the relationship and the only standout voice performance in the film was that of James Lyon who provided the voice for Briareos. In a character with no face, he managed to convey an amazing amount of emotional depth.

Tick. Tick. Tick.

So congratulations... you've reached the one hour mark... the story, which has been vague and all over the map up until now, is starting to gel... the relationship between the leads which you couldn't care less about is actually starting to get interesting... insert a little moral philosophizing and giant robots--this is anime after all--and I'm now paying more attention to the TV than I am to folding my laundry...

And then plot logic kinda all falls apart in the last 5 minutes... sorry.

hey, I did give it 2 stars... what were you expecting? :)