| Appleseed: Ex Machina | |
|---|---|
Japanese promotional poster |
|
| Directed by | Shinji Aramaki |
| Produced by | John Woo |
| Screenplay by | Kiyoto Takeuchi |
| Based on | Appleseed by Masamune Shirow |
| Starring | Ai Kobayashi Kōichi Yamadera Gara Takashima Yūji Kishi Miyuki Sawashiro |
| Music by | Haruomi Hosono Tetsuya Takahashi |
| Studio | Micott & Basara Toei Company Takara Tomy Sega TYO Digital Frontier Toei Video |
| Distributed by | Toei Company |
| Release date(s) | October 19, 2007 |
| Running time | 105 minutes |
| Country | Japan |
| Language | Japanese |
| Budget | $30 million |
Appleseed Ex Machina is a 2007 Japanese animated CG film and is the sequel to the 2004 Appleseed film, similarly directed by Shinji Aramaki, and was produced by Hong Kong director and producer John Woo.[1] It was released on October 20, 2007 in Japan and made its American premiere at the Jules Verne Adventures Film Festival in Los Angeles on December 15, 2007.[2] The MPAA has Appleseed Ex Machina rated PG-13 for action/violence and brief strong language,[3] though the first film was rated R for some violence. It was released in North America by Warner Bros. Pictures on March 11, 2008, for DVD and Blu-Ray, and released for HD DVD on April 1, 2008. It was released in Europe on May 30, 2008 on DVD, with HMV releasing a 2-disc DVD special edition box set in Ireland and the UK, while Blu-Ray edition was released on June 2, 2008. In July 2008, the film was released theatrically in Australia as part of an anime film festival screening known as REEL ANIME hosted by Madman Entertainment, however it was the Japanese version. The film was shown theatrically along with other films such as Vexille and The Girl Who Leapt Through Time in various selected cinemas throughout the country. The film was released on DVD in Australia in September 2008.
Contents |
Some time after the events of the Appleseed incident, ES.W.A.T, with members Deunan Knute and Briareos Hecatonchires, infiltrate a cathedral somewhere outside of Olympus. Inside the cathedral, a terrorist group of cyborgs have taken top-ranking EU officials as hostages. ES.W.A.T skillfully manages to secure the hostages and eliminate the cyborgs, but upon interrogation of one of the damaged ones, it self-destructs. Briareos shields Deunan from the blast, but he is damaged doing so. Shortly afterwards, they return to Olympus, where Briareos is confined to a hospital until he recovers and his partner Deunan continues ES.W.A.T work. On one assignment, she deals with a recently-fired construction worker on a rampage in his Landmate. An ES.W.A.T squad arrives just as Deunan triggers the kill-switch on the Landmate. Commander Lance introduces Deunan to her new partner, Tereus. Although uninterested at first, Deunan is shocked when Tereus exits his Landmate to reveal that he looks remarkably like pre-Cyborg Briareos.
Deunan confronts Lance for an explanation and is given a tour of the new Bioroid Production Facility (built to replace the one destroyed in Appleseed). During the tour, Hitomi, a bioroid that Deunan befriended during those events, is mentioned to now be a minister of political affairs. Here it is shown that Tereus is actually a Bioroid; a prototype for a whole new production line of Bioroids to be soldiers without negative emotions to impact their judgment in fighting. As his physical and mental strength was found to be most desirable in ES.W.A.T, Briareos's DNA was used mostly in Tereus's design. Reluctantly, Deunan is partnered up with Tereus to evaluate his performance. While departing, Deunan encounters Hitomi and is given a ride home by her. Deunan notices that many Olympus citizens are wearing Connexus, a mobile communications device which clips to the ears and projects holographic data over the eyes.
Deunan, Lance and Hitomi visit Briareos, still recovering in hospital. Lance reveals that four of the last five terrorist incidents have been perpetrated by groups of cyborgs, with signals transmitted from surrounding locations, suggesting that digitally vulnerable cyborgs are actually being manipulated to perform these acts. Yoshino, an emissary from the multinational industrial conglomerate Poseidon, is sent to speak with Athena, the Prime Minister of Olympus. The emissary denies Poseidon's blame, but Olympus still boycotts them, which Poseidon finds undesirable as other world powers may follow suit.
Meanwhile, at Hitomi's birthday party, Deunan is surprised to find Briareos is in attendance and has fully recovered from the blast at the cathedral. Briareos and Tereus have an uncomfortable first meeting, but the two accept each other. Commander Lance reveals that, even though Briareos has recovered, Deunan and Tereus will remain partners. Briareos accepts Tereus's new partnership with Deunan and has found Aeacus to partner with, which upsets Deunan. She storms off, but is eventually joined by Tereus. Tereus asks Deunan to remain his partner for a little while longer. Deunan asks him to leave. Tereus displays many of Briareos's personality traits, which, by Deunan's own admission, makes her feel "confused" when they're together. Tereus says, "So do I" and leaves.
The next day, Aeacus puts on an impressive display at the shooting range, only to be topped by Braireos. Briareos explains that, what was a hundred-armed giant in Greek mythology, a Hecatonchire is now a system which controls "multiple external networks." Aeacus states that Briareos was the only one who could adapt to so-called "H-class machine body." Briareos notices some "jewelry" on Aeacus's ears. Aeacus explains he's wearing the Connexus his daughter gave him, which matches the one she wears.
Later, Prime Minister Athena heads a meeting of the Global Security Council at the International Conference Center in Olympus. ES.W.A.T and the police forces sets up barricades around the conference center. An unknown person overlooks the conference center from a distance as a flock of doves fly by. Athena proposes a global security network by merging all the satellites worldwide to prevent terrorist attacks before they happen. Additionally, the Prime Minister urges that Olympus should be in control of the global satellite network, which causes the council to erupt into argument. At ES.W.A.T HQ, an unknown signal is detected. Soon enough, an assault on the conference begins. Deunan defeats a construction Landmate and reveals the pilot is a man, not a cyborg, much to the confusion of ES.W.A.T and the police. Deunan notices the man is wearing a Connexus. Meanwhile, Aeacus kills an engineer in an ES.W.A.T ship, saying "We will all be one, I am Halcon." Then, Aeacus destroys the ship and escapes in a Landmate. Briareos notices this and tries to stop Aeacus. The exploding ship disrupts the conference. Prime Minister Athena calms the assembly of world leaders and convinces them not to leave the fortified conference hall. The battle between Briareos and Aeacus causes a further panic in the conference hall, which Athena responds to by challenging the attendees to vote for the proposed satellite defense system, using the current attacks as evidence of its need. Briareos kills Aeacus in battle. As Deunan and Tereus arrive, Tereus discovers the unknown signal was coming from robotic doves. Immediately, the unknown signal disappears, and the attackers collapse. A funeral is held for Aeacus sometime later.
At the same time all the satellites are joined, Briareos is nearly run down by an unmanned vehicle. He stops it but sudden goes berserk and hacks into a public terminal, crashing the main satellite control, forcing Olympus to switch to a backup. Briareos is hospitalized, with the unknown signal ruled out as the cause of his outburst. Briareos gets suspicious of his cyborg doctor, Richard Kestner, who operated on him after his accident. He has Hitomi look up his files, learning that Kestner once worked with Poseidon's Halcon Laboratories but all records of his project are mysteriously erased. Briaereos breaks out and tracks down Kestner, who confesses that he is part of a plan to "unify" humanity through erasing individuality, which he attributes to the source of human conflict. He then reveals that he secretly injected Briareos with nanites designed to take control of his body when his adrenaline heats up. Kestner then commits suicide before the police arrive, making them think that Briareos killed him. Briareos escapes, before being cornered by Tereus. Deunan arrives just on scene with an antidote designed to suppress the nanites.
Unfortunately, the virus Kestner placed in the backup network takes control of the satellites and through them all people linked to the Connexus, having them riot against Olympus. Believing that Poseidon knows something about all this, Briareos, Tereus and Deunan track down a Poseidon convoy to learn about Halcon. As they discover, Halcon was once the leading scientific laboratory until they started mind control experiments, which Poseidon was forced to end when the project lead Elizabeth Xander was killed in an accident. Poseidon assists the ES.W.A.T officers in infiltrating the fortress where the Halcon signal is transmitting. Once they are in the control center, they discover that Xander was resurrected as cyborg to control all those linked to the Connexus. After destroying her, freeing all the enthralled, they escape the collapsing fortress and return to Olympus.
The English version dub was produced at Amusement Park Media in Houston, Texas. The cast were made up of actors from ADV Films.
| Role | Japanese voice actor | English voice actor |
|---|---|---|
| Deunan Knute | Ai Kobayashi | Luci Christian |
| Briareos Hecatonchires | Kōichi Yamadera | David Matranga |
| Tereus | Yūji Kishi | Illich Guardiola |
| Athena | Gara Takashima | Allison L. Sumrall |
| Nike | Rei Igarashi | Shelley Calene-Black |
| Hitomi | Miyuki Sawashiro | Hilary Haag |
| Commander Lance | Shinpachi Tsuji | Chris Hutchison |
| Manuel Aeacus | Kong Kuwata | Mike MacRae |
| Dr. Riharuto Kestner | Takaya Hashi | John Gremillion |
| Yoshino | Rika Fukami | Melissa Davis |
| Arges | Takaya Kuroda | Quentin Haag |
| Dr. Xander | Naoko Kouda | Alice Fulks |
| Yoshitsune | Yasuyuki Kase | Chris Patton |
| Role | Mocap actor |
|---|---|
| Deunan Knute | Toyoe Sekita |
| Briareos Hecatonchires | Moki Ogawa |
| Tereus | Yoshiyuki Kamata |
| Manuel Aeacus | Taisuke Nishimura |
| Commander Lance | Michihiko Kuwagaki |
| Athena | Miyoko Hanai |
| Nike | Hideka Suzuki |
| Yoshino | Junko Hiratsuka |
| Dr. Riharuto Kestner | Inaho Miyazaki |
| Hitomi | Naoko Ito |
| Yoshitsune | PEPE |
| Aeacus' son | Tomoki Mure |
In this film, two of Deunan's costumes were designed by Italian fashion designer Miuccia Prada.[4][5] Prada was apparently already a fan of the first Appleseed movie, and she jumped at the chance to work on the second installment. At a press conference for the film, she said:
| “ | Watching the previous 'Appleseed,' I thought that the expression of contrast in man and machine, violence and love was wonderful.[4] | ” |
Warner Home Video created a trailer remix contest[6] in December 2007 to promote the release of the film. The contest's aim was to have fans remix the Appleseed Ex Machina trailer into new short videos, using clips from the film and songs from the soundtrack. Fans could put these assets together into new short videos within an editing program on the contest site. Visitors to the site then voted on their favorite video, with the creator of the winning video winning a trip to WonderCon 2008. The contest ended February 7, 2008.
Following the release of the film, Hot Toys released 1/6 scale poseable action figures of Deunan Knute and Briareos Hecatonchires.[7]
The movie received a mostly positive response.[8][9][10]
|
||||||||