This film is half of a good movie. Like the two Appleseed films, it stars an ass-kicking female protagonist. Unlike those films, she's a freedom fighter trying to keep a corrupt regime that's destroyed one nation from spreading it's poison to an entire world. The protagonist's quest is complicated by people on her own side who seem to have given up the fight, wanting her to just stop and let it go. She has strong connections to the villain that make this somewhat personal, but also very professional; she's a cop, and he's the crook who was too powerful for the system to stop. And now she's trying to bring him to justice.
Sounds good, right? Here's the problem: she's not Vexille.
See, the first half of the film is spent watching a half-assed Deunan ripoff named Vexille. She has no connection to the plot; she's just part of the team assigned to infiltrate the protagonist's country. She's so tangential that she doesn't even know the villain's name until she gets to the country. She knows nothing about the situation going on there. Her arrival does not spark their forces into action; they were already planning this before she arrived.
In short, she's completely pointless.
And yet, the script constantly tries to make her the hero. Maria, the real protagonist only gets about an hour's worth of screen time.
There's a plot-twist towards the end, and it makes for a great moment. But it comes from a character we met once, for like a minute. That twist would have made for a much more impactful character moment if we'd actually spent time with that character. But we didn't, because the filmmakers spent an hour on pointless Vexille scenes that go nowhere.
That kind of thing suffocates this movie. Despite having no connection to the villain, Vexille gets more time fighting the villain than Maria (though she does at least get to take him down). That entire confrontation would have been much more powerful if it had just been Maria, alone.
If they'd properly made the film about Maria and her struggles, her motivation, her character, if they'd cut the first hour of the film and expanded the rest, then it could have made for a worthwhile film. But as it stands, it's just too flawed to be anything better than average.
A shining example of pointing the camera at the wrong character
This film is half of a good movie. Like the two Appleseed films, it stars an ass-kicking female protagonist. Unlike those films, she's a freedom fighter trying to keep a corrupt regime that's destroyed one nation from spreading it's poison to an entire world. The protagonist's quest is complicated by people on her own side who seem to have given up the fight, wanting her to just stop and let it go. She has strong connections to the villain that make this somewhat personal, but also very professional; she's a cop, and he's the crook who was too powerful for the system to stop. And now she's trying to bring him to justice.
Sounds good, right? Here's the problem: she's not Vexille.
See, the first half of the film is spent watching a half-assed Deunan ripoff named Vexille. She has no connection to the plot; she's just part of the team assigned to infiltrate the protagonist's country. She's so tangential that she doesn't even know the villain's name until she gets to the country. She knows nothing about the situation going on there. Her arrival does not spark their forces into action; they were already planning this before she arrived.
In short, she's completely pointless.
And yet, the script constantly tries to make her the hero. Maria, the real protagonist only gets about an hour's worth of screen time.
There's a plot-twist towards the end, and it makes for a great moment. But it comes from a character we met once, for like a minute. That twist would have made for a much more impactful character moment if we'd actually spent time with that character. But we didn't, because the filmmakers spent an hour on pointless Vexille scenes that go nowhere.
That kind of thing suffocates this movie. Despite having no connection to the villain, Vexille gets more time fighting the villain than Maria (though she does at least get to take him down). That entire confrontation would have been much more powerful if it had just been Maria, alone.
If they'd properly made the film about Maria and her struggles, her motivation, her character, if they'd cut the first hour of the film and expanded the rest, then it could have made for a worthwhile film. But as it stands, it's just too flawed to be anything better than average.