eat my brains header graphic
RSS  l  Facebook  l  Twitter  l  About Us  l  Contact Us  l  Link to Us    
    Home    News    Reviews    Features    Top Ten    Zombie Club    Competitions    Links        
latest reviews Back | Next   

Vexille

Director
Fumihiko Sori

Cast
Meisa Kuroki
Shosuke Tanihara
Tetsuya Kakihara
Toshiyuki Morikawa
Akio Ôtsuka
Romi Pak
Takahiro Sakurai

Rating



Runtime
109 mins

Genre
3D anime

Available From

Amazon UK
Amazon US

Click on the icons above to purchase this title and support Eat My Brains!


Vexille (2007)

21st Dec 08





Plot
Decades after refusing to abide by international law dictating limitations on robotic development, Japan has become a nation shrouded in secrecy. The Chinese authorities then discover an extremely advanced android body part of Japanese origin after a police raid, and they're forced to send a crack team in to Japan to investigate.

Review
From the second you put the Vexille disc in to your DVD player and hit play, the visuals are mesmerizing. It's the first thing you notice. Cast your mind back to when you first saw anime like Akira and Ghost in the Shell, which were essentially all about the hand drawn anime visual style. They looked amazing and were totally involving, but that was last decade. Ghost in the Shell 2: Age of Innocence freely used digitally rendered 3D backgrounds and did in fact look very beautiful, but there was something missing - the hand drawn characters walking through wonderful 3D environments just didn't look right, it looked disparate, in fact. It kind of tarnished the impact that film would have had, which is why commercially the Stand Alone Complex spin-off TV series has been much more successful, as it eschewed all those clever shenanigans for a simply drawn, easy to watch, action anime style. Vexille, you'll be glad to know, has no mismatch as it goes the other way and, like the Appleseed remake before it, is completely fully 3D rendered. And since it's aimed squarely at the hi-def generation, you'd better believe the quality of the animation.

The opening encounter, with the Appleseed style battle armoured police raiding a secret mansion terrorist meeting, is breathtaking and is a wonderful action opener to this high budget anime blockbuster. If battle suits versus heavily armed ‘ED-209’ sentry droids is your thing, with troopers smashing through windows guns blazing in slow-motion with bullets flying and cameras spinning - Matrix style - you'll be in seventh heaven here. And then when you witness a guy leap up on to a passing plane, and the battle suited Vexille still gives chase, your jaw might just hit the floor. A bit like mine did.

From there the film adopts the Hollywood action formula (established by Lucas and Spielberg a long time ago now) of giving us a handful of beautifully staged massive set pieces, inter-cut with liberal sprinklings of talky bits which explain the elaborate plot to you. Vexille is set in the near future where international law has put strict limitations on the field of robotic development. Japan refuses to play ball though, and has become a very secretive nation indeed, closing all boarders and sealing some kind of electronic shield all over it, blocking out all satellites. Vexille is the name of a member of the special police unit who battles the terrorist droids in the intro, and, like I was telling you, leaps after one escaping terrorist who grabs a nearby low flying plane. His leg gets ripped off in the ensuing scuffle and, after analysis in the lab, they soon discover it’s actually a highly advance robot leg – yes, the banned kind and – yes, it’s from Japan. So soon enough Vexille is leading a sortie onto Japanese soil for the first time in decades to discover what’s been happening there, and that’s where the brunt of this story takes place.

But how good is all this? Well, the film’s 4 or 5 set pieces are wonderful, and showcase the kind of spectacular animation we’ve got to look forward to as this full 3D method becomes more advanced (already this is a big step up from what we saw in Appleseed in 2004). And the idea of what’s been happening inside Japan is also strong, giving us a cautionary future shock tale of what can go wrong when humanity is not kept in check. The only thing letting Vexille down though – and liking this movie as I do I almost hate to admit it – is that the character of Vexille is actually quite weak. That is a major issue. Think back to all the hit animes of the past few decades and they all have strong, usually female, leads. Think about Ghost in the Shell’s Major, or Deunan from Appleseed, and instantly you warm to the story, you’re dragged in, you want them to do well, to win the fight, etc. The trouble with Vexille is, for all its beauty, you’ll find yourself not really bothered about the lead character. And what’s worse is when you meet her boyfriend’s ex, about halfway through the movie, you’ll wish the film was named after her.

Still, Vexille is awesome eye candy, and despite being indifferent towards the hero’s plight, those spectacular action set pieces more than carry you to the end of the flick (and another spectacular set piece). This does bode extremely well for the future – the quality of the 3D animation, with both the convoluted action scenes and the slower, human moments, is inspiring. As soon as the quality of story telling catches up with the artistic vision we’ll have a truly special emerging sub-genre here, in the meantime we’ll have to just settle for something really quite good.

Versions
Available in R1 and R2, although for some reason the UK R2 version doesn’t come with an English language track, even though the US R1 version does. That seems like an outrageous oversight and, although I know as a purest you should watch films in their native tongue and read those pesky subs, with anime they often come thick and fast so it’s excusable to go for the English audio. If that’s you, import the US version.

Posted by
Jim



Return to Reviews Index

comments powered by Disqus
Dr Chopper

4th Nov 09
He kills! He rides a motorbike!
Dr Chopper
Exclusive interview; Anders Banke, director of Frostbite
3rd Dec 06
We caught up with the Anders Banke at Dublin's Horrorthon to chat vampires, Swedish dramas and Peter Jackson's Bad Taste.
Exclusive interview; Anders Banke, director of <b>Frostbite</b>
Finding Movies on the Internet Made Easy
5th Apr 05
Ever had that movie at the back of your mind but can't remember what it was called? Or maybe you taped some flick off the TV with some
Finding Movies on the Internet Made Easy
latest news
Review - You're Next
17th Feb 14

Review - World War Z
27th Sep 13

Review - Remains
26th Sep 13

Review - From Beyond
1st Sep 13

Feature - Prometheus: Your Questions Answered
16th Jul 13

Review - Knightriders
6th Jun 13
More...
latest Zombie Clubs
You're Next

17th Feb 14
I'm next? Shit, I'm outta here.

World War Z

27th Sep 13
The most expensive zombie movie ever isn't actually that bad.

Remains

26th Sep 13
Zombies attack a casino in Reno. Whatever next?

From Beyond

1st Sep 13
So there you are mucking about stimulating the pineal gland and the next thing you know your dead colleague returns from beyond.

Knightriders
6th Jun 13
Megan is Missing
29th May 13
latest top tens
Prometheus: Your Questions Answered
16th Jul 13
Prometheus, then. That was a bit confusing, wasn’t it? Worry not – we can explain everything. Kinda.

FrightFest Glasgow 2013 - Day Two
4th Mar 13
Dumb movies are a lot easier to have fun with when they drop the rape.

FrightFest Glasgow 2013 - Day One
3rd Mar 13
Another sunny, snowy February in Glasgow and another rollercoaster of a line-up from Frightfest team

Interview with The Revenant's David Anders
22nd Jun 12
We talk to David Anders about this absolute gem of a cult classic in the making

Film4 FrightFest Glasgow 2012 - Day Two
11th Mar 12
Film4 FrightFest Glasgow 2012 - Day One
3rd Mar 12
More Features...
    Home    News    Reviews    Features    Top Ten    Zombie Club    Competitions    Links        

Reviews

You're Next
World War Z
Remains
From Beyond
Knightriders
Megan is Missing
Friday the 13th Part 2
Bait 3D
Motel Hell
Delirium Photos of Goia
Friday the 13th
Lisa and the Devil
Piranha 3DD
Black Sunday (Blu Ray)
Zombie Apocalypse
Django, Prepare a Coffin
Zombie Flesh Eaters (Blu-Ray Steelbook)
Phenomena
The Return of the Living Dead
The Devil Rides Out


Features

Prometheus: Your Questions Answered
FrightFest Glasgow 2013 - Day Two
FrightFest Glasgow 2013 - Day One
Interview with The Revenant's David Anders
Film4 FrightFest Glasgow 2012 - Day Two
Film4 FrightFest Glasgow 2012 - Day One
Going off on one about Gremlins with Anthony OD
Glasgow FrightFest - February 2011
I SPIT ON YOUR COUNCIL: THE ROUGH GUIDE TO FRIGHTFEST 2010
Talking of Torment : In Conversation With Andrew Cull


Top Ten

Top Ten Films of 2011
Top Ten Essential Takashi Miike Works
Top Ten Great Moments from Overlooked 2010 Movies
Faking Fear: Top Ten Mockumentaries
Top Ten Alternatives to The Exorcist
Top Ten Nightmarish Moments on Elm Street
Top Ten 2009 Genre Movies You Might Not Have Seen But Really Should
Top Ten Movies to watch this Halloween
Top Ten Frightfest Moments
Top Ten Defining Friday the 13th Moments


Zombie Club

Nightmare on Elm Street Part 3: Dream Warriors
Vigilante Night
Deodato Night
Peter O'Brian Night
Strike Commando Dawn
George Kenne-Day
Ninja Ninja Ninja Night
Juan Piquer Simon Night
Panther Night
Klaus Kinski Sci-Fi Night
Revenge Night
Sergio Martino Night
Monsters and Dinosaurs Night
Trollogy Night
Italian Post-Apoc Night
Late Fulci Night
Warrior Women Day
Ozploitation Night
70s Kidnap Night
Chinese Super Ninja Night


              All written material © Copyright EMB 2003-2017       

Giallo GoblinA great film-themed online T-Shirt shop.
Just keep saying to yourself...60s & 70s Soundtracks & Library Music