Vexille is the highly anticipated CG film from the creators of Appleseed. It’s a film which has stirred some controversy over the subject matter: Japan as evil technological overlords. The question is, is it as entertaining as it looks?
plot summary
Japan has been honing its robotics technology for decades and in the year 2067, android tech becomes a very real science. But the nations of the world are frightened of the implications this technology could mean, and level heavy sanctions against the island nation in order to make them stop developing android technology. Japan refuses to halt their research and withdraws from the United Nations in protest. They seal themselves off from the rest of the world with cloaking equipment and a nullifying electric wall which lets nothing in or out.
Ten years later, SWORD, an elite organization which protects America, becomes involved in a twisted plot by the Japanese robotics corporation, Daiwa. To get a firm grasp of exactly what the threat from Daiwa is, a select group of SWORD commandos infiltrate Japan.
Leon Fayden and his lover, Vexille Serra, are among the infiltration team. The two find more than they bargained for in Japan, and the threat to America looms much larger than anyone originally thought. Will the two be able to put a stop to the Japanese masterminds?
review
Vexille seems like a good idea. Androids, future tech, a sinister Japan, fighting, flying robots, ect. With fun elements like these, it seems like an automatic win for the studio. But in reality, Vexille was a bad, bad idea. Not just bad, however, boring bad. How can anyone make something as exciting androids and forbidden technology into a Snooze Fest?
Maybe it had something to do with the snail’s-crawl pacing, or the shallow characters I cared nothing for, or maybe it was the overly drawn out scenes meant to say something deep but which only managed to wander and ramble on, saying zip. Or it could have been the distracting graphics, the poorly orchestrated fight scenes, the slow-mo action, or the unfocused plot line, which itself, wandered around meaninglessly. Perhaps the dull, monotonous character designs, which bled and blended in with their surroundings were also to blame.
Whatever it was, watching Vexille was like sitting in a doctor’s office for an hour and some change- painful and boring.
Vexille felt far too similar to Appleseed EX Machina, another CG sci-fi thriller released in 2007. Everything from the special ops organizations, to the love interests, to the futuristic problems with society, have a lot in common with Appleseed. Even the flying battle suits are much the same. But where Appleseed managed to entertain, even a little, Vexille only copied poorly.
The story is meant to be a cautionary tale about Japan’s elitist attitude towards other nationalities, but comes across as disjointed and preachy. It felt like I was being force fed a bunch of different ideas packaged in what should have been an entertaining action movie. I was neither educated nor entertained by Vexille. I was just plain bored by it.
Character Development
The character development was non-existent. Nobody was given any depth and there was zero connection with any of the characters. I felt nothing for them but a kind of bored detachment, emphasis on bored.
The story took massive leaps in trying to connect characters with one another. Short scenes meant to add history to the cast and weave their stories together, only managed to distract from the already distracting plot line. It was painful how sophomoric the background info was integrated into the movie.
Character Design
The character designs are as uninspired as they come. The blasé colors and frumpy clothing make this movie look like the Matrix unplugged, i.e. the scenes in that movie which occurred outside the mainframe.
The main character, Vexille, was not so good to look at. Her character reminded me too strongly of a plain, brunette Deuna Knute from Appleseed, but not nearly as interesting.
The tech for the movie was intriguing in spots. The robots from Daiwa, for example, were unique and had a sense of realism to them. The helicopter design, however, was not very well done. Why put metal-feathered wings on a helicopter?
Another interesting highlight in Vexille were the jags- twirling, absurd creatures living in the wastelands which suck up vagrant metal and absorb it into their whirling bodies. I say interesting because all the scenes with the jags look much, much like the ones in Frank Herbert’s iconic classic, Dune. Interesting….
Animation
The studio took a gamble on Vexille’s unique blend of CG and animation. It’s a strange hybrid that doesn’t work too well with this movie. Details are hard to see and the painterly look in some scenes makes it feel like I’m looking at a Photoshop picture come to life, a stilted life.
This type of animation may work in other movies, and I commend the studio for trying something new, but it was not a good fit for the subject matter since so much was missed or jerky.
Music
Now to the the high point of Vexille, the music. Paul Oakenfold, the mix master behind the Matrix Reloaded and Appleseed soundtracks, did the music for Vexille as well. The movie had techno rasta rhythms throughout the soundtrack, along with Oakenfold’s high tension electronic beats. The soundtrack was a fantastic creation which was an exciting highlight for a tedious film.
Voice Acting
Voice casts in either Japanese or English are slightly above average, but the Japanese made the movie somewhat more exciting. But since the movie was already a chore to watch, we watched most of it in English before deciding to switch to Japanese, and then back again, in the doomed hope changing languages would make Vexille more bearable.
Conclusion
Vexille was meant to impart a lesson on Japan’s isolation and negative stance with foreigners. Instead it rambled aimlessly and imparted nothing but a bad taste and a desire to get my hour and forty five back, with interest.
Rating
Vexille gets 1 outta 5 Hammies!
Retail Info
- Publisher: Funimation
- Release Date:May 20, 2008
- Retail Price: $29.98
- Number of discs:1
- Run Time: 105 minutes
- Rating:PG-13
- Language: English, Japanese
- Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1
- Format:Color, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
