This is a very engaging and enjoyable animated science fiction film. Deunan Kane is kidnapped from a battlefield and taken to the city of Olympus where she finds out that the war had already ended and that her missing lover Briareos is now a full cyborg. Olympus is the last human city and is populated by humans and biological robots called Bioroids who provide the administration for the city. The city is ruled by a computer called Gia and a council of human Elders, Olympus is intended to be a Utopia. There is trouble in Olympus, a group of humans wish to remove the Bioroids and Deunan finds that she is central to the struggle and the survival of Olympus. The reveals are nicely done, the action is staged with great flair and ambition and there is a genuinely interesting idea at the heart of the film.
The CG animation is excellent, it uses motion capture to build upon which creates a very natural sense of movement and interaction among the cast. The backgrounds are breathtaking in their scope and detail. The guns and the armoured suits the cast use are lovingly rendered, they are a major part of the cast in themselves. The story does not get lost in the detail, the interactions and machinations of the cast are the drivers in the film, the cast get to express themselves as much in action as in speech and the mix is nicely judged.
This is a very ambitious film that very self consciously uses technology to talk about technology and how humans interact with it. Smart, inventive and highly entertaining, a winner.
