Vexille

Saw Vexille, a not-bad 3d-animated sci-fi anime. Set in the enar future, Japan has become completely isolationist and technophilic, achieving mastery in the art of robotics. The protagonists is this American woman (unusual for an anime) who is a soldier of some kind (more common.) They must infiltrate Japan and find out what's up. The film is episodic. I'm now about 15 minutes through the plot in this description but there's a few times where they drop giant plot-bombs on us. The first of which is that androids exist and are passably human. This element has a rich sci-fi history and is not treated very uniquely here.

The protagonist-woman feels isolated by the computer-centric world she lives in. It shows her morning routine to reinforce this point. She wakes up next to her husband and does not speak or even look at him as she has her coffee and reads her morning paper. They seem to get into the same car to go to work, but the camera shifts and they are in separate cars. Later, when she gets to the androids, she remarks that they seem so human. She particularly points out what a great community they have. Oh, ho ho, dear reader! Who are the real androids here? (I'll bet it's the androids. Is it the androids? No? Dang.) They then drop this talking point to have an extended action sequence wherein they try to take down the evil android overlords.

This film is an action film at heart. It has a brain and is a bit thinky, but themes come second to gunplay. As usual with action films, I was disappointed that the themes it raises aren't really explored. There's not a lot of insight here. The action is pretty good, I guess. There's a scene where an airplane drops a bunch of mechs into a battle and then morphs itself into a giant mech and drops down into the fray. That was pretty cool. The animation is (I think) motion-captured and therefore eerily realistic. Very pretty and the soundtrack was pretty good too. Not bad, all 'round, just not really clever. A good waste of time.