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In the wake of MVM's landmark deal with pioneer, the floodgate is
well and truly open for some incredible titles, and Armitage: Polymatrix
is one of them. Armitage weaves its way around the flooded Cute and
Horror genres to bring us UK fans what we've sorely needed for some
time - hard core cyberpunk!
Set on Mars, Detective Ross Sylibus is arriving to take a new post
with a new partner, the titular Armitage. She's cute, spunky and dresses
like an S&M model, but manages to pull it off rather well (think
Luc Besson's Fifth Element for style). Ross is a decidedly larger
and more methodical detective than his aggressive partner, but it
becomes a moot point once it's discovered that Armitage herself is
a Third Type android, a sentient but artificial life form that's illegal,
and her kind just happens to be the target of psychotic French killer
Rene D'anclaude. Cue hunter-hunted-hunter switches, some excellent
animation and a pumping soundtrack that rarely lets up and you have
one of the most stylish Cyberpunk thrillers on the market.
The movie is a spliced together version of the original OAV, with
some extra footage thrown in for good measure. Whilst this isn't necessarily
a bad thing, it does occasionally skip the od dimportant scene that
helps to make sense of the overall plot, but the damage is minimal
and the additional scenes are of an excellent standard.
The pacing is pretty good, the plot remains engaging and the character
motivations remain plausible, more importnat than normal when you're
talking about a psycho on a killing spree.
This is the start of a moody exploration of just what "human"
is, with extreme violence thrown in, even if most of the blood turns
out to be machine lubricants.
The movie also replaces the English voice actors for Armitage and
Sylibus with Elizabeth Berkley and Keifer Sutherland, who do a fine
job, even if it occasionally sounds like they're cribbing from the
original dub.
If you like your sci-fi hard and thought provoking, this is the one.
9/10 - Excellent, thought provoking SF.
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If you like anime with a touch of cute cyborg, then you could do worse
than check out Manga Entertainments Alita DVD release - whilst not
as stylish as Armitage, its still a good yarn.