009 Re: Cyborg Review

5th Apr 2013

Despite flashes of animated excellence, this preaching Animate came off as twee with plenty of eyebrow-raising moments.

Joe is a perma-teen cyborg, doomed to repeat high school endlessly until he’s called upon to save the world. A mysterious attacker who targets high-rise buildings around the world is killing thousands. Initially its focus is set firmly on America as the bad guy, and in a point of cultural insensitivity invokes 9/11, which comes off as clumsy and in poor taste. Later, when challenging America’s role in Iraq it comes off as childish and petulant. However, the discovery of an Angel fossil in Africa means that suddenly God’s to blame for the atrocities. Queue sequences of fist-shaking to the heavens that will leave you rolling your eyes and wishing for a more coherent and less hammy script.

The animated sequences themselves are stunning with a perfect blend of CGI and traditional-looking animation. Epic action sequences retain a delicacy and soft textured quality that makes it beautiful to watch.

I’m hoping that something has been lost in translation, because this cynical viewer didn’t buy into the plot at all. I with they’d kept to a generic bad guy without all the lecturing and posturing and questions that were too big for the plot and the writing. It was all a bit embarrassing really.

It’s difficult to rate this one, as the animation is so rich, I’d like to give it a lot more that one out of five. I think it’s going to come down to whether or not you buy into the premise, which I just didn’t.