Gin-iro no kami no Agito (2006) Reviews

• pretty and reasonably entertaining until it throws logic out the window

  cherold2011-03-01

  This well animated film treads the same nature versus technology ground that Hayao Miyazaki films often do, and in the beginning it is pretty good, with a reasonably interesting premise and very nice, visually striking animation. There are some minor problems in the plotting early on. Most notably, it's unclear why bringing civilization back is a bad idea. Eventually it does become clear why, but the movie just kind of assumes it must be a bad idea without taking much pains to persuade the audience. Still, I was enjoying the movie until perhaps the last 20 minutes, when it becomes ridiculous. It turns out that, rather than restoring the world, the final solution will, as best I could tell, return the earth to the state of burning lava. How is that a good idea? And how would anyone survive? Next, why is the volcano weaponized? If it is just designed to reformat the earth, why does it need defensive weapons? I'm also unclear on why it needs to move. Does it simply destroy a little of the planet at a time? (In which case I suppose the planet could be reformatted piecemeal, which would explain how people could survive.) Lastly, why, if you shut down the volcano, would it self destruct? What possible sense would that make? And how would any personnel in the volcano actually leave? And get far enough away. Towards the end the movie also gets way too sincere and preachy. So that what should be the emotional, uplifting finale feels like a huge let down. All that being said, it's a nice looking, perfectly enjoyable movie if you can accept its flaws.

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• Where have I seen this before?

  CuriosityKilledShawn2008-07-21

  If Origin: Spirits of the past seems familiar to you then you are not alone. Even the most indiscriminate anime fan can tell that this is basically a watered-down copy of Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind. There are so many similarities that I'm surprised no lawsuits were involved. Set in a future where plant life has taken control of a desecrated world the survivors try to live a delicate existence between the powerful forest and the fascist military until one day a mysterious girl arrives out of the past with lots of questions and long, drawn-out answers. Meh, it's all just so generic and dull full of all the usual anime nonsense. I never really understood why the hero, Agito, falls in love with her so easily. There's not much going on between them. And who was that calling her on that weird phone thingy near the start? It's never explained. This story has been done bigger and better 25 years ago and there's not any particular reason why anyone should rush out and see Origin. Sorry.

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• Superficial beauty.

  Silverotter1072009-06-05

  As many agree, Origin is a beautiful anime artistically. The music, graphics, and the world created are gorgeous and it really stands above most other modern animated works. However, if you are looking for more than this, than I suggest looking else where. The beauty stops short of its appearance, and when it really comes down to plot and characters, there's nothing special. Action is slow and minimal and the people are flat, corny at times, and do not act realistically. Not to mention the plot hole here and the plot hole there... So, in summary, oh my goodness, I've never seen an anime as beautiful as this one; and oh my goodness, it's like... -poke- people don't act like that. It took a GIANT step forward in graphics and music in anime, but it also took a few step backs to times of bad characterization, and unfortunately, there's not even that much action to make up for that...

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• 30 minutes of entertainment, the rest a disaster

  antti-niemela-22010-10-31

  Roughly the first 30 minutes of this movie were actually quite entertaining despite ripping Laputa and Nausicaa. We get to see a glimpse into the everyday life of a people adapted to living in the relatively difficult circumstances. Characters and the Neutral City are well introduced and the slower pace suits the movie well. The rest of the movie however is an absolute disaster. Badly written, uninteresting, clichéd and just plain stupid. We get absolutely dull villains, a walking volcano, useless crying heroine and magic forest superhero powers. Even the pretty visuals of the first half of the movie seem to evaporate towards the end. As pointed out in the other reviews: If you have seen Nausicaa then don't bother with Origin. Nausicaa did everything better. And even if you haven't don't bother with Origin, watch Nausicaa instead.

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• Promising but eventually unfulfilling.

  daniel_perrin892011-08-01

  This is a film with much promise but unfortunately does not quite live up to its excellent premise. Directed by Keiichi Sugiyama, Origin is his first feature film. The story revolves around young Agito a local to the post-apocalyptic town where the film is set and a girl, Toola, who is awoken from a cryo pod. Toola is seduced by a fellow survivor and is sent on a mission to try make things the way they were, Agito meanwhile tries to convince Toola that his way of life is a good one, and stops the plan. There are two very promising elements in this film, the first is the showing of 'smart phone/tab' style technology which has become so integral to those from the pasts day-to-day life, the device is shown to activate all manner of objects, used as a map, and a phone. The real world relevance is obvious and with society moving in a direction whereby our smart phones and tabs are used so frequently and for such a wide variety of things that there future vision of similar devices doesn't seem far-fetched. What is even more interesting is that the device is not the cause of the disaster which ended civilization, where most science-fiction is quick to blame humanities increasing obsession with this form of technology this film leaves those concerns out, which is very refreshing. The second and most interesting element is the cause for the end of civilization, an accident when terraforming the moon. Terraforming has long been a staple of science-fiction, but in this film the terraforming backfires, destroying the moon in one of the most beautifully animated sequences, and launching intelligent plant life at the earth. It is very refreshing to see the staple of the genre backfire, unfortunately this aspect is not explored strongly enough. Origin for all its promise just doesn't reach its potential, heavily mining from Hayao Miyazaki's 1984 classic, Naussica, to the point of near plagiarism. At least Sugiyama borrowed from the best. The characters are also problematic, with each of them very one-dimensional in nature. The closing scene is also ridiculous, unfortunately the use of a walking volcano, that is a previously rooted volcano sprouting metal legs and moving toward the town, was ill advised and perhaps ruined a perfectly good film. Overall the film deserves credit for trying to deal with a very interesting subject, and its animation is stunning, the score is beautiful and works exceptionally well with the style of animation, unfortunately poor character development and the aforementioned volcano incident take a good film and make it an average one.

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