Hands down, 'Alpha' is the best interpretation for the original Manga to date.
While many bemoan Alpha as being 'Westernised' or not Animé, the reality is that the 5 'book' Manga series (originally published in English by Marvel's offshoot, Studio Proteus, and then later by Dark Horse) was never overly Japanese in its styling and indeed, most of the central characters are not Japanese but rather from 'all over'.
The 2004 Appleseed movie, with Studio IG on production, was quite successful at blending 3D and Animé. Using the crispness derived from 3D but keeping it to a stylised rendering style, it delivered a nicely balanced form of 3D Animé. Films like 'Ex Machina', and even the 'Appleseed XIII' mini series (which was a Studio IG production) failed (in my mind) by departing with this style and trying to create what could best be described as a realistic Animé, and ultimately not succeeding on any front - Ex machina not helped by the fact it was just a poor film all round.
Where Alpha succeeds, is that it creates a realistic interpretation of Shirow's character and hardware design, in a way is so much closer to the Manga series than anything to date. Where the 2004 Appleseed was Animé at the next level, Alpha takes Appleseed out of the Animé realm and moves it to pseudo reality; the world depicted in the pages of the Manga have become real enough that you could walk outside and touch it.
There is no doubt that the technical mastery of the CG space here gives the viewer moments where one has to really stop and ask themselves if what they are seeing is real or CG. Shirow himself said when talking about Alpha:
"The challenge with CG production is that, as you get more photo-realistic, you lose the ability to use over-the-top anime-style expression without being unnatural. And if you go too anime, the realistic expression becomes out of place. Mr. Aramaki showed great skills for the previous films with anime style, but I was very excited to see the realistic textures with damages (the post-war environment visuals) and lighting effects. (My) first impression was, in a positive way, that it looked like today's state-of-the-art video games."
Story wise, Alpha is an interesting interpretation of the first book of the series. Characters and events have been drawn out of the Manga and reassembled to form a new story. So if you know the Manga, there will be more than a few moments where you will recognise a scenario or character but realise they are not where they should be. Regardless, Alpha is entertaining enough, maybe more so if you are intimate with the Manga series, to provide an enjoyable experience.
But it's not all trumps. Why is Deunan running around in combat armour/gear with her bust hanging out? Does Iris need to be in that skin suit? And the very sultry combat cyborg?? There is more than a slight smack of 'boyish' sexism going on here that, while on the surface seems harmless, really just reeks of the 'boys club' that's being talked about all over in regards to the movie industry. There was zero purpose to portray Deunan in the manner that has been done and in fact, I found it to a 'jolt', preventing me from being fully immersed into the movie. In this aspect, Alpha disappoints in a big way. What could have been really good was let down by some guys not getting away from their screens enough.
Overall though Appleseed Alpha is worth watching once, twice, maybe even three times, something I could not say of Ex Machina.
