Gekijouban Psycho-Pass (2015) Reviews

• The final nail to the coffin

  ThatAnimeSnob2016-04-27

  1) Bad Filler: Let's clear this right away. The Psycho Pass movie is NOT a sequel to the second season, which was made on the run, just to keep the buzz going until the film comes out. It has zero continuity, besides making Shimotsuki being mean to Akane. The rest of it was made up nonsense, which angered pretty much everybody who liked the first season. 2) Very Rushed: As if the second season being badly written filler wasn't enough, the movie is also very rushed. It had more than enough material to fill a dozen episodes, and yet was crammed in half the time it would normally need. As a result nothing lasts long enough to make you care about the themes or the characters. 3) Infodumping Galore: Half the movie is made up of preachy monologues, where EVERYBODY is talking about stuff that are nothing more than elementary-level philosophies. And by EVERYBODY I mean EVERYBODY. Even characters who have no need to talk or whose role is not to be a couch philosopher gets to blabber about society and justice. It feels very forced and artificial since it happens all the time and makes the cast be out of character. This isn't something new, considering Urobutcher is the writer, but even plot devices that are nothing more than mouthpieces of the author need to act a bit more natural than tape recorders. And they didn't because there wasn't any time allocated for character interactions and fleshing out. 4) Explosions and Boobs: When the movie is not showing characters talking like children who think they know everything, then it shows explosions and boobs. The TV series had a lot of gore as well, but the movie increases that ten-fold. If you do a counting, there are about 50 people in a single film who are blown to bits, gutted, or shot in the head, all uncensored and very graphical. Add to that, a nude scene with Akane. Because no pseudo-intellectual anime can be complete without the false assumption of violence and sex making it mature. 5) Passive Observer: Speaking of Akane, she is the protagonist, and yet does nothing in the whole movie besides listening to whatever couch philosophies people say around her. Whatever she does, is only an excuse to move from one info-dumping character to another info-dumping character, without ever actively trying to change or affect something. She was always a lobotomized ask-man in the series, but her role this time is to investigate and she has improved her martial arts considerably. Being less active than in the series despite these credentials, makes her even more of a plot device than she already was. The only thing she somewhat offers, is giving Sybil advices, something she could have done by sitting on her couch back home, and talking to her gun like a lunatic. I can't see how anyone can like this sort of character unless his taste is really bad. 6) Nonsense Plot: The plot is also bad, as it always was, but since the pacing is now so rushed, it can't even fool the casual viewer to consider it mature. Sybil still pretends to be a good guy by killing thousands of innocent people simply because they refuse to give up on freedom, allows sadistic dictators to torture millions, then kills them all, replaces politicians with robots, and still expects the viewer to believe it is all done for the good of humanity. No. Just no. Its justice is not better than any megalomaniac dictator's justice, where it does as it pleases, and excuses mass murder as just, simply because it suits it. 7) Lack of Common Sense: And even if you overlook all the nonsense that is the story, you can't even take simple character actions seriously. I mean, who can possibly believe that hundreds of soldiers who were at war for decades, have a clear psycho pass? Who would be retarded enough to still think that people whose psycho pass is not scanned are good and friendly, when the series has shown over a dozen times that this is exactly what the bad guys are doing so they can kill innocents and get away with it? Who in his sane mind would devise a plan to go through a lot of effort to take prisoners, info-dump for hours in front of them, and then proceeds to killing them, instead of killing them right away without bothering to capture them at all, since that was his plan all along? And what kind of an insane population would vote as president, the same guy who was their dictator for years, and whose entire army was revealed to be sadistic killers, who were mistreating them relentlessly? 8) Lame Sequel Bait: And despite all this mess, the story is once again left incomplete, with nothing resolved, a never-ending sequel bait for people who keep watching for the sake of watching, as if it's a shallow fighting shonen. The story trolls you to perpetually expect closure, which will either never come, or will disappoint you when it eventually does. 9) Verdict: This movie is the last nail on the coffin of an over-hyped anime that gathers all the pseudo-intellectuals in the community. The first season was bad, the second was poop, and the movie is a gutter. Go back to re-watching Ghost in the Shell, people.

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• Not a bad addition to the Psycho-Pass franchise

  Alfabeta2015-09-15

  It's the year 2116 and Japan is more or less the only stable country in the world thanks to the introduction of the Sybil System, a bio-computer surveillance system built to pacify the country and replace the police. The system is now subtly taking over various less notable roles of the government one at a time as well due to its unmatched rationality and effectiveness. For the first time since its introduction, the Japanese government has agreed to export the Sibyl System to another country. SEAUn or the South East Asia Union is a neighboring territory torn by a long-running civil war. The strongest of the armed factions has managed to set up a military government but now needs help with restoring order and defeating the rebels and the Sybil System should be able to help with both. This experiment will show how well the Sybil System can be implemented outside of pacifist Japan. Meanwhile, a small team of armed rebels from the SEAU manages to enter Japan in secret, but is then intercepted by Inspector Tsunemori, the protagonist of the TV series the movie's based on, and her team. One of the rebels is caught and forcibly brain-scanned. His fragmented memory reveals that Shinya Kogami, Tsunemori's former enforcer who went rogue and disappeared three years ago is now one of the rebel leaders. Tsunemori asks to be sent alone to Shambala Float, the current capital of the SEAU, where, as an experiment, the military government has already introduced the Sybil System, to find and apprehend Kogami. Her boss agrees. The official reason for her visit to Shambala Float will be the inspection of the implementation of the Sybil System. Tsunemori is about to leave Japan for the first time and visit a place where violence is an everyday occurrence. As she begins her investigation, a mercenary group is sent to take Kogami out of the picture and if Tsunemori comes in their way, that's an acceptable collateral damage. The movie overall is something that could easily have been adapted into one half of the next Psycho-Pass season and if that were the case, it'd probably have had more time to develop the setting and the problems that this new situation of Sybil expanding abroad has created. Still, everything that Psycho-Pass fans want is still here, if to a lesser degree, and we finally get to see what happened to Kogami after season 1. The idea for the plot is excellent and it's the next logical step after the events of the first two seasons. However, the plot is also more or less rather predictable even for someone who's never seen the show before. The visuals are great as usual (it's more or less the same quality of animation drawn for the show) and the movie features a few neat visual moments just like the show frequently does, although again, there's a certain fine lack of ambition here as well, which you notice during those neat moments when the visuals kick it up a notch. There's a surprising amount of Japanese-spoken English in the movie (Japanese actors talk in heavily accented English), since the two countries in the movie use English to communicate with one another when their automatic translator isn't on (yes, there's an automatic translator almost as efficient as the one in Star Trek). There are also tidbits of philosophical debate sprinkled here and there in the dialogue. Overall, while season one of the show is still the best part of the series and season 2 more or less successfully adds new shades of gray to the world through new issues, conflicts and characters, this movie is a decent "sidequel" addition to the franchise nonetheless, and if you view it as a single extended episode of the show that's primarily focused on a single new world-building issue, instead of some epic event for the show, you won't have too much problems with it (other than that gnawing sense of lackluster ambition).

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• Great action focused Anime

  mayank098762018-01-18

  The movie is only for those who have watched the series as it starts off with a belief you know the characters, there inter relation dynamics and how this world and its technology works. There are enough references from past for fan service while giving us a new setting and plot. For me it's been few years since I watched the show, forgotten many of the characters and the story, I felt like I missed out on elements when they get into past talks and such. The movie is based in Cambodia, a trial capital city is built using the Sibyl System. The problem is local government having to fight rebels outside the capital area, the worse part the rebels seem to be trained by the runway enforcer Shinya Kogami. Enter Inspector Tsunemori, she goes in to resolve the past as well as the present. The story is great, lots of intrigue and suspense all throughout until the end. The animation itself is amazing, better than the series. The artwork is gorgeous, especially the ones showing the temples of Siem Reap and the jungles of Cambodia. Also, the fight sequences are crazy awesome, the group of mercenaries are bad ass fighting machine. I enjoyed the movie, although its more action focus than Sci-Fi story driven.

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• Masterpiece

  holleratyourbutler2015-10-14

  consider this movie an epilogue to the prior 2 season of the TV series. It explores the consequences of actions taken by certain character in those past two series and is ultimately a nice companion piece. I've heard it said that this movie does not provide resolution to what came before but I disagree. The show is more than just about events, it is about the message the show has been trying to get across and it does this perfectly. 'People need democracy, they should not have a system of governance IMPOSED upon them'. The film gives resolution to Gino character who was sorely underused in in season 2. The music, the animation, the writing was all top quality. A masterpiece.

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• Beautifully animated movie with discussion of ideological theories, but sadly no emotional roller-coaster.

  micky-hutter2016-03-17

  > Animation: 10/10 Gorgeous pictures with great lighting effects. In some moments, objects are extremely realistic (e.g. they seem to have weight). > Plot: 8/10 +: As typical for the Psycho Pass franchise, behavior of the characters is based on different ideologies. Not being a sociology major, I was only able to identify a couple of them. I find and always found this underlying intellectual debate to be one of the major selling points of the series and this movie does not disappoint here. The movie even indirectly criticizes contemporary politics. While the first 15 minutes were rather boring for me, I was gripped afterwards. -: I missed expression of and evocation of intense emotions in dialogs! Also I do not remember any character development at all! The film really had way more potential there. > Conclusion: If you are a fan of the series and if your local cinema shows this movie, it is definitely worthwhile to get the big-screen experience. If you don't know the series yet, I would recommend watching season 1 instead.

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