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| Overall | Art | Animation | Character Design | Music | Series Story | Episode Story | Reviewer | |
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| Buy | 10 | 10 | 9 | 8 | 8 |
 Ggultra2764
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[series:2272#1552] | |
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(Buy-/ Rent+) In my exposure to this first movie in the Mardock Scramble film trilogy, I must admit I am impressed enough with the movie where I'm tempted to want to see more of what it offers up. Taking place in a far future, First Compression features the start of Balot's journey where she gains her cyborg body after being nearly killed and along with her new AI companion, Oeufcoque, must survive to be a witness to the misdeeds of her former lover, Shell, who is heavily involved in the underworld of crime that plagues Mardock City. The major highlight of the movie for me came in the form of Balot's very character. Coming from some very tragic and ugly circumstances from within her life, she is quite insecure and withdrawn about herself as she tries finding meaning for her life after the near-death she experiences at the start of the film. The movie quite believably depicts the mental state of Balot's very character as she comes to depend on Oeufcoque greatly for companionship and purpose for the miserable life she experienced and becomes enpowered to fend off against any hired assassins sent by Shell to kill her. Beyond Balot's character, First Compression does do a solid job for the most part in establishing its world as a traditional future seen in cyberpunk titles with its advanced technology allowing for humans to become cyborgs, corrupt corporations and crime being rampant within its setting. The movie mostly serves to introduce Balot's character while also setting up the main conflict that she faces throughout the film trilogy's run in the form of Shell and his henchmen. The first movie has its rough spots in its setup as the movie's fast pacing does usually lead to missed opportunities at exploring additional elements or depth to other characters seen within the series. In addition, the movie drops hints regarding connections between characters and other elements to the series that are left unexplored and the movie's plot is clearly left open-ended for the later two films. I can overlook these flaws as the later two films in the trilogy should be able to expand more on Mardock Scramble's characters and prominent elements. The movie has gained quite a rep for its graphic content and controversial themes which there is quite a bit of in the form of nudity, rape of a minor, incest, teen prostitution, brutally violent deaths, profane language and grotesque moments involving a group of demented killers hired late in the film's run. For the most part, I did feel the movie's content was necessary at enhancing the horrific events experienced throughout Balot's life and adventure, though I did feel some elements to the movie existed only for the purpose of pure shock value like the mentioned killers. The visuals to Mardock Scramble are quite impressive featuring highly detailed shots of the city landscape of Mardock City, smoothly animated and fluid battle scenes and character designs that had a great amount of visual detail applied to them. The subdued color tones used on the scenery and characters do well at enhancing the dark drama and action to be found throughout this movie. Overall, this first movie to Mardock Scramble starts off solidly with introducing Balot's character and establishing both her bond to Oeufcoque and the conflict she faces with Shell. While obviously left undeveloped and unresolved with a number of its plot and character developments, the later two movies of this trilogy should expand upon them and I look forward to seeing how things develop in Balot's struggles for the later two films in the Mardock Scramble film trilogy. Last updated Tuesday, October 23 2012. Created Tuesday, October 23 2012. | ||||||||
Other Sites
| Name | URL |
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| Official Japanese Movie Web Site | http://m-scramble.jp/compression/ |
