Renaissance (2006)

Renaissance: Directed by Christian Volckman. With Daniel Craig, Romola Garai, Ian Holm, Kevork Malikyan. In 2054, Paris is a labyrinth where all movement is monitored and recorded. Casting a shadow over everything is the city’s largest company, Avalon, which insinuates itself into every aspect of contemporary life to sell its primary export, youth and beauty. In this world of stark contrasts and rigid laws, the populace is kept in line and accounted for.

“Animation always seems to be fringe. In Japan, this might not be the case, but in Europe and much more so in the USA animation has a big fat u0026quot;KIDSu0026quot; tag on it. France is probably one of the more comic-liberal countries, home of classics as Tin-Tin, Asterix, Lucky Luke, Valereon and so on(if youu0026#39;ve never read these, itu0026#39;s not too late. Thereu0026#39;s no upper-age limit on them and they donu0026#39;t carry the nerd-stigma of DC or Marvel) It seems natural a movie like this one pops up in France. It suits my prejudiced image of the French as art-loving, anti-USA-oriented and talented movie-makers. Luckily thereu0026#39;s also u0026quot;A scanner darklyu0026quot; out there to suppress that view – seems art is pretty much international.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eAnyway, as you might have gathered Renaissance is artsy and French. If youu0026#39;re a normal person you will get scared by this. Thereu0026#39;s no need for that however! Beneath itu0026#39;s cool, sleek cel-shaded appearance thereu0026#39;s a good thriller and a good movie overall.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThat was one of my fears for this movie. Itu0026#39;s so easy turning the spectacular animation to a gimmick, much like Sony u0026amp; C:o are doing with their Pixar rip-offs. I was expecting a confusing, sometimes boring and not very engaging movie, but luckily I was wrong.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eI would have enjoyed it anyway for the neo-noir stuff, but it was good that it was worthwhile on that level as well. NOTE: Iu0026#39;ve seen the French dub which was OK as far as I could see. English might be more interesting what with Craig and everything.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eA final word of praise to the animation. It was awesome. Futuristic, well-crafted, nice camera-work, smart solutions(Eyes for example looked very good, which is hard to do) and so visually stunning I felt like bursting out u0026quot;This is so damn impressive!u0026quot;. Then again, I really like animation and I appreciate the effort the studio put down, so my verdict is a bit biased.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eGood movie anyway, definitely lives beyond itu0026#39;s u0026quot;gimmicku0026quot;.”