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AKA: N/A
Genre: Sci-fi action
Length: OAV, 60 minutes
Distributor: VHS and R1 DVD from ADV Films
Content Rating: 16+ (violence, nudity, language)
Related Series: N/A
Also Recommended: Armitage III, Bubblegum Crisis 2040, Read or Die
Notes: A Japanese-American coproduction, this "movie" (really an OAV, since there was no theater release) features a screenplay from Carl Macek, and is a video-game tie-in. Minor spoiler alert.
Rating:

Sin: The Movie

Synopsis

In a near future that seems suspiciously like the American analog to Bubblegum Crisis, Colonel John Blade (ooh, creative) of the HardCorps (GAG!) must fight off strange beasties that are kidnapping young girls (and in the process kill his partner). He (surprisingly enough) inadvertently uncovers a maniacal plot to take over the world, while in the meantime much of the female cast contemplate shacking up with the guy because he's so damn cool. Uh, yeah. Something like that.


Review

As if I'm supposed to be impressed by a title that rehashes just about every cliche in the book. Let's see, we've nabbed the partially cybernetic cop from Armitage III and the motorbike action sequences from Bubblegum Crisis, with the (ahem) surprise twist of killing off his partner, and introducing his same-name sister as a big-breasted military agent (big surprise again) whose purpose is to (a) tell Colonel Blade the whole situation's over his head and (b) become his love interest in an incredibly contrived way (again, BIIG surprise). Throw in a "stealth chopper" (guffaw!) and an cute, innocent little girl to be the "damsel in distress", and that pretty much sums up where this is going.

This anime-by-numbers was so predictable, we had plotted out the movie correctly within the first five minutes. Of course, we kept watching, in the vain hope that we'd be proven wrong, but alas, by the end of the Akira-knockoff end boss, and a certain character falling to a demise akin to Gaston from Beauty and the Beast (ironically the least violent death in the whole movie), we were sadly disappointed.

While we'd like to say the animation does a competent job in holding this together as a coherent film, that statement is at best half correct. The 3D work is actually rather good, but the cel-style 2D work ... needed more work. It's one thing when character designs seem to change between action sequences, but to completely botch a shower scene? Now that, folks, is unforgivable.

The really sick thing is that ADV tried the "unique" tactic of subtitling two completely different stories over the same footage, which meant that they purposely kept the plot of this movie as ambiguous as possible to facilitate the two storylines. It just doesn't work that way.

Sin does show flashes of competence, but with a way-too-short running time (this really could've been a three-episode OAV series or a "real" movie in length), as well as endless rehashes of sci-fi cliches we've all seen a million times before, it's just not worth recommending as more than a rental anime, and that's only if you've watched everything else and still have a compulsive need to watch something anime.

Or you could watch Bubblegum Crisis 2040 instead.

A boring, predictable rehash of just about everything else out there, barely salvaged by adequate animation and acting, and the dubious distinction of being an actual ADV Films production.Carlos/Giancarla Ross

Recommended Audience: Graphic violence and coarse language. Big surprise there, this is an ADV feature. Also the aforementioned thoroughly-botched shower scene. Not for children or younger teens, though some older teens and above might dig this stuff.



Version(s) Viewed: VHS, English dub
Review Status: Full (1/1)
Sin: The Movie © 1999 AD Vision Inc
 
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