That was an excellent one.

Best movie of this year hands down!

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

This movie feels like it was made purely to piss off people who want good shows

The film had an intriguing idea and story-line. But unfortunately they have produced a lack luster effort. With a quite unfocused story and slowly paced.The story is set 300 years in the future, in a i would say post - apocalyptic landscape. A young boy/man Agito comes upon a girl frozen in time Tula wakes her up, which could tip the balance in an ongoing war between two factions. One whom wants to live peacefully with the forest and one that wants to bring the earth back, to the way it was. just by typing up the synopsis here, again gives me the feeling of a good idea gone to waist. One of the main things that bothered me were the way the two factions were put across, as the people who want to destroy the forest are obviously the bad guys, which is the obvious environmental message the film wants to put across and showed no subtlety while it slapped you across the face with this message, but the forest which has some mythical druids protecting it, come across to me as quite like a dictatorship holding the power over human kind. The pacing of the film was very slow with some action scenes you would hope lift the momentum for the picture which actually turned out quite bland and predictable.The film is beautifully drawn with the huge landscapes being absolutely stunning and competing with Studio Ghibli on that front. The dubbing was pretty good and the musical score was not disappointing.Overall an OK film, with decent elements, and an idea there that could work very well but not quite on this movie.

Having heard from a friend that this anime film was well worth watching I decided to check it out for myself. As soon as it started I was immediately impressed by the stunning animation. The story is set in the distant future three hundred years after an environmental cataclysm which destroyed most civilisation and left mankind competing with the now sentient forests for survival. In a town built above the remains of a destroyed city two boys, Agito and his friend Cain, descend deep into the old city to get water from a well; here an accident leads to Agito being washed deep into the heart of the old city. Here he discovers a girl in a hibernation chamber and awakens her. She is Toola and she has been there since the time of the cataclysm. They become friends but news of her discovery soon spreads to a neighbouring city where another person from the past is keen to get his hands on her and activate a device that will fix the mistakes he believes he made that gave the forest its sentience. In order to rescue Toola Agito must join with the forest himself; something that will give him superhuman strength but risks him becoming a tree if he loses control of his new strengths.I'm glad a listened to my friend as I found this to be an enjoyable film; most of the animation looks great even if some of the 3D CGI contrasts a little too much with the traditional animation that makes up most of the film. The characters are enjoyable and don't fall into the cliché of having a black and white morality; even the antagonist is doing what he does because he believes that is the right way to save civilisation. The environmental message might seem a little heavy handed to some but the plot justifies it and I don't think it got too preachy. People who want action scenes should be happy too as there is quite a lot including plenty of explosions and a fight between Agito and the antagonist.These comments are based on watching the film in Japanese with English subtitles.

This is a film with much promise but unfortunately does not quite live up to its excellent premise. Directed by Keiichi Sugiyama, Origin is his first feature film. The story revolves around young Agito a local to the post-apocalyptic town where the film is set and a girl, Toola, who is awoken from a cryo pod. Toola is seduced by a fellow survivor and is sent on a mission to try make things the way they were, Agito meanwhile tries to convince Toola that his way of life is a good one, and stops the plan.There are two very promising elements in this film, the first is the showing of 'smart phone/tab' style technology which has become so integral to those from the pasts day-to-day life, the device is shown to activate all manner of objects, used as a map, and a phone. The real world relevance is obvious and with society moving in a direction whereby our smart phones and tabs are used so frequently and for such a wide variety of things that there future vision of similar devices doesn't seem far-fetched. What is even more interesting is that the device is not the cause of the disaster which ended civilization, where most science-fiction is quick to blame humanities increasing obsession with this form of technology this film leaves those concerns out, which is very refreshing. The second and most interesting element is the cause for the end of civilization, an accident when terraforming the moon. Terraforming has long been a staple of science-fiction, but in this film the terraforming backfires, destroying the moon in one of the most beautifully animated sequences, and launching intelligent plant life at the earth. It is very refreshing to see the staple of the genre backfire, unfortunately this aspect is not explored strongly enough.Origin for all its promise just doesn't reach its potential, heavily mining from Hayao Miyazaki's 1984 classic, Naussica, to the point of near plagiarism. At least Sugiyama borrowed from the best. The characters are also problematic, with each of them very one-dimensional in nature. The closing scene is also ridiculous, unfortunately the use of a walking volcano, that is a previously rooted volcano sprouting metal legs and moving toward the town, was ill advised and perhaps ruined a perfectly good film.Overall the film deserves credit for trying to deal with a very interesting subject, and its animation is stunning, the score is beautiful and works exceptionally well with the style of animation, unfortunately poor character development and the aforementioned volcano incident take a good film and make it an average one.

The first noticeable thing about Gin-iro no kami no Agito is its visual excellence. From the first look at the exploding moon over the lush greens of the great forest to the magnificent views of the broken cities of Earth, the production values for this movie are nothing short of stunning. Studio Gonzo sure knew how to make the best of its budget, seamlessly mixing CGI and more traditional art. A wonderfully engrossing, orchestral soundtrack by Iwasaki Taku tops this all off, making this movie a memorable experience, especially when viewed on the big screen High production values alone do not make a good movie, but fortunately, Gin-iro no kami no Agito also has an entertaining, if maybe a little stereotypical, action plot. There are those that wish to coexist with nature and those who want to destroy it; guess who's good and who's bad? Still, the addition of Tula and, to a lesser extent, Shunak brings a bit of depth into the conflict. After all, both sides have reasonable motives for their actions and are equally fanatic. All in all, the plot could even be called interesting...... were it not borrowed shamelessly from Nausicaä of the Valley of Wind. Humanity struggling with a dangerous environment? Check. Conflict between peaceful and militaristic people? Check. An ancient, technological relic that could turn the tide in the conflict? Check. The hero making a sacrifice in the end to achieve victory? Check. Even the structure of this movie's (The first noticeable thing about Origin ~Spirits of the Past~ is its visual excellence. From the first look at the exploding moon over the lush greens of the great forest to the magnificent views of the broken cities of Earth, the production values for this movie are nothing short of stunning. Studio Gonzo sure knew how to make the best of its budget, seamlessly mixing CGI and more traditional art. A wonderfully engrossing, orchestral soundtrack by Iwasaki Taku tops this all off, making this movie a memorable experience, especially when viewed on the big screen High production values alone do not make a good movie, but fortunately, Origin ~Spirits of the Past~ also has an entertaining, if maybe a little stereotypical, action plot. There are those that wish to coexist with nature and those who want to destroy it; guess who's good and who's bad? Still, the addition of Tula and, to a lesser extent, Shunak brings a bit of depth into the conflict. After all, both sides have reasonable motives for their actions and are equally fanatic. All in all, the plot could even be called interesting...... were it not borrowed shamelessly from Nausicaä of the Valley of Wind. Humanity struggling with a dangerous environment? Check. Conflict between peaceful and militaristic people? Check. An ancient, technological relic that could turn the tide in the conflict? Check. The hero making a sacrifice in the end to achieve victory? Check. Even the structure of this movie's Japanese name (Gin-iro no Kami no Agito) reminds us of Miyazaki's early masterpiece. The name "Shunak" sounds suspiciously as though someone rearranged the syllables in the name of Nausicaä's opponent, Kushana. There's hardly an original element in the story, except for one, and that doesn't really fit into the setting; around the middle of the movie, Agito gains superpowers. The way these powers are bestowed upon him is a little... anticlimactic, so to speak, but the bigger problem is that the entire plot would have been much more exciting without this little addition. A virtually undefeatable hero doesn't make for good drama, does he?) reminds us of Miyazaki's early masterpiece. The name "Shunak" sounds suspiciously as though someone rearranged the syllables in the name of Nausicaä's opponent, Kushana. There's hardly an original element in the story, except for one, and that doesn't really fit into the setting; around the middle of the movie, Agito gains superpowers. The way these powers are bestowed upon him is a little... anticlimactic, so to speak, but the bigger problem is that the entire plot would have been much more exciting without this little addition. A virtually undefeatable hero doesn't make for good drama, does he?