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Genocidal Organ
Thematic Genocide
Movie in a Sentence
Clavis Shepherd, an agent for the US Government living in an alternate post-9/11 world, is tasked with finding and killing John Paul, an American linked with the emergence of genocides around the globe.
What I liked
For this After Anime Report as a whole, I have to say that I am writing this without having read the novel. Having said that, and having just watched this movie, it pains me to say that not many things unique to the movie were explored enough for me to say that I enjoyed them. To be fair, though, there were moments were I was truly interested. The initial raid into Georgia, for example, was a slick way to introduce the technology and setting of the world. Likewise, the battle to capture John Paul in India was a fast-paced joyride through warfare reminding me of the more adult anime previews that Funimation used to place in the trailers of old VHS’ and DVD’s. On the topic of John Paul, his eloquence was enjoyable to witness and hear and seeing Clavis struggle with interpreting parts of the world he was unaware of carried a pleasantly unsettling tone throughout the film. Oh, and I loved Egoist’s ending theme song. Nothing to do with the movie, but it’s great.
What I Didn’t Like
I gave a fair shot at trying to identify things that I enjoyed about this movie so now I don’t feel so guilty tearing into it. To start, there were too many themes and the movie tried to be a commentary on too many things to really allow me to get into the feel of things. Themes of PTSD and how to technologically suppress it, the trade-off of freedom for security, the unlocking of new kinds of freedoms within security, the sacrifice of others for self-preservation, and the way soldiers tend to be dehumanized in the public eye are just a few things the movie attempted to touch on. While one or two in conjunction with each other would have been fine, shotgun blasting a bunch of socially relevant issues at the viewer without delving too deep into many of them felt like a betrayal. Speaking of betrayals, Clavis’ usage of the grammar of genocide at the end to presumably incite an off-screen civil war in America felt like to much of a character stretch to me. He starts the movie being a slave to the government so to speak, then begins to question his actions, then decides to carry out Lucie’s will to peacefully inform the world of international killings, and finally decides to betray the wish of the woman he loved the whole movie to carry out John Paul’s wish. That’s a lot of flip-flopping and what’s worse is that the end result, though mentioned to be in line with John Paul’s wish of inciting conflict to protect the US and his loved ones, isn’t really in line with that. Clavis uses the grammar of genocide to create a change in the US through violence rather than using it outside of the world to maintain the status quo. Sure, this speaks on the fact that change sometimes needs to be extreme to occur in a world of complacence but without sufficient character development it just made it feel like a quick way to end. I said it in my spoiler free review and I’ll say it again: There was too much going on to really hammer down on one or two ideas and the characters didn’t do anything to help sort through the haze.
Overall Feelings
Maybe I was too hyped up from the trailers I saw when this movie was announced, but even after years of waiting to see it this movie in no way was what I thought it would be. As a social commentary piece, I feel as though too many ideas bogged this down. Sure, there were a lot of relevant questions (and the movie isn’t afraid to remind you of these through long monologues masquerading as conversations) but the execution felt at times too ham-handed and at times too light. If someone wants a think piece then fine, this movie will make you think. As a piece of entertainment, though, I can’t recommend this movie as a must watch. There will be people that watch this and love this because it poses a lot of questions that you are supposed to think about after the movie but, for the average moviegoer interested in a well-paced plot, memorable characters, and a satisfying conclusion, this is not an immediate priority. Conversations are well and good, but always make sure to finish them before moving on.