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Genocidal Organ
More Than Modern Warfare
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
First and foremost, Genocidal Organ is not afraid to embrace its adult audience. Battles are bloody, characters partake in the more adult pleasures of life, and the setting is an obvious play at the memories of the generations old enough to remember the events of 9/11. The world that the movie creates is immensely interesting thanks to a look at a society that went above and beyond any security measures found in reality and this is bolstered by some cool animation touches and generally pleasant animation sequences. For example, small things like a first person point of view during a gunfight or the phasing in and out of visibility by soldiers thanks to advanced cloaking technologies were all immersive without feeling overly intrusive. Likewise, the presentation of different viewpoints on societal norms and freedoms were truly
thought provoking, especially in the context of a world determined to prevent terrorist activities. Perhaps the most interesting questions this movie presented concerned the power of language. Without spoiling too much, the movie gets into the ability of humans to express through language and how that affects people.
What I Didn’t Like
While the world was interesting and the themes revolving around freedom, speech, and compromise were all interesting they also aided in some of my major issues with the film: characters and pacing. On the character front, let’s just say that they aren’t very memorable. Main characters are defined more by their ideologies than any personality and, even then, some of these ideologies are so muddled or fluid that identifying one soldier in a pack of them is difficult. Dialogue between characters came across as extremely long-winded and monologue-like, with references to beliefs, philosophies, and world views coming across as trying too hard to sound intelligent, and development feels rushed. Pacing-wise, this movie has a lot going on. From national security to the way soldiers are treated and viewed to the power of words to going against the norms, themes are abundant in this movie and, unfortunately, even a near two-hour runtime is not enough to cover them all. Even worse, the surplus of topics the movie wants to address causes the world that I found interesting to be thrown to the wayside rather than explored. This also plays into the aforementioned rushed character development, as characters make jumps in mindset almost out of nowhere and betray developments at the drop of a hat.
Overall Feelings
Genocidal Organ was a movie that raised a lot of genuine questions in a genuinely interesting world but was also one that, in my view, didn’t really give a satisfying conclusion on any front. Despite the interesting setting and themes, forgettable characters coupled uneven pacing really hurt the overall product. While I found myself thinking on the movie’s posited theories of freedom, language, and security I never found myself lamenting the death or actions of a character, jumping out of my chair from excitement based on an intense moment or action scene, or really wanting to watch the movie again. I’ve heard from other that this is the best of the three Project Itoh films and, while it was a fine movie, it wasn’t anything truly special. For those that only want some thematic challenges to ideology, this is a great movie. For those that want an actually solid movie, this can be put on the backburner. There are a lot of things in this world that are unknown to us: Discussion and conversation can reveal so much.