Breathtaking, fascinating, exciting, engrossing, amusing.

Rating: 10/10 (4 October 2002)

The visual effects are truly breathtaking and seamlessly realised.
The film portrays a detailed fantasy universe: we are given a good impression of what life is like in a spectacular futuristic city, and a sample of its diverse culture.
There are scenes in the film that look like masterpieces by a great sci-fi artist.
The humour is of the best kind: clever and unexpected.
On the down side:

There are some dodgy performances by British actors (but Gary Oldman is utterly mesmerising).

If you learn the whole of human history alphabetically, you get to 'Atom bomb', 'Genocide' and 'Holocaust' (for example) long before you get to 'War'.