It's not eye candy because it pokes your mind too often.

Rating: 8/10 (20 June 1999)

The closest thing to Japanese cyberpunk animation you'll see on your cinema screen this year. A movie that could almost be labelled "forcefully entertaining" and definitely a very thought provoking creature. It has something for every modern sf fan. Digital fuzz and cyberculture are well in the mix.
The basic ideal of science fiction media is that it should make you think. This film made me think. In modern moviemaking special effects should be used when required, but not to a point where they prove distracting. The effects support this film very well. In fact they are original and at times groundbreaking.
There are definitely some bad points. No movie is perfect. The acting and characterization are weak and detached - like Star Trek:Insurrection, but unlike Insurrection this film has a mind of its own and massages your brain cells regularly.Particularly, Fishburne is the biggest culprit of mediocrity in this department, someone who tries to be the modern/cyber Buddha but ends up lacking any kind of personality or genuine warmth whatsoever. But you wonder if this is just Fishburne as he is - certainly watching interviews prior to seeing the film he appears at best "disinterested".
Some have said that this movie is confusing. Perhaps these people arent really confused, maybe they just "dont get it". Maybe they are trying too hard to "answer" what the film is about. But I dont think this movie is meant to answer all those little niggling questions, it poses questions and leaves you to figure them out. Very much like Chris Carter's The X files tv series.
Some have said this movie borrows from other movies. What movie doesnt ? Like much of modern media, nothing is completely original these days, certainly most of the original sf based movie ideas are long gone. The sf book market is a prime example of rehash and sequel overkill.
Some laugh at the special effects. Particularly the fight sequences. Oh that's silly ! How can he/she just hang in the air like that ? Why do those characters talk like that ? Thats not very realistic ! All I can say is that these guys are either completely missing the point or arent really sf fans. Firstly this movie is sci-fi not sci-real and secondly follow the story god-dammit !
This film washes over you. It submerges you in its world. Its beats you into submission. Its cooler than anything you can possibly imagine. It blows you away and before you have recovered asks you the meaning of life. Catch my drift ? Its a movie with a statement purposely built to be customised into what *you* want to make it.
Its not eye candy because it pokes your mind too often.