ChanFamous I wanted to like it more than I actually did... But much of the humor totally escaped me and I walked out only mildly impressed.

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

Darin One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

Fleur Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

siderite Humans, in a not so distant future, find Noah's Ark, a huge alien machine with purpose unknown. Two military factions are fighting for it, using augmented humans. The film is fast paced action, with Ninja Scroll like fights, only using technology.The final scenes also explain the motivations of the main character and provide the only deep meaning to the film, which is both refreshing and a bit shallow :) Take your pick.Overall: good animation, good dialogue, frantic action (including a James Bond kind of chase on the rooftops of Istanbul), epic finale. Nice.

dee.reid Hirotsugu Kawasaki's 1998 film "Spriggan" is a Japanese Anime' piece like no other. It's the second Anime' film I've viewed in the past three days that shares the traits of a twisted, turning plot and (mostly) one-dimensional characters. But like a lot of other Anime' films that share such qualities, I found myself deep into the on-screen action, characters, and animation.For the most part, "Spriggan" avoids many of the stigmas of Japanese animation - sex, gratuitous nudity, deep philosophy on man's origins (like 1988's "Akira" or 1995's "Ghost in the Shell"), and graphic violence. Though there is some pretentious bloodshed here and there in "Spriggan," it's hardly of the super-graphic kind.And "Spriggan" also has a plot (from which none other than Katsuhiro Otomo shares a credit on and is itself based on a Manga series called "Striker"), that as near as I can remember, is not thematically deep and is, hence, easy to follow. A relief, for once, for this Anime' fan. The action begins with the accidental discovery of a monstrous structure at the top of the world, the Mountains of Ararat (Bible scholars, take notice).The discovery, "Noah's Ark," lies deep within the Mountains of Ararat. For those who remember Sunday school, the story of Noah's Ark came when the eponymous Noah was told by God that a great flood was coming, and he was to build an ark and he and his family could stave off the apocalypse along with two of every animal species while a raging God drowns the rest of civilization for its sins.After the waters receded, God's wrath had subsided and life began anew, the resting place of Noah's Ark was said to be in the Mountains of Ararat. Over the centuries, many individuals have tried to locate the Ark but with no avail, though there are conflicting reports that say its final resting place is actually in China somewhere and some have claimed they found it but their stories are hardly conclusive ("Unsolved Mysteries" did a real good investigative piece on it once).But in "Spriggan," which is actually the name given to a group of elite soldiers and the film's main character Yu Ominae, Noah's Ark is actually an alien spacecraft that houses man's possible extraterrestrial origins as well as the dinosaurs and other creatures specifically designed to populate the earth once we were annihilated.As you have it, Yu gets swept up in a government conspiracy to reach Noah's Ark after several friends of his are killed by shadowy characters, and he himself is then targeted for elimination. Putting to use his extraordinary military skills, he's able to make fodder out of the lot of them. When he finally does reach Noah's Ark, he finds an excavation with scientists and military personnel hard at work and eagerly trying to unlock its secrets.But things turn deadly when the site is attacked, and an American colonel, MacDougall, assumes control of the daily operations there. MacDougall is especially dangerous because, like in "Akira" (which this film may borrow from liberally), he is a kid. But they shouldn't let that fool them; he is a brilliant military strategist as well as a psychopathic psychic and I'm assuming he's really an adult trapped in a kid's body (which could be explained by those wires in the back of his head, though I'm not sure if this was ever explained either).MacDougall of course wishes to unlock Noah's Ark, and use its technology to wage war on mankind, which we all know will have disastrous consequences for anyone who wishes to toy with a power of alien or religious origin. So Yu, the scientists, and the military align with each other to stop MacDougall and keep the Ark's power from being used to wipe out life on this planet.I remember distinctly reading in the Amazon.com DVD review about its American attributes, which said "Spriggan" shares the plot qualities of "Raiders of the Lost Ark" (1981), "Universal Soldier" (1992), and the aforementioned "Akira." "Spriggan" does have those traits, which are ever-present in the plot and characters. But we're not looking at a deep, mystifying adventure like "Akira"; we're looking at a film that is very much in the same category as most Hollywood blockbusters.I can assure you these are accurate criticisms, but they don't take away from the enjoyment of the picture. "Spriggan" takes an old story and puts a nice Anime' spin on it. Though it could anger some Western audiences, it's obviously best they don't see it anyway.Still, "Spriggan" is nothing more than pure popcorn entertainment, plain and simple. If you're looking for deep philosophical dialogue on man's origins, go elsewhere. If you want hardcore action with little plot, stick with "Spriggan"; I promise you, the viewer, this: you won't be disappointed.7/10

dwlarry Maybe it's cause I'm new to anime, or maybe it's cause I'm a dinosaur looking for a fresh face on entertainment ... I dunno exactly what it is, but I found Spriggan to be the absolute best movie I've seen in years ..., make that tens of years. I've read reviews that lament the lack of story line and character development; Hogwash! I found these areas to be well covered and extremely easy to follow & cheer for. Granted the movie offers an extremely over-simplistic view of world politics by blaming all of the world's woes on the good ole U.S. of A., but that's to be expected when you're the number 1 world power & the world is as screwed up as it is. We all know, hopefully, that evil & greed existed before America & will continue for a long time after the USA, but it makes for one helluva story line. Action packed, extremely well drawn and acted, I found myself completely absorbed from the very first minute. A previous viewer commented on the sound problems, I experienced this too. I found that at times voices were very faint, while background effects were overloud, this was not very discomforting & did not at all distract from the on screen fun.

evilasahobby Spriggan is very pretty. You can easily see that a large amount of money has been invested into making this anime shine, even down to the dubbing of solid voice actors and near perfect lip synching. Spriggan also has all the necessary parts of a great anime, with an incredible hero, a powerful villain and enough nonsensical metaphysics to make some of the dialogue come out sounding intelligent (provided you don't think about it, of course). The superpowers that each of the main characters possess are interesting enough and the action doesn't pause for long.But something is missing. The bad guy is evil for no particular reason, which is pretty standard in anime but in Spriggan he appears to be just following the manual: "Use powers to take over powerful artifact. Use artifact for own ends". A little bit of dialogue to give him some purpose would have been nice. The fact that two world class organisations are fighting each other for the fate of the world means very little as the narrative never really bothers to outline the ethics of either group. Which one is the evil? Oh, the one that the protagonist fights against. Of course. Both seemed as bad as each other to me, but I recognise that the movie comes from a much longer series of manga comics so I'm probably not getting the whole Spriggan story.Overall, Spriggan hits all of the anime action cliches with a higher production value than most. Switch your brain off and enjoy the ride.