Appleseed Alpha (2014)

Deunan and her cyborg buddy Briareos survive as hired-guns in a post-apocalyptic world. Deunan hopes that one day they will both reach the safety of Olympus, but Briarios isn't convinced that the place exists.
Alpha is an alternate version of events, but given that it's essentially set before the first of Aramaki's Appleseed films, I'd hoped for a return to the earlier animation style, but it's the same as was used in its sequel. Boo!
It's a story of hope, which is something that it reminds us of too often; perhaps they knew that some viewers would be falling asleep partway through? There's at least one new character that's recognisably Shirow in essence, but it was all too flat and lifeless to keep my attention. It'd be more than serviceable as video game FMV, but as a movie... nope. Not even close.

1½ post-war cleanups out of 5