SPOILERS AHEAD
This is what I get browsing Netflix at 2 in the morning.
The interesting premise? In the future, humanity has been doing experiments genetically modifying plant life on the moon. Unfortunately, something went wrong and the experiment went out of control destroying part of the moon. Following that catastrophe the plants return to Earth, mutated into a sentient life form and supplanting humanity as the dominant life form of the planet. Now Toola, a girl cryogenically frozen before the disaster, has awakened to this strange new world. And she holds the power to either restore the Earth or destroy it.
Now this is an interesting idea. Sentient plant life overtaking the Earth? That's original. It creates opportunities for unique visuals and presents a different kind of apocalypse than the usual nuclear wastelands and dirty cyberpunk cities. You could do a lot with this. Imagine our protagonist having to travel through this strange environment, the Earth turned alien, creating a dissonance for her because she comes from the standard super technological future. But it blows this potential by not doing anything with the idea and the Forest, as this plant entity is called by the surviving humans, ends up just serving as a vague antagonist and backdrop. All the action takes place in the usual post-apocalyptic ruined cities.
The film starts off all right. Our main setting is Neutral City, a bridge between the area controlled by the Forest and Ragna, an industrial empire that has completely shunned the Forest. Even though the Forest apparently controls all the water supply, which is apparently in short supply for humans. Anyway, our secondary protagonist is Agito, the son of one of the city's founders, who discovers Toola while retrieving water for his dad. His dad who is a tree. I'll get back to that.
After a decent action sequence, we settle into life in Neutral City. It's hard work, especially for Toola who's used to the convenience of the modern world. Everything has to be done by hand and there isn't even electricity. It's not all bad though, as Agito and Toola begin a pre-teen relationship. He even introduces her to his dad. His dad who's a tree. I'll get back to that. But both the Forest and Ragna learn of Toola, who is the key to destroying the Forest. And they both want to get their hands on her. Ragna so they can destroy the Forest. The Forest so she can't destroy them.
Okay, I suppose I ought to explain how Agito's dad is a tree right? Well The Forest makes some humans its protectors by giving them superpowers. The tradeoff is that eventually these protectors turn into trees. Don't ask me to explain the science of that. Another of these tree protector dudes is Schanuck, our nominal antagonist. He was also unfrozen like Toola and has been waiting for her to wake up because he knows about a Forest destroying superweapon but needs her to find it. After some Triffids attack Toola, he shows up with some Ragna dudes and playing on her memories of the past convinces her to help him control the Forest. She goes with him. This upsets Agito, who's crushing hard on Toola and he tries to convince her that she can't recreate the past and they should just accept the present and blah blah blah. Point is, she leaves with Schanuck and the Ragna dudes and he goes and gets tree powers too so he can get her back.
This is where this movie goes off the rails. We follow Toola and Schanuck to Ragna, which is boring, and they find where the superweapon is and go there. Oh yeah, Ragna is supposed to be all industrial and technological, but the designs are all just generically steampunk. It's dissapointing. Meanwhile, we see Agito tear through those generic steampunk tanks with his new powers, which made him the bastard son of Swamp Thing and Tetsuo from Akira. He goes to Ragna to get Toola, gets captured, escapes, misses her, almost turns into a tree and it's just boring....
The movie feels like it's missing its second act. We get hints the Schanuck isn't on the up and up, we get hints that Toola is questioning her decision, we get hints that Agito can't control his powers. But all we get is hints. Nothing is elaborated on. All these dramatically important points get rushed on the way to the climax. As a result, we lose our investment with the characters.
Anyway, Toola and Schanuck find the superweapon and it's, I'm not making this up, a walking volcano. A walking volcano. Okay, I could accept the "superpowers will turn you into a tree" thing but this is so scientifically innaccurate I can't let it pass. A volcano is a buildup of magma from between tectonic plates, IT CAN'T GET UP AND MOVE! EVEN IF YOU COULD BUILD AN APPARATUS UNDER A MOUNTAIN TO MOVE IT, YOU COULDN'T BRING THE MAGMA WITH YOU. THAT'S FROM THE PLATES! ALL YOU'D HAVE IS A BIG CONICAL ROCK YOU MORONS!
Uhhhh. Anyway, Schanuck sets off the stupid volcano. It turns out he was the scientist who mutated the plants back in the day and wants to wipe out the Forest to clear his guilt. But the stupid volcano will also wipe out what's left of humanity so Toola isn't on board with the plan anymore. Agito, who somehow became even less interesting than he already was after getting superpowers, shows up to save her and help stop the stupid volcano. So while all the unimportant secondary characters hold off the volcano (which is also covered with guns because it isn't stupid enough), he gets into a dust-up with Schanuck. And you want to know how Agito beats him? He turns into a tree so hard that it forces Schanuck to turn into a tree. Seriously.
So the bad guy's dead and the superweapon's been stopped, but because it's a volcano it's still going to erupt. Science weeps for this movie. Toola has just fallen too in love with Agito (Hey, more shit not elaborated on) so she can't leave the erupting volcano without him. Even though he's a tree now. We cut to the Forest hive mind or something, where Agito's Soul (I think?) is hanging out. There's some blatant environmental speechifying, harmony with nature and all that, and Agito gets a tree birth. He and Toola outrun the volcano, movie over.
Dear God, this sucks. But it only sucks as much as it does because there was so much potential. Sentient plant life! Endangered humanity! This could have been a journey through a strange, alien future seen through the eyes of a cryogenic sleeper, the perfect viewpoint for the audience. But no, it fell into the usual post-apocalyptic cliches and blew all the potential of its premise. The story went wide with dueling nations and superweapons when it should have stayed more intimate with our protagonist.
Oh well, review the movie you've got not the one you want. And the one I've got is pretty bad. The characters are uninteresting and univolving, the story feels both rushed and too long and concepts are left vague. Especially The Forest. It's established early that humans can't survive in areas the Forest controls but it's not explained why, whether it's just extremely dangerous or if it actually is lethal. Or just how it works. It's some kind of hive mind, but it's unclear whether parts are just animalistic or if the whole thing is controlled by a central intelligence.
On the plus side, the animation's decent. The art style looks to be aping the Miyazaki/Studio Ghibli look and it works for the most part. This was made by Studio Gonzo, who made two of my favorite all-time anime, and their worst offense here is some overused CG on the Ragna spider-tanks. The voice-acting is serviceable, neither particularly good nor particularly bad. That's about all I can say in its favor.
Final Score: 2/5
Don't bother with this one.
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