<div style='font: 11pt ; text-align: left; '>I got Kaena The Prophecy. This movie is visually murdering Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within. Jury's still out on the plot since I just started watching it. But it's nice so far.</div>
<div style='font: 11pt ; text-align: left; '>First off this is a full-length 3D-generated animated movie from France(So don't hold that against it, lol), Kaena was first an idea for a video game that was expanded into a `real' movie(I swear I thought about Beyond GOod & Evil a couple of times). It's a fantasy/sci-fi tale, and it takes place on a flying forest made of gigantic vines inhabited by a tribe of humans, who, in order to appease their gods, must harvest the sap of the vines. Trouble is, the harvest is no longer what it was and the "gods" are somewhat angry. A young woman, Kaena, who looks like a cross between Lara Croft and Princess Mononoke(Yes, I watch alot of anime, sue me), understands that the gods are...well trash. And so she fights them with the help of unexpected allies and funny worm sidekicks. The plot follows the well-used pattern where a young misfit must save the world from dark forces, battle monsters and unearth world-shattering secrets. The script is also certainly quite European in spirit, with more overt sexuality and a indictment of religion probably unimaginable in a mainstream US-made cartoon.
While a little lacking in plot, Kaena mostly succeeds as pure eye-candy. Since the representation of realistic humans is still out of reach for computer graphics (ie. the mixed results in Final Fantasy), the movie went with this chosen a half-comic-book style (like in Ice Age) which is quite pleasant, at least if you like people with really big eyes. The movie creatures are quite nice, particularly the talkative worms with their tired faces and their walking and flying devices. But it's the sets which are the MOST beautiful, with a particular attention to lighting, colouring and texturing: many scenes are shot in a golden light, slightly overexposed with lens flares and other atmospheric effects. The mixture of quasi-photorealism and more traditional CG style works quite well. The vine forest, the village and the spaceship scenes are exceptionally rendered, and amongst the most beautiful scenes in a CG-rendered movie so far. The world of the gods, by contrast, has a dark, liquid and sticky feel (the gods themselves are liquid, nasty looking creatures) with bright shining reflections, and is truly original. Sometimes, there's a little too much of everything, as if the movie was a demo for CG effects (hair, particle systems, volumetrics.). BUT, that doesn't detract from the "WOW!" Factor of the movie.
All in all, Kaena is a very fun movie. Worth a rental at least for it's amazing graphics.</div>
