The feature-length debut from French animation house Onyx is film noir taken at face value, with only the most sparing concessions to white delineating form and movement. In a dystopian Paris circa 2054, the Avalon Corporation has society in its thrall. Maverick cop Karas (Daniel Craig) unearths sinister secrets on the trail of an abducted girl (Romola Garai).
The obvious contemporary reference point, though, is Sin City, which Renaissance mirrors in its sleek visuals of an oily, rain-slashed necropolis. But fluid, sexy motion capture fails to mask tired themes (screwy science, corporate conspiracy) and 2-D characterisation (Craig’s voiceover is as monotone as the palette).
DVD Extras:
The DVD comes with the studio’s 1997 short MAAZ: a less polished but more mind-flipping proposition. In the Making Of, director Christian Volckman and team speak of creating a “hybrid” between animation and trad cinema, namechecking Blade Runner and James Ellroy, Fritz Lang and Orson Welles, rather than Walt Disney and John Lasseter.
