PSYCHO-PASS: The Movie

Movie (1 ep x 113 min)
2015
3.989 out of 5 from 6,503 votes
Rank #1,045
PSYCHO-PASS: The Movie

In a futuristic Japan, the Sibyl System is charged with keeping the peace. Using extensive surveillance and biological monitoring to gauge the likelihood that individuals will commit a crime, the police are able to use weapons called Dominators to remove potential criminals from the population before they become a problem. Confident with the success of the System within their own borders, the Japanese government has begun to export the technology to other countries, planning to ultimately spread the System across the globe. When the state of SEAUn brings the Sibyl System in to test its effectiveness, it becomes a haven of peace and safety—for a time. Eventually, terrorists from SEAUn begin appearing in Japan, somehow slipping through the System’s security and attacking from within. Desperate for answers, Inspector Akane Tsunemori is sent overseas to bring the terrorists to justice. But when her investigation forces her into a standoff with an old ally, will she be able to pull the trigger?

Source: Funimation

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Reviews

ThatAnimeSnob
3.5

1) Bad Filler: Let’s clear this right away. The Psycho Pass movie is NOT a sequel to the second season, which was made on the run, just to keep the buzz going until the film comes out. It has zero continuity, besides making Shimotsuki being mean to Akane. The rest of it was made up nonsense, which angered pretty much everybody who liked the first season. 2) Very Rushed: As if the second season being badly written filler wasn’t enough, the movie is also very rushed. It had more than enough material to fill a dozen episodes, and yet was crammed in half the time it would normally need. As a result nothing lasts long enough to make you care about the themes or the characters. 3) Infodumping Galore: Half the movie is made up of preachy monologues, where EVERYBODY is talking about stuff that are nothing more than elementary-level philosophies. And by EVERYBODY I mean EVERYBODY. Even characters who have no need to talk or whose role is not to be a couch philosopher gets to blabber about society and justice. It feels very forced and artificial since it happens all the time and makes the cast be out of character. This isn’t something new, considering Urobutcher is the writer, but even plot devices that are nothing more than mouthpieces of the author need to act a bit more natural than tape recorders. And they didn’t because there wasn’t any time allocated for character interactions and fleshing out. 4) Explosions and Boobs: When the movie is not showing characters talking like children who think they know everything, then it shows explosions and boobs. The tv series had a lot of gore as well, but the movie increases that ten-fold. If you do a counting, there are about 50 people in a single film who are blown to bits, gutted, or shot in the head, all uncensored and very graphical. Add to that, a nude scene with Akane. Because no pseudo-intellectual anime can be complete without the false assumption of violence and sex making it mature. 5) Passive Observer: Speaking of Akane, she is the protagonist, and yet does nothing in the whole movie besides listening to whatever couch philosophies people say around her. Whatever she does, is only an excuse to move from one infodumping character to another infodumping character, without ever actively trying to change or affect something. She was always a lobotomized askman in the series, but her role this time is to investigate and she has improved her martial arts considerably. Being less active than in the series despite these credentials, makes her even more of a plot device than she already was. The only thing she somewhat offers, is giving Sybil advices, something she could have done by sitting on her couch back home, and talking to her gun like a lunatic. I can’t see how anyone can like this sort of character unless his taste is really bad. 6) Nonsense Plot: The plot is also bad, as it always was, but since the pacing is now so rushed, it can’t even fool the casual viewer to consider it mature. Sybil still pretends to be a good guy by killing thousands of innocent people simply because they refuse to give up on freedom, allows sadistic dictators to torture millions, then kills them all, replaces politicians with robots, and still expects the viewer to believe it is all done for the good of humanity. No. Just no. Its justice is not better than any megalomaniac dictator’s justice, where it does as it pleases, and excuses mass murder as just, simply because it suits it. 7) Lack of Common Sense: And even if you overlook all the nonsense that is the story, you can’t even take simple character actions seriously. I mean, who can possibly believe that hundreds of soldiers who were at war for decades, have a clear psycho pass? Who would be retarded enough to still think that people whose psycho pass is not scanned are good and friendly, when the series has shown over a dozen times that this is exactly what the bad guys are doing so they can kill innocents and get away with it? Who in his sane mind would devise a plan to go through a lot of effort to take prisoners, infodump for hours in front of them, and then proceeds to killing them, instead of killing them right away without bothering to capture them at all, since that was his plan all along? And what kind of an insane population would vote as president, the same guy who was their dictator for years, and whose entire army was revealed to be sadistic killers, who were mistreating them relentlessly? 8 ) Lame Sequel Bait: And despite all this mess, the story is once again left incomplete, with nothing resolved, a never-ending sequel bait for people who keep watching for the sake of watching, as if it’s a shallow fighting shonen. The story trolls you to perpetually expect closure, which will either never come, or will disappoint you when it eventually does. 9) Verdict: This movie is the last nail on the coffin of an overhyped anime that gathers all the pseudo-intellectuals in the community. The first season was bad, the second was shit, and the movie is a gutter. Go back to rewatching Ghost in the Shell, people. It’s good because it’s retro. And there is no way human beings with even basic understanding of taste would want more of this travesty.

davidbastias
10

*SPOILER-FREE REVIEW* FINALLY, the Psycho-Pass movie. I can't tell you how long I have been waiting to watch this. Psycho-Pass 2 did hold me over for a bit, but it wasn't exactly what I was looking for. You can see my review of the second season here. I've waited for what seems like forever and even managed to avoid all spoilers. (Nice try Tumblr, Reddit, Twitter) So did the movie live up to the anticipation?   Story I said that the weakest part of Psycho-Pass 2 was the story since it was being made at the same time as the movie and couldn't change anything, well I'm happy to say that the story in the Psycho-Pass Movie might be the best part about it. The plot is simple at face value but there is actually a lot going on here and the plot gets deeper and deeper as the move goes on. After all, Urobuchi is back and you can tell. The writing is great, the pacing is perfect and of course (it's Urobuchi) there is a twist. The story pulls the same thing the first season did as there many ideals held by the different factions and it makes you question who really is the good guy in this story. Most of the film isn't in Japan, it takes place in SEAun (Southeast Asia Union) and the location of this movie is AMAZING, it puts our characters in real danger. This is a serious war going on here, tanks, real guns, missile launchers, you name it. The plot steps up in that sense and it feels like so much is at stake. Now, something I have seen is people being upset that this doesn't give closure or finish the story. For me I think that's fine, this is just another part of the Psycho-Pass story and sets up another movie or season 3 perfectly in my opinion.  Animation Jesus... Production IG, I've missed you. The animation is great, how can it not be with the budget they had? I would say that it looked better than Season 1 and way better than Season 2. The few times you do see the Dominator in action it looks insane. As stated earlier the film takes place for the majority of the time in another country (SEAun). The place looks great and they did a good job showing such a stark contrast of what we are used to. The animation of the various drones, tanks, military weapons were also fantastic and added in creating this harsh representation of how brutal this place really is. Overall I can't take any points off here, Animation is amazing as usual for Psycho-Pass. Sound Ok I don't want to be that guy but god damn the ENGRISH in this movie. It starts off ok but it gets MUCH WORSE once the main characters have to speak English. It got to the point where I needed the subs more for when characters were speaking in English than Japanese. (Except when Akane speaks English, KanaHana too cute.) I don't want to count this as that much of a negative because you can tell the VAs tried, some sound better than others. As for the Japanese voice acting, what can I say? It has a great cast, that got even better with the addition of Hiroshi Kamiya and Unsho Ishizuka. I thought both of them did a great job with their characters. As for everything else, the sound effects are great and the music... the F***ING MUSIC. Yugo Kanno has stepped up with mixes of our favorite tracks from the previous seasons, as well as playing the older versions which will get you hyped but that ending song, I shed a tear just hearing it. Perfect. There's also a new opening song from Ling Tosite Sigure, so you already know that it's good. So besides the butchering of the English language, everything Sound related was top notch.  Characters Kogami I've missed you so much. Yes, he's finally here and the wait was worth it. Kogami has changed since we last met him but in a strange way he's exactly the same. (You'll see what I mean.) I thought Kogami in this film was great, they didn't do anything out of character for him and his interactions with other characters was perfect. Akane in this movie continues where she left off in the second season of being a badass and we finally get to see our main characters reunite. The only bad part is that some of our supporting characters don't get much time, but it's only a movie so they don't have time for everyone. The villains were actually good if you ask me. We finally have a villain who is a hulking fighting force. Not to say Makishima wasn't, but this guy is huge and when you see him fight, it's a damn good fight. Some people have problems with the new villains, but again it's a movie so they can't give them that much time. I enjoyed them. There are a few surprise cameos that I'm sure fans of the series will enjoy. For this part of the review, I'm just going to let my inner fanboy out. The characters were everything the fans would want and seeing some of these interactions literally made me cry fanboy tears.  Overall I can't say there is anything wrong with this movie. If you've seen the first 2 seasons and enjoyed them, I can't see you not liking this movie. This movie does for Psycho-Pass fans what the Rebellion movie did for Madoka fans (well maybe without that crazy of an ending.) It's everything you want as a fan and leaves you wanting even more. The best parts of the first season are the same best parts of this movie. It hits all the beats it's supposed to. I had so much fun with this movie and it was exactly what the series needed. I can't wait to see what's next in the Psycho-Pass series and I hope we get it soon. Well hey at the least the video game is getting an English localization so that will do for now :D

PersonaSimon
4

Personally, I try to avoid movies based on pre-existing series. Usually they come off as fanservice and do not further the main series in any way. And when said movie has tied into the main series, it is often very rushed and poorly structured mess (I’m looking at you Gundam 00). The Psycho Pass movie is no exception. . First off, this is a stand alone side story. It says that it’s a sequel to Psycho Pass 2, but that is pretty much a lie. The is basically zero connection the second season and most of the movie takes place outside of Japan. None of the characters other than Akane and Kogami makes a meaningful appearance in the movie. I guess the movie wants to stay away from the nonsense in the god awful Psycho Pass 2. The bad thing though, is that this basically makes the movie filler. Now, I wouldn’t actually mind this that much if the movie was good. But alas, it was not. First and foremost, the thing rushed as all hell. The movie has approximately enough content to cover an entire season, but all of it is crammed into less than two hours. Everything goes by so fast that it becomes hard to care about anything that's happened. Characters come and go at a blink of an eye, ideas are dropped at a tip of a hat, and there is no theme that last long enough to matter. However, I don’t necessarily think the movie would be any better with a longer run time since the plot is contrive as the US tax system. The plot for the Psycho Pass Movie is completely illogical and downright stupid. The entire point this movie trying to push the point that the Sybil system is actually a good system. This seems really obtuse and stupid, especially considering this is consider this movie technically take place after season two, where Sybil kills people for no reason. In this movie, Sybil killed thousands of innocent people, allows an army of megalomaniacs to oppress millions, replaces politicians with robots, and still expects the viewer to believe it is all done for the good of humanity. What a fucking joke. And they even throw in the dictatorial government in Cambodia to simply make Sybil look good in comparison. Gen, a slight smaller piece shit is still a piece of shit. And for the love of god, Akane somehow still believe that she can change the system from the inside. Really Akane? That is like trying to passing a bill through Congress, it will never happen. None of the characters ever matter in this movie. All the villains suffer from “James Bond Syndrome”  where they let the main characters live for no reason, explain their plan to them, and then finally proceed to kill them. As for the villains, they are just there for the sake of being cool. None of the villains ever come off interesting of meaningful. The army dudes are are just a bunch of one dimensional psychopaths and all the mercenaries that appear later in the film are just there to either look cool or to throw out pseudo intellectual quotes as if this was GITS Innocence. Even the main characters don’t do much. Akane and Kougami are just passive observers who are just dragged along a series of events that they have no control over. And the part that pisses me off the most is that no one learn anything at the end. All the characters remain the same as if nothing ever happened. Akane is still a stoic observer, Kougami is still a bishonen rebel, and Sybil is still a bunch of hypocritical jerks. Everything remain at the status quo as if nothing ever happened. If you want an action movie, I think this would satisfy you. It is very well polished and technically proficient and there is an abundant amount of big, blockbuster action scenes. However, if you want anything more that a dumb, action bust them up, you won’t find it here. All this movie really amounts to is an over the top gore fest that have no idea what it's doing.

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