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List Price: $19.99 | | Label: Miramax
Salesrank: 30741
Released: July 24, 2007 |
| Our Price: $10.85 |
| Used Price: $1.93 |
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MPAA Rating: R (Restricted)
Media: DVD |
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Editorial Review:
RENAISSANCE is a breakthrough sci-fi thriller for a new millennium. Dare to enter a bold vision of the future in the tradition of BLADE RUNNER and SIN CITY - drenched with state-of-the art animation and a gripping story. It's 2054 Paris and the city lives in the shadow of corporate giant, Avalon, which sells the irresistible promise of "ageless beauty." The sudden kidnapping of a gifted young scientist draws a tough-as-nails cop into a twisted underworld of corporate espionage, genetic research and organized crime. Featuring the stellar voice talents of Daniel Craig (CASINO ROYALE), Jonathan Pryce (PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN Trilogy) and Ian Holm (THE LORD OF THE RINGS Trilogy).
Description of Renaissance:
Style trumps substance in Renaissance, a 2006 French film whose breathtaking visuals largely overcome its shortcomings in the areas of story and character development. Detailed in a lengthy and absorbing "making of" featurette, the film's look is a combination of CG animation, motion capture, and a palette consisting solely of black & white (there are a few splashes of color late in the proceedings, but no gray whatsoever). And while it has a few obvious antecedents (the filmmakers readily acknowledge the influence of Ridley Scott's Blade Runner, not to mention the much earlier, Expressionist work of Fritz Lang and Orson Welles), Renaissance, with its commingling of heavily processed live action and graphic novel sensibilities, looks very little like anything you've ever seen before. The setting is Paris in the year 2054, and it is here that director Christian Volckman and his crew do their best work. The French capital is certainly recognizable (the Eiffel Tower and Montmartre's Sacre Coeur are two familiar landmarks), but its classic architecture is glazed with all manner of futuristic touches, from vast glass penthouses to layers of transparent walkways outside Notre Dame Cathedral; and with the preponderance of the action taking place at night, frequently in the rain, the City of Light more often suggests a very literal representation of film noir. As for the story, it's nothing special. Hard-nosed police Captain Barthélémy Karas (voiced in this English version by Daniel Craig) is searching for a female scientist who works for Avalon, one of those sinister mega-corporations that seem to run everything in movies like this; seems the woman, who has been kidnapped, possesses what's referred to as "the protocol for immortality," and Avalon, which promises good health, beauty, and long life for all, desperately wants her back. The characters are a bit stiff (physically and otherwise), the dialogue is occasion! ally stilted, and the film is sometimes so dark that it's hard! to tell what's going on. But most of Renaissance looks so amazing that such deficiencies can easily be ignored, at least the first time through. --Sam Graham
Renaissance Reviews:
Sin City Goes to Paris 
2009-11-29 - Set in a future where mega-corporations seem to run everything, and promise health, looks and happiness, "Renaissance" is a weird mixture of CGI and graphic novel, visually striking but lacking in a coherent story. A young, brilliant scientist, Ilona, is kidnapped, and the mega-corporation, Avalon, wants her back at all costs. It's up to a special detective, Karas (voiced by 007 Daniel Craig), to find her and bring her back safely. But who took her? And why?
That's the problem with "Renaissance." It gets difficult to understand who, what, where and why if you come into this DVD blind. With a good detective story, those are essential. Despite all the futuristic settings and film-noir look to the animation, "Renaissance" is an old fashioned noir-thriller. And while the look of the movie is great, I kept having to pause myself and try to reconnect what I just saw in reference to the plot. The delirious artistry of some of the shots and segues does sort of make up for the Blade Runner meets Sin City plots collapses, I can't find myself recommending this to anyone except hard core animation buffs of graphic novel types.
I lost interest quickly 
2009-10-15 - This is almost entirely b&w animation. If you're that kind of a movie geek, you might like this. I tuned out almost immediately. I couldn't find 007 Daniel Craig either.
Gorgeous but hollow
2009-08-15 - The Bottom Line:
It cannot be denied that Renaissance's black-and-white rotoscoping effect is very pleasing to the eye, but the central mystery of the movie isn't interesting enough to keep viewers' interests after the novelty of the visuals fades; I admired a lot about the film, including its vision of 2054 France, but the storytelling wasn't very compelling and when I wasn't staring agog at the animation I was staring at my watch.
2.5/4
Oh, My Aching Optic Lobe . . . .
2009-05-27 - In the interest of full dislosure, before you invest your time reading my review, know this: I couldn't get through the whole film. Why? The animation gave me a serious headache.
I'll refrain from commenting on the substance of the story, but, stylistically, "Renaissance" combines the worst visual elements of CGI, rotoscope, and black-and-white. While it seems to strive for the intense, graphic-novel-inspired asthetics of "Sin City" and "300" (both great-looking films, in my opinion), the visual storytelling in "Renaissance" is too dark (literally), too hard to follow, and the constant flipping between what's black and what's white, what's positive and what's negative, made my corneas throb.
In short, I was disappointed. I love artfully done, "grown up" animation, and the plot description and trailer really caught my attention. Plus, I hate not finishing a movie, even an absolutely awful one. "Renaissance" is not absolutely awful, but my eyes just couldn't take 105 minutes of it.
Better than Ghost in the Shell! 
2009-05-21 - This movie is waaaay better than the 1st Ghost in the Shell flick! Not because of the better animation, or the better special effects! Even though this flick was made in and animated in a black and white style it's still better! This is the only movie that reminded me of Sin City but still kept me interested in watching it from beginning to end! The animation, the acting, and the action were all flawless in execution! Even if you rent it...it's still a great buy! Another thing to keep in mind is that Daniel Craig does a great job acting here and you don't see him fail like in the Bond Movies!
