Movie Night #107: Renaissance (2006)
Director: Christian Volckman
Plot: Paris, 2054, a company called Avalon sells beauty and youth products to the masses. A researcher for Avalon is kidnapped, and it's up to a rogue police officer to track her down. Apparently she was involved in research that resulted in the death of a bunch of kids in an attempt to create a product that would cause eternal youth. A lot of plot twists and story elements that don't make a ton of sense follow to a conclusion that I really didn't care about.

I'll be absolutely honest with you here, this movie looks very pretty. And that's about it. The plot didn't make a lick of sense to me, as the movie was trying to be too many things at the same time. It wanted to be Blade Runner, a crime noir, a mystery thriller, an action sci-fi flick, and a commentary about youth and beauty products and corporate greed. It needed to focus on the two things that many movies lack: character and story. It had me with the stunning visuals and the unique style of black and white CG animation...now it just needed to back it up with some substance.

Lazy viewers will be happy to hear that they reanimated the mouths for the movie to comply with the English voice work (so it doesn't look like a bad dub job). Purists like myself will be happy that the French language track was also included in the DVD release.

Honestly, rent it for the gorgeous visuals and production design, but don't expect to get a ton out of it.