‘PSYCHO-PASS: The Movie’ Theatrical Release

PSYCHO-PASS makes a successful jump from small screen to big screen this month. PSYCHO-PASS: The Movie, only in select theaters March 15 and 16, picks up three years after the anime series has left off.

Set in a futuristic Japan, the Sybil System is an extensive surveillance and biological monitoring system that assesses people for criminal intent. With the system’s help, the police can remove potential criminals before they can cause problems. While the rest of the world dissolves into criminal unrest, Japan is at peace with the help of the program.

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Confident of the Sybil System’s success, Japan exports the technology to SEAUn, a country filled with civil war and unrest. The technology is somewhat effective in the war-torn country, but terrorists from SEAUn infiltrate and attack Japan.

Inspector Akane Tsunemori (Kana Hanazawa; Kate Oxley), a detective for the Public Safety Bureau’s Criminal Investigation Division, is sent to SEAUn in search of answers, but her investigation brings her face-to-face with Kogami (Tomokazu Seki; Robert McCollum), her former colleague at the Public Safety Bureau. The case is not as straightforward as it may have seemed at first.

PSYCHO-PASS: The Movie is definitely not an independent story existing in the PSYCHO-PASS universe. Viewers need to have watched the anime series to fully appreciate this movie.

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There is very little in establishing of the futuristic society and laws that govern it, minimal explanation of the Sybil System and virtually no explanation of the difference in CID between inspectors and enforcers. All of these facts are critical to understand how the Psycho-Pass universe functions, and viewers without this knowledge may find themselves lost.

The movie also makes several references to past story arcs and broken relationships that lose their emotional punch without that knowledge. However, the movie is enjoyable once the audience has that basic background information.

The mystery and plot balances being straightforward while still managing to surprise at the end with a twist. Tsunemori is still a strong lead character with a rock-solid moral compass and independent mind. Kogami as Tsunemori says, “hasn’t changed a bit.”

The story, however, is less about the two characters’ growth and more about the mystery afoot and the effectiveness and morality behind the Sybil System itself. Questions about freedom, peace and democracy are posed against the backdrop of guerilla civil war, dictators cutting deals and mercenaries looking for a piece of the pie.

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The movie is paced well and the plot is easy-to-follow, but for the questions it raises this story could have been told with more nuances than its one hour and 53 minute run time allowed. The movie is well put-together, entertaining and fits the tone of the anime, but I’m just left wondering if a season of 13 episodes would have been a better format.

Compelling supporting characters don’t get enough screen time to air their grievances. The end comes fast and heavy with little time to breathe or understand what the end goal is. All of it is wrapped up nice and neat with a moral for a bow.

With more time, PSYCHO-PASS: The Movie could have explored Tsunemori and Kogami’s character arcs in the past three years, delved into the complicated political unrest of SEAUn and the intriguing band of mercenaries getting in the way of everything.

Instead we have a movie that is well written and acted, but that’s missing a layer of complexity that could have made a good movie into a great one.

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