First the good news, the 2004 Japanese cult film, Casshern is now available on Region 1 DVD. The bad news - the film has been inexplicably cut from 141 minutes to a little under two hours. Why? Maybe someone at Dreamworks can explain. You’d think a company co-founded by Steven Spielberg would have greater respect for another director’s original vision. The DVD is unrated so it has nothing to do with ratings either.

This dystopian vision of the future (are there any other kind?) takes place after a fifty year war. A scientist discovers something called neo-cells which can be used to replace destroyed body parts of any kind. An accident in the lab causes the neo-cell body parts to combine into people. The army kills most of these human-like creatures, but a few escape. The leader declares that he and his kind are neo-sapiens and declare war on humanity.

Casshern is a heavily CGI treated live action film that is visually striking. Too often, though, the images are very familiar from past science-fiction films, and some of the symbolism is heavy handed. The Nazi imagery associated with the neo-sapiens is hard to miss. When the scientist revives his dead son in a pool of neo-cells, it clearly is modeled after a baptism. The huge sets often recall Fritz Lang’s Metropolis, eighty years old and still the template used by so many science fiction films.

Written and directed by Kazuaki Kiriya, Casshern is based on a 1973 anime. Some of the CGI effects and animation are impressive. Those who enjoy the genre may enjoy this film which attempts to say something about war and what it means to be human.