Person who said that Spriggan "isn't revolutionary but is still fun" summed it up best.Only thing that I found negative was the scenes of really pointless, over-the-top, violence. The only reason Little Boy had the offensive capabilities he had, was so that the viewers could see his victims explode in explosions of gushing blood.More flash than substance, but still a fun rental.BTW, the word "Spriggan" (as far as the title reference goes) has nothing to do with the ugly, baby-stealing gnomes of European lore."Spriggan" is the "Americanization" of the Japanese word "Supurîgan," which means "Striker" and is the original name of the manga series "Spriggan" is based on.

Spriggan looked like an awesome action film from the screenshots I saw of it. When I decided to lay down $30 for the DVD, I didn't now how awesome it would be.The plot is something like Raiders of the Lost Ark, although not a clone of the original Harrison Ford film. However, many times, you will be reminded of ROTLA while watching this. I wish I could give something away about what happens, but I don't want to spoil it. Let's just say the action turns on the adrenaline by 100X. At times, you'll just be saying "whoa," as the good guys and bad guys beat the you-know-what out of each other.SPOILER IN THE NEXT PARAGRAPHFor people who have read the manga, most of which was translated in the U.S. as "Striker"(but oddly enough, when they were published in the U.S. as separate comic issues they kept the name "Spriggan"), and in particular "The Armored Warrior"(the story the film is based on), you will be seeing a bit of a change in the film's two heroes, Yu and Jean. In the film, Yu is a bit of a schizo, and unlike his manga self, Jean does not, er, "Hulk out." Also, the movie also focuses a bit more on Yu's past than the original story did. If you can accept these changes, then you'll be able to watch the movie without to much protest.END SPOILERSThe English dub is surprisingly bearable. Christopher Patton, who does Yu's English voice, is actually pretty good. Also, if there are any fans of the English version of Evangelion, Spike Spencer(English voice of Shinji) does a purely psychotic Little Boy.The animation and music are excellent, and are still pretty good for a movie which came out five years ago. I love the music, so much that I actually tracked down a CD soundtrack to the film.BOTTOM LINE: Who needs the Matrix? This is the best action film I've ever seen in my life.

Spriggan is an animé action film of extreme proportion. With production supervised by Katsuhiro Ôtomo (director of Akira), this is not surprising. Our main character is Yu Ominae, a 17 year old special operative, code named Spriggan. The story is one of warring covert government factions as they race to take possession of "Noah's Ark", an ancient artifact with immense power.All this seems simple enough. Yu is the stereotypical action hero; he catches swords with his bare hands, dispatches "bad guys" without flinching, sustains near mortal injuries and still manages to hurl abuse at his oppressors, and yet, still swerves to avoid hitting innocent pedestrians. Our bad guys include a big guy with body armour and replacement cybernetics with a very, very large gun, a small guy who is fast and also cybernetically enhanced, and a mysterious, small boy.Spriggan is based on a comic that ran in Shonen Magazine in Japan between 1989 and 1996. As such it has a following in Japan, but in the west (where it was known by the title "Striker") it has very few fans, as distribution of Japanese manga and animé is only now beginning to pick up.As far as production values are concerned, Spriggan is a showcase of modern cinematic animé. Huge rotoscoped panoramas form gorgeous backdrops for scenes such as a car chase through the streets of Turkey and you feel a true sense of immersion in flurries of mountaintop snow. What little CG there is, is integrated fluidly and adds to the film, unlike in many other productions where it may distract the viewer. The score is brilliant and the 5.1 surround mix caught me off guard. A couple of times I caught myself turning to see if there was someone behind me.I am generally a fan of subtitled animé, so I watched it in this form first. It is interesting to note that in most animé the character animation is done before the voices are added. However, in this production (as it was a cinema release), the voices for the Japanese tracks were recorded first and then the animation was made around those tracks, much in the same way Disney movies are made. Now this may bode poorly for the English dub, as the mouths instead of flapping open and closed are actually forming the shapes of words, yet great care and attention has been put into the English dub. In places the English track is a lot more plausible than the Japanese... it makes more sense that folks at the Pentagon sound like Americans. Had I my way I would change languages tracks part way through so that the English stuff is in English and the scenes set in Japan were in Japanese (more like in Blood: The Last Vampire) but that is just me being finicky. (If you get a chance to see the DVD you may want to check out the ADR team's commentary.)I feel that Spriggan is a film that has used mythology from other cultures and Christianity (in much the same way as Neon Genesis: Evangelion) to make the plot seem more interesting and arcane to a Japanese audience. The word Spriggan describes a faerie from Cornish mythology, with an ugly visage, large head and small body, and a penchant for stealing babies and replacing them. This draws some symbolic similarities to the main character as he is a character of power in a small body who was "adopted" by his organisation at a young age. I don't know how readily Americans will receive this film, as it portrays the American government in a bad light and says blatantly that the Christian Bible is wrong.Spriggan has a running time of 90 minutes. The first 60 of those play pretty much as a stereotypical action/adventure flick, but at about 60 minutes it starts getting weird. All of a sudden the plot moves from high action to metaphysical stuff and that may leave the viewer behind or feeling a little disjointed. During this section are some pretty cool visuals but to my mind the plot falls flat on its face. It seems that the film has fallen into the old animé trap of freaky villains and blood-spattered heroes yelling at each other for a bit, having their final confrontation, barely tying up the loose ends of the plot and then the bad guy threatens that there will be a sequel.In overview, I'd say that this is a technical film enthusiast's dream, not for kids, a good film for action buffs and a poor one for people who like good drama. So, to quote Douglas Adams: "Ten out of ten for style, but minus several million for good thinking".

While most stand-alone big-gun anime films(such as "Akira" and "Ghost in the Shell")rely extensively on confusing plot elements,"Spriggan" breaks this unwritten rule and is loaded with action sequences and a rather understandable,but not bland,plot.The bottom line,however,is that "Spriggan" was clearly the better movie.Each instance that I watched "Akira,""Ghost in the Shell,"and to an extent "Metropolis,"I was saying "What the (censored beep)?" at the end.Not so with this movie,even when the ending suggests the "to be continued in a sequel" possibility.To me,"Spriggan" is a modernized version of another good anime movie,"Ninja Scroll."It was satisfying from beginning to end...