You'll be watching this mostly for the writing, which is unrealistic in important aspects, but it actually wraps itself up very well. I get what the author's trying to do, but everyone acting retarded breaks suspension of disbelief. The weakest link are the visuals; many environments look sterile and uninspiring despite the sense of grandeur that's intended, in particular during nature shots and high-tech cities. The streets of Baghdad are an ironic exception. There's a lot of 3D animation, which is sometimes okay, but very often isn't; as usual, 2D animators seem to forget everything they know about direction when they try doing 3D, and the result is awkward at best. I probably enjoyed this more than I should have. Peter Watts' Echopraxia goes well with the film's themes (also Blindsight, but less directly).

This movie is beautiful to watch. While the story is simple the underlying philosophy is not and the story flows well. This movie is mainly dialog and philosophy with only a few action scenes. The plot keeps you guessing and it attempt to subvert most common tropes, leaving you wondering who the good and bad guys are. I found the ending disappointing. While it had a great twist, it felt unsatisfying, however I notice the other ITOH movies are similar. I suspect the attempt is to subvert our common expectation of an ending, which it does well, but leaves us with an unsatisfying feeling. While not a classic, such as Ghost in the Shell, its well worth a watch.

That's the interesting question that this film tries (eventually) to ask, but it never gets very far with an answer. Instead it provides a lot of bloviating philosophy, some of which was probably lost in translation. Maybe it's deep in the original Japanese, but it didn't make any sense in English. Instead of spending time on an interesting "what-if" question, the basis of a lot of excellent SciFi / speculative fiction, we instead are subjected to many, many flashbacks of a prissy, depressed teenage girl who wants to burn the world.

Harmony does succeed occasionally in achieving a bit of a creepy aura, but the gore isn't effective, just ... a bit gory. There are a number of secondary characters who exhibit some potential to be interesting, but none of them stick around for more than a few minutes. Our hero, Tuan, is enigmatic, by turns a rum-runner, an important member of a powerful inner circle of international investigators, and a sensitive individual with an unresolved crush on her childhood girlfriend. But it never comes together.

As for the plot, it has a lot of potential. Society is seemingly a utopia, with advanced drugs that make you live forever in perfect harmony. But someone has hacked the pharmaceutical system and has leapfrogged to hacking people's brains, making them commit suicide. As the flashbacks and plot progress, the finger is increasing pointing towards Miach, the childhood friend.

But ultimately potential is all this movie has. The ending is abrupt and inconclusive. Was it murder or a double-suicide? How will Tuan prevent the apocalypse? Was the Harmony project right or wrong? Perhaps the filmmakers thought it would be deep to leave these threads hanging loose, but I think it just shows that they didn't have any answers. Like the film, they had some high-concept ideas, but didn't have what it took to see them through.