Unexpectedly good
I rated this 8/10.
The only movie that resembles this is Luc Besson's Leon the professional. As this has been brought up before, he clearly ripped off Golgo 13.
Now the story is a mess, I agree. The integrity of the movie is incredibly weak. It is like a series of events patched up together. Which is the most imporant aspect of a movie but just for this anime I changed my criteria of rating. The camera angles, cinematography, color choice and action sequences were incredibly good. This is more of an art project than a commercial movie. As an art person, I was thoroughly enjoying the visuals. The soundtrack selection fits the movie very well.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E0326oU9GLE
Are there any other anime that has such soundtrack? I can only name a few.
The 3d sequence was a poor choice to include. Probably in 83, they were simply amazed by the 3d graphics and the bad models and renders were not conceived "bad". Still, revolutionary though.
I had a look at the anime version too and was amazed at the difference between the two versions. I definitely prefer this version as he is more humane and not like some sort of superhero. And the anime gets repetitive after a while.
There is no guarantee that you will like this. But I will never forget how awesome this was.
Hey, Soldier. Do you know who's in command here?