Renaissance is a unique experience that, while done completely in CG, all of the character animations are motion captured, giving these characters a very real feeling and could very well have been done in live action. The other aspect of this film that makes it so unique are the visuals themselves; it is entirely in black and white. It isn't like black and white movies, technically those are in grayscale. This has no (or very little) grays in it. Everything is a mix of stark, bright whites and deep shadows. The only color that appears in the film is towards the end when one of the characters is drawing, and like the girl in the red dress in Schindler's List, this is a scene where you will definitely need to take notice.

There are both good and bad aspects to the movie's visual style. Like cel-shading in video games, all of the shadows and curves in the characters are very smooth and nicely done, while the minimalistic nature of the movie can lead to confusion as to which character is actually talking. Though this didn't happen a lot, it happened enough for me to take notice.

The story of Renaissance, though not a bad one, isn't quite as unique as the rest of the film. There is a lot of this movie that reminds me of Blade Runner, and based on the featurette, that isn't really something the creators were trying to shy away from. Though the movie isn't about hidden androids, it does follow a cop in the not-to-distant future. Taking place in the Paris, France of 2054, Detective Barthelemy Karas (Daniel Craig, Casino Royale) is searching for a missing researcher. This researcher works for a company called Avalon, whose products help to hide the aging process.

This film noir tale will take you through many interesting locations in the futuristic Paris as well as introduce over 200 CG characters. Each scene is obviously meticulously done and the story's twist actually caught me a bit by surprise, but that might be because the action that created the twist seemed out of character. Renaissance also features the vocal talents of Jonathan Pryce (The Pirates of the Caribbean Trilogy) and Ian Holm (The Lord of the Rings Trilogy).

The DVD's only featurette, "The Making of Renaissance," takes you through everything from the motion capture, to the origins, the visuals and the music, but, unless you are fluent in French, you might have to pay more attention to the subtitles than what they are showing on the screen.

Renaissance is definitely worth watching once, but the film's story isn't good enough to necessarily make me want to see it again. This film is worth a rental, but I wouldn't consider buying it until you've seen it that first time.

If you'd like a taste of Ranaissance you can check out the free online detective game, plus check out movie clips and such here.