Mardock Scramble: The Third Exhaust Review

3 stars for this glossy yet confusing film.

Mardock Scramble: The Third Exhaust is the third and final film of the trilogy, the first one being Mardock Scramble: The First Compression and the second one Mardock Scramble: The Second Combustion.

These films tell the story of Rune Balot, a young prostitute from Mardock City, who is taken in by wealthy casino owner Shell. However, when she uncovers too much about his past, he attempts to kill her by blowing up her car. A new law, called Scramble 09 allows the police to take any measures necessary to solve a crime and so they reconstruct Rune in order that she may help them to catch Shell.

Assisting Rune in this are Dr. Easter and Oeafcoque (a universal item which can transform into anything, but for some reason only ever chooses a mouse or a gun), they are to help to secure the conviction. If they fail, they will all be killed.

The final stage of their plan is to retrieve Shell’s memories. This is where this film picks up the story, as the three of them enter Shell’s domain, the BlueEgg Casino in Mardock City, to try and locate the million dollar chips containing his memories and scan them so they can be analysed.

This part of the film is pretty much a crash course in how to play Black Jack and takes up almost half of the running time of the entire film. Although it is beautifully drawn, it is also extremely tedious and feels like it goes on for hours.

The rest of the film follows the case through to it’s completion, complete with a run-in with Boiled, Shell’s henchman, and assorted car chases.

A lot of the details and story seem very hazy and the way that it is presented makes it all quite difficult to follow and more than a little bit incomprehensible. It’s possible that watching the other two would help, but I doubt it, even knowing the back story it is all very slow and incredibly depressing.

Having said all that, the animation is absolutely beautiful and of course, if you’ve seen the first two then you will want to know how it ends. Not for everyone this.

“Don’t disappoint me young lady. It’s time to find out whether you’re a hitchhiker or a predator.”