Dune meets Dolly The Sheep in this ramblingly incoherent tale of cloning, world domination and big worms made of scrap metal.

After Japan is kicked out of the world party for playing God with its robot technology, it shuts up shop and hides behind a big electromagnetic wall for a decade.

However, ten years on, something evil is stirring: intelligence reports suggest it's putting together a nasty weapon of mass destruction.

The US government sends dirty ops brigade SWORD, led by KD Lang clone Vexille (voiced by Meisa Kuroki), into the forbidden empire to see what gives.

It's good to see a CGI extravaganza which does not feature a sinister dystopia (well, not much of one anyway).

Instead, we've got a sort of malevolent cross between Microsoft and the Ford Motor Company dragging The Land of the Rising Sun into total darkness.

As tends to be the trouble with these affairs, the characters never really leave the drawing board: they've all got the romantic allure of Barbie or the emotional clout of Action Man.

To compensate, there are some impressive setpieces including the Jags, a whirling maelstom of scrap metal reminiscent of the worm-like avengers in Tremors.

But it's not enough; the attention wanders almost as much as the plot and the finale leaves you with a vicious dose of the "whatevers".

Tim Evans