It’s difficult to know what to make of Casshern. This Japanese sci-fi picture from former fashion photographer turned first-time director Kazuaki Kiriya certainly looks impressive. The aesthetic is a kind of retro-futurism (not dissimilar to last year’s Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow) meets manga comic strip.

The story, however, is barely comprehensible. The planet has been wrecked by warfare and environmental pollution and a geneticist’s invention to rejuvenate and regenerate the human body has resulted in a band of very angry mutants who somehow have their own personal army of robots.

A series of striking set pieces strung together with a gossamer-thin plot, the film demonstrates that Kiriya has visual flair. However, he probably shouldn’t try to write his own scripts in future.