Say this for "Renaissance" : It has the wow factor going for it. This futuristic animated crime drama makes a bold visual statement in nearly every frame, as filmmakers Christian Volckman and Marc Miance turn Paris circa 2054 into a black-and-white dystopia where Fritz Lang meets Frank Miller.

But this chiaroscuro thriller is more visually arresting than narratively convincing, and as the police procedural unfolds, what might have been a sly cautionary tale, a la this summer's "A Scanner Darkly," becomes merely procedural. Daniel Craig voices the character of Karas, a hard-bitten detective (is there any other kind?) investigating the disappearance of a beautiful young scientist who, from the looks of the sylvan glen she ends up in, has been abducted by the painter Anselm Kiefer.

There's a lot of neo-noir brooding and super-cool car chases and shootouts between Karas and holographic hooligans, but the big reveal is no big deal.

What "Renaissance" has to offer is all on the surfaces, whether it's Karas's leather coat, Paris's rain-slicked streets or glass, which the filmmakers exhibit a particular talent for representing in translucent scrims or reflective screens. Volckman and Miance are undoubtedly superb draftsmen; what they need is a writer of comparable skill.

-- Ann Hornaday (Sep. 29, 2006)

Contains violent images, sexuality, nudity and profanity.