Ghost in the Shell: The New Movie

The original Ghost in the Shell movie is one of my favorite movies of all time and still holds up very well to this day. GITS2: Innocence wasn't on the same level but it was still well made, looked great and had an spooky Alice in Wonderland feel. Ghost in the Shell: The New Movie (what a retarded and inspirationless title) is actually a continuation of the Ghost in the Shell: Arise, an anime TV series. But that actually does not matter much. The story revolves around the assassination of the Prime Minister of Japan. Although a bit typical for anime films and the GITS series and films there is an incredible amount of the characters just standing around jabbering endlessly with plot exposition. And the plot does seem overly dry and long winded IMO. When there is action it's great (but not as great as in Nr. 1) but there is so few of it. This makes the film feel very slow and long - a problem I didn't have with the first 2. So if you're a fan of GITS you'll want to see it just to be complete but for the casual viewer I would recommend to skip it or just watch the first 2.

Though this sequel prequel is better than the first sequel, Ghost In The Shell - Innocence, it still doesn't match up to the original, Ghost In The Shell.

What the screenwriters John Burgmeier, Clint Bickham, and Tow Ubukata, give the audience is the story of Major Motoko Kusanagi and her perfect machine of paid mercenaries. I like the idea that she sees her team as a well-oiled machine, each person represents a working part of the machine and every part (man) is required to make her perfect machine. Since she is a cyborg, I could quite easily see her making this simile. It's the story of how they were recruited into Section 9.

The story is stronger than the last as the Disney influence is no longer there and the philosophical issues are once again interwoven throughout the story, which helps to give it strength and carry the viewer along. However, there are not as many twists in the tale.

Also, the CGI is used to much better ability, as it's mixed in with the traditional animation style to help build better effects and ambiance. I particularly liked the scene near the beginning where a child is running through a flowery archway... The flowers are so bright and vivid it's very dreamlike.

There is so much right with this animation that I cannot pick any faults, except it's just not as hard-hitting as the original... or as stylised.

If you've watched the original then I'd say forget watching Innocence and opt to watch this one instead. It's soo much better and has a similar taste, tone, and mood to the first. These two together what a treat, not just for the eyes but for the mind also.

Whilst the original had philosophical depth and an easier narrative to follow, this instalment of the Ghost in the Shell property removes all of that and focuses on the action. Major and her squad of cyborg terminators must find out who is behind the prime minister's assassination, the only problem is, it was a computer virus, so it could be anyone. Sounds intriguing yes? Well half of it was interesting. I loved the technology used in this future, especially the virtual reality crime scene recreations. The world is thick with futuristic cityscapes and small details that obviously has had care and thought put into it. The action scenes were exciting. The animation was fluid, I mean I'm no anime expert by any means, but it's definitely one of the best looking anime feature films I've seen. The story itself, although hard to follow, was fine. Corrupt government officials and shadowy organisations, its heavy going. That's my problem. It's so heavy that I struggled to keep up with who was who and what was what. A minimal amount of character development, Major's squad members have little to no introductions that I honestly did not who they were. I couldn't tell you any of their names except Batou. Seemed like an odd choice to have the audience automatically presume who they are, then I did some research. This film is a continuation of the Arise story arc. I haven't seen the Arise chapters yet and the bluray does not tell you that this is an instalment in that series. So no wonder I had no idea what the heck was happening. How is anyone supposed to know this without having to research it beforehand? That's just misleading information. So whilst this film is visually arresting and action packed, it's too heavy for its own good that it left me completely unengaged. Lesson learnt: research a film before buying.

"Ghost in the Shell" is well-known for its philosophical pondering, and elegantly brutal combat scenes. Ghost in the Shell: Arise takes things a step down, but none the less executes a beautiful story of the origins of Section 9.

A lot has changed in terms of style and character, but that does not bother me one bit considering Ghost in the Shell is a world where bodies can be easily constructed or swapped for one's personal satisfaction. I really like the Major's younger appearance!

Although the short series does not dive into philosophy as much as Stand Alone Complex, it's still there. The series did make me think, just not as much. However, Mamoru Oshii seemed not to have been involved in this project (he's the director who gifted the vision of the two movies, and was an adviser for SAC).

FUNimation did spectacular with the voice acting. The four episodes of "Arise" was worth watching on my part!

If you're interested in watching the new movie, best to watch "Arise" first.

So yeah the story does fit perfectly & neatly as a prequel etc, but the storytelling is mostly very dull, the pacing of it feels like sleepwalking, it lacks strong emotions, no character development. If you watched the other films then you get the point - timewise it's an early phase for the characters so you could say it makes sense to have them intentionally underdeveloped. But still, I expected more depth from this series and this was very flat. The 2nd movie was way better.