GHOST IN THE SHELL 2: INNOCENCE
Raise your hands, Philosophy PhD's out there!
Review by: M.H. "Can I go home? My brain's full!" Torringjan
Length: 100 minute movie
Genre: Technological, action
Watched: All, subbed
Craig and I have both watched the other entries of this franchise, and mixed results were obtained all around. Neither of us was very impressed with the original movie, but the recent series, Stand Alone Complex, was one of the best of its year and close on to being one of the best we've seen. Turns out, the difference was probably time and taste, as this new entry in the series suggests.
Plot Summary: As often happens in anime, the setting is 2032, a year after Major Motoko Kusanagi took leave of her body to wander the net forever as only a ghost. Batou, her former partner, remains with Section 9, the secret police force who deals with technological crimes that the police force can't (or won't) handle. Batou and his new partner, Togusa, are set on the case when a number of murders are committed by gynoids, or geisha androids (sure, they’ll kill you, but what a way to go!). The trail leads them into a conspiracy with one of the largest android producers around.
Artwork: This is easily the focal point of the film, with the images being a blend of cel-graphics and CGI. The intricacy and sheer massiveness of the scenery and images kind of makes me wonder how many whip-bearing drum beaters they had in the room with these animators. Their families can't have seen them for months, as the artwork here is some of the most breathtaking that I've seen in any film. Plus, the cel and CG blends very well, much better than other attempts (see, Star Ocean EX and Final Fantasy Unlimited). The only complaint that I have here is that the frame rate is annoyingly slow, which detracts from the flow of the artwork.
Music: All right, who called in Yoko Ono to do the theme track for this movie? As the opening credits and other important scenes in the movie roll, I can hardly listen to them, since they made a change from the series' music director to the movie. I assure you, Yoko Kanno could have done a better job on this if they'd kept her around for the movie. Instead, you have a screechingly annoying theme track and mediocre music playing during the other parts. I'd recommend just going with the soundtracks of the series, if I were you.
Characters: Those of you who were hoping to see the hard-nosed Major Kusanagi make an encore from the series, keep watching the Second Gig. This series is all about the guys, with Batou and Togusa taking center stage. Those of you who've seen the series already know this, but for those of you who haven't, Batou is the very definition of "excessive force," while Togusa is the "Family Man," you know, the sort of guy who's going to get shot two days before he retires. He strongly desires to keep hold of his humanity by not replacing any of his body parts with cybernetics, despite how frickin’ cool his coworkers insist it is (come on, all the kids are doing it these days!). Aramaki is the chief of Section 9, has an impeccable sense of intuition, as well as a great sense of his agents' mental states (I'm sure that the mental link helps). Although some of the others of Section 9 show up, they don't play any major role in the series.
Plot: The plot at first seems needlessly complex and a bit of an excuse to show off the pretty pictures. But as the movie progresses, more of the plot becomes clear until everything is clear at the end. However, some of the specific turns of the plot aren't fully explained, so the viewer is left to infer a little bit more than I'd like to. Overall, if you’re willing to sit through the existential meanderings of people who aren’t sure what a person is (or, if you’re into that sort of thing), it’s worth the time.
CHICKS!! Here's where the movie really falters. They had a perfectly good specimen in the Major, and they denied their fanbase the satisfaction. About the only thing they've got in this movie is the sex-bots, and they're much too frumpy. The android company must have enjoyed a large number of blind clients, or else they would have had a 0% satisfaction rate.
Overall: Much of what I've said so far kind of focuses on the negatives of the film, but now I can talk about what I liked of the film. Having seen Lain, I'm very familiar with the mind/body issue and the man/machine paradox. I'm a philosophy student, so I had a good time seeing the philosophical issues made somewhat more accessible to the layman. Although the writing wasn't the best in the world and the plot was kind of confusing at times, I enjoyed seeing the philosophy discussed, and the action scenes were tops (as they usually are when the series actually has them). So, overall, I'd recommend this film, if only for the artwork, or if you like having deep issues discussed in between bouts of ass-kicking.
In a nutshell:
+ Fantastic artwork
+ Philosophical depth
+ Pretty interesting plot
- Kind of confusing
- No Yoko Kanno
- No chicks
Final grade: 8/10
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