Sorry, this movie sucks

Great movie! If you want to be entertained and have a few good laughs, see this movie. The music is also very good,

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

Masamune Shirow's Ghost in the Shell manga came near the end of the cyberpunk boom of the 80's. Focusing on the near future and questioning what it means to exist in a world where computerization was becoming more and more prevalent and capitalism was dominant, cyberpunk found its voice early with the works of Phillip K. Dick, but would really shine with the novels of William Gibson and Neal Stephenson. Cyberpunk is a genre that is less explored than certain other "-punks" if only because the main themes have been done to death and the entire genre focuses on tropes that can go over the heads of the general movie-going populace. Smart science fiction isn't exactly what audiences are pining for so even when we are given a rare cyberpunk film in this modern age, they tend to be overblown blockbusters focusing more on action and style than actual commentary or philosophizing.Ghost in the Shell is an animated film and one of a handful of anime films that have showcased that the medium is not just about the more sexually exploitative or comedic cartoons being released every year, but can also be used to produce high quality mature entertainment. It's a critical darling in the United States, something rare for a non-Ghibli release.While the film gives in to philosophy and the plot is heavy on the technological mumbo-jumbo, at its core Ghost in the Shell is an action film. We are focused on Section 9, an elite group of counter-terrorism agents in Tokyo around the year 2030. The assault team is led by a fully cyberized woman named Motoko Kusanagi and she's backed up by a number of individuals of various levels of cyberization. She faces off against a mysterious hacker known as the Puppet Master, a person with the ability to erase the memories of cyberized people or even take over their bodies for himself.The action is quick, fierce, and extremely well animated. The vast majority of the action comprises of shoot outs, with the final battle against a bipedal tank being the standout scene of the film. Through it all we're given moments of quiet reflection, long sequences of Motoko looking around the city or discussions about whether she died after she became a cyborg. The questions of who we are and when we cease to be human are poignant and add a psychological horror element to the affair. Toward the end of the movie, as Motoko battles the tank, there's a misstep, in my opinion, in the use of an genealogical tree motif on the wall of the battleground. I understand what they were going for in using this, but it feels quite overt in comparison to the rest of the philosophizing.The final fifteen minutes are focused on Puppet Master and Motoko conversing, discussing becoming one and death. It's a fitting, thought provoking finale.Of course, I've skipped over quite a bit of story elements. There's a departmental feud between Section 6 and Section 9 that plays a huge role, as well as some broader politics, all of which enhance the world-building. This is a meaty movie, and though I do categorize it as an action flick in many senses, it is action with a purpose. While this site will continue to showcase action films that are seemingly purposeless aside from displaying violence, Ghost in the Shell is one of the rare instances where both action and inaction work together to tell a story that all science fiction and action fans need to see.

It is the year 2029. Technology has advanced so far that cyborgs are commonplace. In addition, human brains can direct to the internet directly. Major Motoko Kasunagi is an officer in Section 9, an elite, secretive police division that deals with special operations, including counter terrorism and cyber crime. She is currently on the trail of the Puppet Master, a cyber criminal who hacks into the brains of cyborgs in order to obtain information and to commit other crimes.Entertaining movie. Intriguing plot with decent development. Good action scenes and great CGI. Covers some interesting themes too, including the theme that always comes in cyborg/robot movies, sentience and what it means to be human.Not brilliant though. Many scenes feel like your average action- thriller at times, with the conventional car chases and the like. The whole sentience theme is nothing new (see Blade Runner, for example) and feels underdeveloped here.Moreover, the ending is quite open-ended and anticlimactic. I was hoping for something more profound, or, at least, conclusive.Good, but not great.

The future is strange with robots and brain-hacking in the animated Ghost in the Shell. The film that sparked a life action update over twenty years later begins with Motoko Kusanagi jumping from a building to assassinate a diplomat. She put on a mission to hunt down a hacker known as the Puppet Master. She finds that this hacker is using garbage and other criminals through trickery and mind-hacking to do his bidding. Motoko also copes with her identity as a robot while still trying to do human things like scuba dive. The action of the chases seems pretty cool and I can only imagine what a live action adaption will look like.The artwork in the animation is stunning capturing the look of a manga comic. The English dubbed version I purchased did have some weak voice-acting and an odd look common in these adaptations, which is why I usually try to see these things with subtitles. Questions of humanity and existence are brought up as the Puppet Master claims to be a sentient being with rights despite not having a sole body. Even Major Motoko isn't sure if she is a human with a body bought from a tech company and brain cells input into it. Check out more of this review and others at swilliky.com

At the time of its creation, Ghost in the Shell was the most significant addition to the Cyberpunk genre since the genre was set-off. The writing is extremely smart, at the same level as Neuromancer I would say. Ironic because I would say Ghost in the Shell and the Sprawl series are, to me, of the same philosophical quality: not perfect, but very thoughtful and worthwhile of our admiration.Ghost in the Shell is thematically concerned with finding one's identity in a rapidly growing, fast-paced, globalized society in the height of the information age. True to its origins, Motoko takes the screen as an anti-hero who is often hard to sympathize with. What I found disappointing is Ghost in the Shell fails to consider some of its rich cultural heritage, specifically Buddhism. I would have loved to seen the idea of non-self played with, and without such considerations I felt Ghost in the Shell was aptly titled, but in a bad way; it was sort of empty, following mostly western, sci-fi tradition, a victim of its own themes.The ending is identical to Neuromancer, this idea of merging two incomplete AI personalities. While some may think of this as trite, I thought it was executed just as excellently. Motoko was this child-like being, in fact I found Motoko more infantile, its innocence taking away by society and then murdered for the sake of "progress." This leaves a bitter realization that nothing is impervious to our cold, inhumane existence, that nothing is safe, even the innocence of a child or the ghosts of the past, both easily erased at the whim of an aimless, indifferent, uncontrollable world. Well, maybe it is controllable, but certainly not by the unmodified human.