Ghost in the Shell 2.0
In the year 2029, Section 9, a group of cybernetically enhanced cops, are called in to investigate and stop a highly-wanted hacker known as 'The Puppetmaster'. Ghost in the Shell 2.0 is a reproduced version of its original 1995 counterpart. Among a numerous enhancements, for the film's 2.0 release, were a number of scenes were overhauled with 3D animation, visual improvements, and soundtrack rerecorded in 6.1 surround sound.
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- Cast:
- Atsuko Tanaka , Akio Otsuka , Koichi Yamadera , Tamio Ohki , Tessyo Genda
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Reviews
Sick Product of a Sick System
A Masterpiece!
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.
There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes
PLEASE NOTE: This review will also be on the Ghost in the Shell (1995) IMDb section since they are the same movie)Ghost in the Shell was an amazing Anime film, that broke the mold on Sci-fi for the 1990's (like that Akira did for the 1980's.) The story is intriguing and interesting and the acting is very well done for both the English dub and Japanese versions. I doubt I need to explain the story to you since you have probably seen this by now but if you haven't, please watch it. You'll be happy you did. I give 'Ghost in the Shell 2.0' a 8/10
First up, I want to make it clear that my rating goes to "Ghost in the Shell 2.0" and not the original film. The rating has nothing to do with the original storyline or old animation blablabla but only this new version, which is completely unnecessary in every imaginable way. The classic animation utilised in the original film looked amazing, and removing some of these classic masterpiece animations and intercutting them with new CGI stuff looks and feels, well, wrong.It's not BAD CGI, but unnecessary, and jarring when intercut with the older (and in my opinion superior) style.Don't watch "Ghost in the Shell 2.0". Buy the original version and enjoy that one instead.
This story was well confusing. The problem was that they had a 'puppeteer' who was changing people's thoughts and memories in order to use it for his own purpose to hack into official's heads. I won't lie, I don't normally understand all that political stuff. The fact that this was so heavy in that made it more of a chore to try and figure stuff out. If I missed something that someone said, to bad, I couldn't really go back and check it out because I wouldn't know where to find it again.When we get to the characters, the only ones we really get to understand slightly are Batou and Kusanagi. The others just seem like background characters compared to them. Even then, we don't get much about the two although you can tell that Batou really cares greatly for Kusanagi. When we do get near the end, it does get into a rather interesting and deep. It really dives into physiological problems and aspects to life. It might of still been a rather confusing show but I did enjoy it.The art style starts out with a lot of CG stuff in the beginning of the show and then going deeper into the normal animation after. I have to say they really took me off guard when they showed the naked body of the major in CG while she was working. Of course then they had to have an opening that expanded on showing a women's naked body being created through electronic means. There were little scenes where they would do a bit more of the CG and half of it is rather pretty. Some of the characters designs seem a bit off from how they looked in the anime that I had watched part of before, namely the major. Still, the camera angles and some of the ways they showed the world felt very classic to the anime style of the late 1990s.Some of the sounds are a bit off and the English voices sometimes don't match lip movements but the voice actors really tried their best to make such a serious show work. You can tell just how they read their lines that they were trying really hard to keep it interesting but sadly, I keep feeling that they do a whole lot of talking and sometimes not all that much action or just a lot of shooting. When we do get action, its mostly slow movement, looped or over almost as fast as it starts. Now there are also some talks that feel more like a lecture about the problems with the cyber technology and a philosophy of having your own identity. These small parts were the only things that kept my attention as the others talks seemed a bit more complicated and I had no way of understanding the political problems.
Just like other reviewers have said, I can not recommend this remake of Ghost In The Shell to people who like the visuals and the sound of the original. For me, the original GITS was near-perfect in look and feel. The color palette, visual designs, animations and sound design were all strong, hard-hitting and rough.In the 2.0 remake, the color palette was changed to a earthy, brown look that we know from so many video games and movies. Additionally the image is drowned in blur and bloom effects. Watching the movie you can clearly tell which scenes are CGI and which are hand-drawn, whereas these elements integrated well in the original. To make matters worse, many of the CGI scenes do not hold up to the original hand-drawn scenes. The jaw-dropping intro and title sequences from the original GITS are ruined for that very reason. The city has lost it's dirty, melancholy mood and is now indistinguishable from designs in other movies.A similar treatment has been given to the audio. All new sounds are toned down in impact. Vehicles, machinery and weapons now sound like plastic. The new sounds alone destroy the combat scenes beyond recognition. On the upside, the original voices and music were preserved.Why Ghost In The Shell received this treatment I can not understand. Supposedly it was to adapt GITS to the look of it's successor "Innocence" (Ghost In The Shell 2). The merits of such an undertaking can be disputed on a general level, yet GITS 2.0 is a perfect example of how not to execute such a task. Viewers should be able to recognize "Ghost In The Shell" as "Innocence"'s predecessor from the title, the story and promotional material.