Ghost in the Shell: The New Movie

Not bad! If you’re a fan of the ARISE series, this is a nice way of capping it off. It’s as convoluted and scientific psycho-babble as that series, and the original GITS series and movies too. I suppose if you were expecting something as revolutionary, or at least a cult hit, like the original GITS movie, you’d be disappointed. It’s more of an engaging sci-fi intrigue ride, rather than a head turner. Animation was fantastic, and the action scenes were high quality, as you’d expect from the franchise. I can certainly see people’s disappointment in this movie, but if you’re a GITS fan overall it’sworth the watch. If anything, you’ll get some cheeky retro continuity at the end too. To be honest, it makes me want to re-watch the Stand Alone Complex series again! As someone who’s seen every GITS feature, including all movies, multiple series, and the compilation movies (GITS SAC Laughing Man & Individual 11), I’m just happy to get more GITS.

When I got to the end of the movie, could see the link between this and the first GITS movie. It was then that several things made more sense, and this was perhaps the movie which made the most sense to me (who is not a hardcore fan and all). Ghost in the Shell always excites me with the massive amount of depth comes because of the inherent setting of their world. I must say, that this kind of designing of a storyline is one of a kind and that is something I would remember this franchise for. Especially when it comes to futuristic genres, where thesetting consists of sophisticated robots and lightning fast computers that blow away our minds, it is super important to get things right (I mean the story) because say all you want, in the end it's pure fantasy although I hope I am proven wrong. In that sense, the first movie of GITS was released 20 years ago which is a blasphemously long time, and in that age having such futuristic ideas (which are entertaining to watch even now) is utterly magnificent. It is genius. This is truly a classic franchise worth your time. This movie as opposed to the sequel has more elements of comedy and definitely lesser gore and absolutely no nudity which I find surprising (because, you know). Also, I understood this movie better than the first (maybe it's just me). Another thing I would venture out to say is that there is much more action in this one. Perhaps the only thing that it lacked was the serious atmosphere (with all the gore, nudity and longer political talks) the original movie had made for the viewer which got the franchise its fans. However, I liked this one the most :)

First of all, everything you say about one installment of the Arise-Series, automatically applies to all the other installments, cause all of them follow the same lame ass blueprint. So that being said, there is no need to differ between the 5 entries (and the movie). So, here we have another true Tow Ubukata Screenplay. You can recognize that garbage only 2 minutes in, cause NOTHING makes any sense or is well sceneraized. Just like any other Tow Ubukata Screenplay, we have randomly thrown together scenes, that don't make sense on their own, yet alone any sense withe the original manga. One random occasion after another,trying to fool you into thinking you just watched the deepest shit ever. But you really didn't. Things just appear and then go away. No content whatsoever. The characters literally beam themselves into the next scenes. It goes without saying that character development is non-existent in an Ubukata Story. Remember the one South Park Episode with the sea cows that just randomly picked balls with words on it out of an aquarium and made a sequence out of it? That is exactly how Tow Ubukata writes. Ok let me try that: Character: Major Location: Park Occasion: Birthday Activity: Shooting Ok cool, so we have Major holding her Birthday Party at a Park while a Shooting going on. That is a perfect Tow Ubukata right there. See I'm capable of that method myself, let me write the next screenplay. Geez... Oh yeah and: don't watch this junk of a movie.

Lacking much of the philosophical aspects the series had traditionally had. Very much just an action flick, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. Just that, I expect more from the GitS series. Even the "Arise" series -- which is probably the weakest of all GitS -- had some of the philosophical and meta things that really makes the series interesting. Storywise, thought it was a little convoluted. Was hard to follow who was fighting who and for what reason. Not even really sure the ending really explained any of that. Though, perhaps, it was left that way for future releases. Some of the English voice acting wasjarring. Not sure why, but Chief Aramaki's voice actor has been replaced. And the voice doesn't fit him at all. Same goes with some of the other team members. The voice acting just doesn't fit the characters as we've seen them before. Somewhat along the same topic, it seems that some of the personalities have been changed as well. Characters who don't speak all that much seem, do so more often, without necessarily adding anything to the story. At the very least, it was entertaining.