Yap About: "Ghost in the Shell 2 - Innocence" (SPOILERS)

[Evil Dr. Reef]

http://comingsoon.net/nextraimages/ghostinshellreviewposter.jpg

Release Date: September 17th, 2004 (Limited)

Studio: Dreamworks - Go Fish Pictures
Director: Mamoru Oshii

Starring: Akio Otsuka, Atsuko Tanaka, Naoto Takenaka


Official Site: http://www.gofishpictures.com/GITS2


Your Ghost in the Shell 2 thread is here. For those who actually got to see the movie in their own town, talk about the incomprehensible plot and beautiful visuals here.

Got back from the show tonight. Absolutely ****ing gorgeous visuals and music. The plot/dialouge... it never seemed all that pretentious to me, mostly due to Togusa interjecting every now and then to "cut out the philosophical crap". The hacker scene in the middle just seemed to ramble on for a bit too long, and I didn't see much of a point in it, even after what was going on was explained. Still, I reccomend it. If for nothing else, it's one of the most beautiful films you'll ever see, anime or otherwise.

[Artimus Gigan]

Honestly SAC I prefer over the movies

it balances the action and the talking, I was so bored by the end of the first movie.

I didn't see this one as of yet(they didn't even have a review for it) but it's probably going to be playing in New York somewhere just like everything else that is nitche.

However I got the First movie on DVD years ago and since they are now releasing all things GITS, the first movie is getting a new special edition...

[Lord Dalek]

I really should go see it this weekend since I have a chance to.

[Keldran]

Saw it friday afternoon; very surreal and very enjoyable. The more Oshii films I see the more and more I like him as a director.

[Invader_Spooch]

Saw it friday afternoon; very surreal and very enjoyable. The more Oshii films I see the more and more I like him as a director.
Same here. :sweat:

[Conekiller]

So I guess..this is the talkback?


I saw it last night in a sold out theatre (unlike every other non- 4kids Anime release, this was in a very mainstream theatre!) with the majority of my anime club.

I enjoyed this movie alot more than I did the first one. I was pleasently surprised to see that it was not dubbed. Which really helped, since most characters talk in "deep" quotes for half the flick. I could at least now see what was a quote and what was the character being philosophical.

The only problem I had with the movie was it the connection of Batou leaving Kim's "trap" and figuring out to go infiltrate some barge in the middle of the ocean.

Alos how Kusanagi was able to know which place Batou would go to, design the sexenoids to look like her and posses one (with a fraction of her "ghost") in th eammount of time they had. Oh well.

It was still very entertaining and contians the cutest anime dog EVER!

[lostrune]

So I guess..this is the talkback?
I guess... since Twage hasn't finished his review yet (that was due a week ago :D ), which was supposed to be the basis for the talkback.

[Leaping Larry Jojo]

Oshii really frustrates me.

In my opinion, he is probably the most skilled anime director in Japan, perhaps in some ways even superior to Miyazaki or Takahata. If Stanley Kubrick was an animator he'd be something like Oshii. But Oshii indulges in these dry scalp theological discussions that really limits his ability to gain a wider audience.

I wish he would find something to like that is simple. Do a movie on a dog or something, or about a man and his dog.

Every time I watch an Oshii movie I'm just amazed at his compositions and set pieces. But he tends to use his characters as mouthpieces for his themes rather than characters. Agggh. One day Oshii will make a simple but profound movie and I'm going to love it. But I'm still waiting.

[randomguy]

Every time I watch an Oshii movie I'm just amazed at his compositions and set pieces. But he tends to use his characters as mouthpieces for his themes rather than characters. Agggh. One day Oshii will make a simple but profound movie and I'm going to love it. But I'm still waiting.
I can definitely understand where you're coming from, and I'd have to agree. Perhaps the ideal solution would be to have Oshii direct but not write a movie? To my knowledge, he's written all of his major anime work (excluding maybe Urusei Yatsura 2, though I'm not sure about that one). If Oshii let the task of character development and thematic structure fall to someone else, he'd be free to focus on his strengths, which could potentially make for a very strong film.

Anyhow, I enjoyed this one a good deal more than I expected to. I'm not a huge fan of the original, by any means. It's a visual tour de force, but the plot is a jumbled mess, and it doesn't explore its themes half as well as it thinks it does. That, and there's the exploitation factor. See Kusanagi naked for half the running time! See heads explode!

I think this sequel is a stronger film in the end. The violence and sexuality seems more tasteful, and I think Batou is a stronger lead than Kusanagi was, if only because, as an embittered old guy, he's a fairly unorthodox protagonist for an anime. The Major's role in the end is fantastic, the pacing is enjoyably meditative, and the themes of man vs. machine are explored more thoroughly. In particular, the ending twist (the revelation of why the gynoids are attacking) is a powerful reveal that's genuinely resonant. There are some leaps of logic (why did Batou attack the boat again?), but overall, everything fits together nicely. I'll admit that the quotes get horrifically annoying, but I can deal with them.

Props go to Oshii's direction. Innocence might be the first anime film ever to be directed like a live action movie. All the cinematography, from the panning to the choice of angles, is very live-action, giving the movie a unique visual flair.

Three stars out of five.

[raykremer]

The pacing seems way different than the first GITS movie, but that didn't hurt it much at all. Batou and his partner lacked energy, which sort of dragged the movie down a little, but it was forgivable.