Ahoy, squirts! Quint here with a look at GHOST IN THE SHELL 2: INNOCENCE. I saw this film myself and liked it quite a bit. The below reviewer had a problem with some of the slower scenes, but the animation was so engaging and beautiful throughout the whole film that I never once, personally, found myself bored. There's some weird stuff in this flick, but it's one of the prettiest animated films I've seen in a long time. Here's "IronGiant or Something."
So I saw a screening of Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence.
The director spoke first, it was a little strange, he took the mic and spoke for about 2 minutes (in Japanese, of course) and then the translator took the mic and I guess has a good memory or just said what Production IG wanted said. Except for the faux pas--where apparently the director said this animation was 4 years beyond any current animation in quality, (then she looked into the audience and got an idea how arrogant that sounded, and added that the director must’ve meant four years beyond the quality of animation in Japan). The director also apparently said that he wasn't planning to do another movie, but may consider it once everybody has caught up to the level they’ve achieved.
So then the movie starts, with the stuff before the credits being out of the trailers. Some of the music in the movie was a little grating, though I like the end song. The other part that was in the trailers, in the grocery store, I really like in the movie: the way it did the opposite of what every other detective movie does in that kind of situation is great!
And it turns out the director was right about the quality. The characters are usually 2D, but most everything else is 3D yet blends in very well. It was extraordinary to look at. But don't worry--they give you plenty of time...
It is very cerebral, some would say pretentious. I can't imagine it being a breakout success. I have no problem with subtitled movies, but at times it felt like I was reading a book slightly over my head (or one written by a writer trying to convince me how much smarter he is...).
It's also slooow. There is a lot of quiet, understated scenes, where I guess the point is to have time for the pseudo-intellectual babble to sink in, but it feels like they were trying to cut costs (which I really doubt was an issue) or were trying to stretch it out time-wise.
On the other hand, the scenes where stuff actually happened were fairly amazing, like the few fight scenes, especially the end one. The end, where they're hacking their way in and it shows the other side's effort to fight back is one of the very few times I've seen hacking depicted in a movie and not felt it was idiotic (no “This is Unix, I know Unix” here, though it is far in the future so that gives it some leeway). The way that was done is easily my favorite part of the movie.
All in all though, it did drag. It would be a great hour of Television (45 minutes), or could be a good 1-hour OAV, but it gets tiresome over 90 minutes, though it is worth looking at. It is also very dense... I expect a lot of people will pretend it's more then it was, some deep meditation on life that they got and the likes of me didn't, but I'm not buying it. Still, I strongly recommend it for anime fans and people who like long drawn-out existential exchanges that look amazing.
If you use this don't use my name, sign me IronGiant or something I guess. It's up to you whether you use the stuff about what the director said, it
probably identifies the event but I didn't sign anything to get in.
