And now we return to that eternal question... is this movie so smart and sophisticated that it simply goes over my head? OR is this movie so full of itself that it is in fact no worth anyone's time?

After watching and enjoying 'Stand Alone Complex' last weekend, I went back to the video store and rented this... making the assumption that I might enjoy this one too.

Where Stand Alone Complex has a fairly logical narrative structure with some neat thought-provoking stuff tossed in with each episode... this movie feels massively out of balance with violent action sequences punctuated by exceedingly long passages where the lead characters quote things deep and meaningful back and forth to each other...

Descartes says this, Milton says that... here let me quote you some Pslams...

I have no objection to smart, sophisticated movies... but this doesn't strike me as a particularly smart or sophisticated movie... once you finally figure out what the whole conflict was about, (approx 15 minutes before the end of the movie), you realize it was a very simple plot... and perhaps all the philosophy mumbo-jumbo was to disguise the fact that this isn't a spectacularly enlightened movie after all.

Batou is a leading member of Section 9, a police force in an age of cybernetics, when everybody in the world has mechanized some part--if not all--of his/her body. Human-like robots are an ordinary possession for any household, and one has mysteriously murdered its owner. Section 9 is called upon to figure out why the--forgive my pun--"ghostless shell" of a robot might have performed such a crime.

If you're looking for an unbiased opinion, I will say that when I first saw this film, I saw it in the theatre, and I had never seen the first Ghost in the Shell movie or any of the TV series (or OVAs or whatever you want to call them). I have seen some of the series since then, but still not the first movie. So here's a critique of GITS 2 as a stand-alone production.

Honestly, this one isn't bad. I hesitate to say it's particularly "good," but I'll get back to that. The interactions between characters are...well, they're kind of cold and unfriendly, but they do exist, and I'd say they're realistic. The art is wonderful...not ground-breaking spectacular, but definitely an eye-opener. The mix of computer-generated effects and more traditional animation is well done, and ironically fits the context of the story, too. The music is good enough, and one or two songs are particularly cool. The story itself provides room for tension and a climax, and it's...well...intricate.

But for those who have seen any Ghost in the Shell before, "intricate" is an understatement.

I think the writers of GITS dug themselves into a trench with this film, because at this point in the story one of the main characters from all other Ghost in the Shells is absent, at least for the most part. So the main character becomes Batou. And don't get me wrong, Batou is definitely a cool character. I particularly liked the scenes where he observes his dog lovingly, basically his only true companion in life...a side of Batou that you don't normally see.

Ok, let's cut to the chase. Reasons why you may not like this film: It drags. Oh my god, does it drag. Does the plot drag? No. The plot expands exponentially with every passing second, like Akira on speed (you may consider counting this as a reason not to see it, too). It's the ACTION that drags. Off the top of my head, I can think of only four parts of the film that actually involved characters doing risky things or otherwise accomplishing anything other than talking to each other or sitting around. And everything is so deeply conceptual. If you don't already know what it feels like to have an exhausted and overworked brain, watch this film. I've seen it a few times now, and I still don't understand it all. I think maybe you ought to have seen the first movie or at least parts of the series before seeing this, because much of the tension in this film seems to rely on the viewer's familiarity with the characters.

In closing: Through most of the movie I'm ripping my hair out, in part due to boredom, in part to make room for my exploding head. But I have to admit, there are certain unnamed parts of the film whose visuals, concepts, and implications make my heart pound every time I see them. It may be worth it to rent this video for those parts alone. Two stars is a little strict...there was a lot of work put into this, and they could have had a really great thing going here. Problem is, it just keeps on going, and going, and going...