Ghost in the Shell - The Rising

The original Ghost in the Shell movie is one of my favorite movies of all time and still holds up very well to this day. GITS2: Innocence wasn't on the same level but it was still well made, looked great and had an spooky Alice in Wonderland feel. Ghost in the Shell: The New Movie (what a retarded and inspirationless title) is actually a continuation of the Ghost in the Shell: Arise, an anime TV series. But that actually does not matter much. The story revolves around the assassination of the Prime Minister of Japan. Although a bit typical for anime films and the GITS series and films there is an incredible amount of the characters just standing around jabbering endlessly with plot exposition. And the plot does seem overly dry and long winded IMO. When there is action it's great (but not as great as in Nr. 1) but there is so few of it. This makes the film feel very slow and long - a problem I didn't have with the first 2. So if you're a fan of GITS you'll want to see it just to be complete but for the casual viewer I would recommend to skip it or just watch the first 2.

Whilst the original had philosophical depth and an easier narrative to follow, this instalment of the Ghost in the Shell property removes all of that and focuses on the action. Major and her squad of cyborg terminators must find out who is behind the prime minister's assassination, the only problem is, it was a computer virus, so it could be anyone. Sounds intriguing yes? Well half of it was interesting. I loved the technology used in this future, especially the virtual reality crime scene recreations. The world is thick with futuristic cityscapes and small details that obviously has had care and thought put into it. The action scenes were exciting. The animation was fluid, I mean I'm no anime expert by any means, but it's definitely one of the best looking anime feature films I've seen. The story itself, although hard to follow, was fine. Corrupt government officials and shadowy organisations, its heavy going. That's my problem. It's so heavy that I struggled to keep up with who was who and what was what. A minimal amount of character development, Major's squad members have little to no introductions that I honestly did not who they were. I couldn't tell you any of their names except Batou. Seemed like an odd choice to have the audience automatically presume who they are, then I did some research. This film is a continuation of the Arise story arc. I haven't seen the Arise chapters yet and the bluray does not tell you that this is an instalment in that series. So no wonder I had no idea what the heck was happening. How is anyone supposed to know this without having to research it beforehand? That's just misleading information. So whilst this film is visually arresting and action packed, it's too heavy for its own good that it left me completely unengaged. Lesson learnt: research a film before buying.

"Ghost in the Shell" is well-known for its philosophical pondering, and elegantly brutal combat scenes. Ghost in the Shell: Arise takes things a step down, but none the less executes a beautiful story of the origins of Section 9.

A lot has changed in terms of style and character, but that does not bother me one bit considering Ghost in the Shell is a world where bodies can be easily constructed or swapped for one's personal satisfaction. I really like the Major's younger appearance!

Although the short series does not dive into philosophy as much as Stand Alone Complex, it's still there. The series did make me think, just not as much. However, Mamoru Oshii seemed not to have been involved in this project (he's the director who gifted the vision of the two movies, and was an adviser for SAC).

FUNimation did spectacular with the voice acting. The four episodes of "Arise" was worth watching on my part!

If you're interested in watching the new movie, best to watch "Arise" first.

If you don't know the Story and have never watched an animated film like this one: Stay away, don't watch it. It may spoil your wish to watch any other Anime film.

If you have seen the Original Ghost in the Shell (Part 1 or 2 or both) you may be disappointed for the lack of story and a whole bunch of scenes that are just the same only with different characters (same drawing style, same camera, same lines).

If you know the Arise Border Quadrilogie, watching it is even worse. It looks like they just copied the animation and added some new lines and a crude story to it. For me it looks like some people just wanted to make some quick money, without putting any effort on it.

The drawings are simple and the character animation is very poor.

So don't put an effort in watching it.

I love Ghost in the Shell. The original movie was great, the series were a bit different, but still making the viewer think about the nature of self and the direction technology takes us in. All of that was enabled by great stories and wonderful music.

While "The New Movie" is a good piece of animation and with an interesting story, it doesn't quite catch the magic of the original. Also, as a continuation of the GitS:Arise four episode series, it makes it difficult for newcomers to understand what it is all about. But probably what bothered me most was the soundscape. While not bad, it is a far cry from Kenji Kawai's work.

Perhaps the problem is that, in attempting to reboot the franchise, they went too soft. Less blood, less killing, less subtlety and instead just a modernized corporate Yakuza fight that is easy to understand from the perspective of the Japanese viewer. Ghost in the Shell was never about the present, though, it was about the future, its role to make the viewer think things forward and see the predictions of the anime come true in the years to come. "The New Movie" doesn't quite do that and so I feel a slight disappointment with it.

Still, a flawed GitS movie is a lot better than no GitS movie and I was glad to watch it. The excitement of the original, though, I didn't find it here.