Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to "Tales of the Longbox" here on Reaction & Review. Tonight, guys, I'm checking out a sci-fi animated film from 1995. That movie is "Ghost In The Shell".
Now I mentioned this a long time ago, back when I reviewed "Assault Girls", I'm not the biggest fan of the "Ghost In The Shell" series. I tried watching one of the animated series back on Adult Swim. I even watched the 2017 live-action movie that some people bitched about for overly trivial reasons such as the main character being played by a Caucasian person. Even though the Major is an android and she can be whatever gender or race she wants to be. But even with that aside, the movie, for me personally, was just not that interesting. And so I continue to remain indifferent to the series.
Which then brings me to this movie, and it might also raise a question someone might ask. If I'm not a fan of the series, why am I even watching something that I'm indifferent to? Well, the answer is both long and short. The short answer is that I've never seen this movie. The long answer is that I've heard really good things about this movie. And it's also one of those films that revolutionized anime as being a cult following. Some people even rank it amongst other anime films such as "Akira", "Vampire Hunter D", "Metropolis", and "Perfect Blue" as being one of the pioneers of anime becoming popular over in the U.S.
And with it also being based on a manga, I can totally count it for this series, what with it being centered around comic book movies and all. So now, I get to find out if I'm gonna really like this movie and see if it actually earned the cult status that it did back when it first came out. And the only way I'm gonna find that out is if I shut up and I push play, and I'm gonna do that right now. So, without further ado, it's time to kick back, relax, and check out "Ghost In The Shell".
12 minutes later
So, let me see if I understand this. So they don't have any real information on the Puppet Master's age, sex, or background. Yet, she thinks they're from America because it's their first time in this country. How does the Major know that the person is American? OK yeah, it's their first time in Japan, but that could also apply to *anyone* around the world that isn't from Japan. So again, how does Major Kusanagi even know that the hacker is American? I'm not trying to poke holes in this story, guys, I just think we're kinda jumping to conclusions here without having any real information to work with.
20 minutes later
Sorry, guys, if I'm not saying a whole lot right now. This movie hasn't really given me much to work with. I will say, though, that I am rather intrigued on where this is going. So at least there is that.
20 minutes later
Once more, guys, I'm really sorry that I'm not saying very much. I know I should be talking more about it, but I'm kinda focusing more on the movie itself at the moment. So far, I am willing to say that the movie has been really fascinating, as has been the animation, which I'll talk about later when I get to reviewing it. I'm hoping I'll get more to say more about the story and such, but I'll just continue to wait and see for now.
The Review
Well, guys, that was "Ghost In The Shell". Let me go ahead and shut the movie off now...OK. Good lord, where do I even begin here...? I'm gonna say right now, guys, that this movie will be a rather tough one to review. Because while I admit that I did enjoy watching this movie, it also encapsulates why I'm not a fan of the series to begin with.
Let's start off with the writing. And that in itself is gonna be a challenge because I don't exactly know where to begin with here. I guess I should probably start by saying that the story here feels a little rushed. And part of that has to do with the film's runtime. This movie clocks in at about less than 80 minutes long and I feel that it kinda rushes itself in order to get to it's conclusion. I feel that it probably would've flowed better if it had been a little longer. Perhaps maybe another 15 or 20 minutes would've really helped it out. It also doesn't help that the pacing is rather uneven at times. Because there are scenes in this movie where it'll focus on the locations of the movie for minutes at a time, and, while it does look visually impressive, it also doesn't really add much to the story other than to fill time.
In terms of it's story, it's about our main character, Major Kusanagi, and her band of partners, trying to track down a criminal hacker known as the Puppet Master, who basically can control the minds of his victims as they live out some kind of fantasy existence that's completely computer-generated. And I'm gonna say that this movie does present some interesting ideas, such as this where near the beginning of the movie, where Kusanagi and her team are tracking down a couple of guys in a garbage truck, and one of the drivers is telling this other guy about his girlfriend that he lives with. Only to discover, after he gets placed under arrest and is interrogation, he finds out that the life he was living for the last, I think, decade or so was nothing but a lie. The picture he had of the girlfriend turned out that she didn't exist. Which, the whole segment in itself is honestly really haunting because it presents the idea that your mind can just simply be altered like that and your memories can almost never fully recover. It really is one of the more interesting aspects that the movie presents itself with.
Unfortunately, those interesting aspects are very few here. The movie tries to be a sci-fi political thriller, which is fine, because that's what the series is mostly kinda known for. However, it also has to be interesting enough to where you can follow it and be engaged with what's going on. A good example of that would be something that I mentioned earlier, "Perfect Blue". The reason why that movie works as a thriller is because they actually keep you engaged with it's story and is also pretty easy to follow for the most part. This movie, however, tries to be more than what it wants to be. And I'm not gonna sit here and say that it does a really poor job or anything, but given that this film had a somewhat short runtime to begin with, there's only so much you can present your ideas with in such a short runtime. And even barring the runtime aside, most of everything else in this movie, apart from what I talked about earlier, doesn't really make a whole lot of sense, especially if you try to grasp all of it at once.
Now an argument could be made that you'd have to watch it more than once to fully understand it's story and it's themes. And that's not entirely a bad argument there, because I've had some experiences with a couple of movies that did that kind of thing for me. A couple of movies I can think of are, again, "Perfect Blue" and John Carpenter's "They Live". The latter was mainly more of a pacing issue than it's story, however, I didn't find that an issue on my second viewing of it afterwards. But again, the reason why those movies worked is because they were both really easy to follow. And with "Perfect Blue", I was able to understand most of it on my first viewing, and it really does get better on repeat viewings. As with "Ghost In The Shell", I can't do that here. Not just with this movie, but that goes for the animated series that I watched, along with the 2017 live-action movie. I can't immerse myself with this series because it doesn't really have much of anything for me to engage with. I've tried time and again with it, but nothing sticks with me about that series. Which is why I'm probably never going to be watching this movie again simply because I don't have that much of an interest in the "Ghost In The Shell" series.
So, as you can probably surmise, the writing here is a little bit underwhelming. Again, I want to stress that the movie itself isn't bad, it's just that it tries to do a lot within a short runtime, and what you're given doesn't entirely make sense. Maybe on another viewing it'll probably make a little more sense, but as with this series, I just can't engage myself in another viewing of it. So yeah, writing here isn't entirely my thing. As for the acting, well, I did watch the English dub for this film and I can say that it's fine for what it is. The only one that I have mixed feelings on is the actress voicing the Major here. She sounds rather, pardon the pun here,..kinda robotic. Now it kinda makes sense, seeing as how the Major is a cyborg and all, but part of me wonders if that was the intention given her direction for this dub, or if she's acting like she's just reading whatever's on her script. I'm not totally sure which one is more accurate, but honestly, I've heard far worse when it comes to dubs, so it's just something that you have to take for what it's worth.
Animation here is, without question, the best thing about this movie. Everything here flows beautifully, and the locations that you get to see in this futuristic world of Japan looks amazing. Color palettes here are also used very well, too. Both in character design and, again, the locations of Japan. There are also small cases of CG as well, however, they are very brief. And for 1995 standards, it's not too bad. It's not amazing, however, you would also have to be completely foolish to compare CG from the mid 90's to today. But yeah, animation as a whole is really good.
Sound-mix here is mixed fine. Music here is also another thing that I can say is a very big positive for this movie. Every piece of music here is atmospheric and really well done. And while I've complained about the pacing in this movie, I can say that the music will keep you interested. So it's a little bit of a double edged sword there, but still. The score here is great.
Overall, guys, when all is said and done, am I able to recommend "Ghost In The Shell"? Well, if you're a fan of the series, then you've probably already seen this movie, and probably own it on DVD or Blu-ray. If you're not a fan of the series, however, I'm not totally sure if this movie would be a good starting point for you. I say this as someone who is also not a fan of the series. If you are really curious, though, I would say it could be worth watching at least once. As long as you're able to overlook the somewhat glacial pacing this movie has, then you might find a lot of enjoyment out of it. But as for myself, personally speaking, I can't say that this is something that I'm ever going to watch again. I've given this series multiple tries to win me over as a fan and all of them have kinda struck out. So I'm more than likely not gonna bother with the "Ghost In The Shell" series again anytime soon. It just hasn't really worked out for me. So with that in mind, I'm gonna go and watch "Perfect Blue" again. Because that, to me, is the best thriller I have ever seen and I kinda want it right now after mentioning it a little while back.
And with that, guys, we come to the close of another Reaction & Review. Until next time, ladies and gentlemen, take care, and I will see you all later. Peace.
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