Reviews

You know, GHOST IN THE SHELL earns a hefty check on its excellence, and I think GHOST IN THE SHELL 2: INNOCENCE does very well in trying to match its greatness, though it does fall short in some aspects. It proposes an interesting philosophical theory as its premiss based on transhumanism, which is actually pretty common in anime. We've seen it in NEON GENESIS EVANGELION and we've seen it in SERIAL EXPERIMENTS LAIN. What distinguishes this film though from those series, and sets it apart form the first movie is that it offers very unique examples and makes them concrete and easily graspable. A scientists uses dolls as an example to question what makes a human a human. She defines a human as one that is essentially aware and acting in conciseness for him or herself. She then goes on to say that children are what human parents shape in their image. Robots or dolls are created to mimic humans, much like children, but she says in this case children are not humans. The sentence could easily be turned around to sound something much like "Dolls or robots aren't necessarily not humans. They may be human if children fit the definition of a human and dolls and robots fit that description as well." To give an even more humanistic vibe to the AI, Batou has a pet dog that he loves very much. It initially shows the dog as just a dog, and then shows a machine dog. This is done, I believe to show that your first judgement of the dog was "this is just a dog." After showing robotics, one should ask himself, what makes it not a dog any longer? It still behaves the same as it did when I first saw it solely as a dog. It looks the same. Yet, however, it is a robot. They are the same. Visually, the film easily captures one's attention with clean animation, vibrant colors when necessary and unique camera angels. Walking through a hallway, the sun beats through old stained glass window with beautiful colors, painted up like a well renowned artists would have done. A camera view areal in a convenient store aides in the suspense of the rising action of the scene. The action now, is certainly present, but very compact in a few spots throughout the film, as this is where the film falls short. It is not a lack of action that spoils the film a bit, but the filler that supplements it. There are for sure interesting and wonderful philosophical traits within the film, as I have already said, but there is also an overabundance of quotes from past philosophers exchanged between characters. Like, literally. I think you would have to watch the movie to understand. About 90% of the script consists of philosophers' quotes. This does not diminish the film, and it still holds up as many sequels, especially in anime, do not. Would recommend.