Ghost in the Shell: Innocence

[Alex Ellerman]

Just saw my first anime in the theater, Ghost in the machine: Innocence, at the Landmark in Chicago... this time I was in the big theater, reclining stadium seating, very nice, etc. etc.

 

The movie was awesome. It has so much texture and layers, from the sound to the lighting, and the scenes and you're reading subtitles... it's a little exhausting but well worth the effort. The helicopter opening is really cool, but somewhat disorienting as it's more cgi type animation that is then followed up by traditional animation, and continually blended throughout. It took me a little while to get used to this, but it was worth it b/c some of the cgi type stuff is beyond beautiful.

 

The story bogs down about 2/3 of the way in... gets a little clumsy and high brow with the intellectual quotient. But i think it shouldn't bother the cinematography crowd too much. It was an experience, one I'll likely repeat.

theturnaround

[Bill Totolo]

Excellent visuals, some of the worst writing ever.

 

20 minute scenes full of awkward exposition quoting Milton and Descartes with a

paper thin story. I wish they would hire a Hollywood screenwriter or at least a story editor, there are so many good ones.

 

The best scene in the movie is a brief moment where the lead character, Batou, lifts the ears of his Basset hound so they don't get dirty in his dog food bowl. That's a great way of expressing that character's feelings toward his dog. The scene lasted about a second and was probably the cheapest in the movie.

 

The animated series out on DVD is pretty bad too. I hear they're going to make a live action version of the original. Hopefully it's better.

[Aaron Tan]

Was the version you guys watched dubbed over in English? Sometimes the story takes a dive once they translate and dub the voices over. When I watched the first Ghost in the Shell I saw the English dub and it wasn't very good and I vowed never to watch it again. Then my girlfriend got the Japanese version which seemed far better. Though my only complaint with this series is that there's so much information you have to absorb if you are reading the damn subtitles you can't keep up with the visuals... :blink:

[Bill Totolo]

I saw it in Japanese with English subtitles. By the way I didn't mean to so strongly disagree with the "theturnaround". I just had strong freelings after watching the film and being dissappointed. So far there's one thumbs up and one thumbs down. Not bad. It's batting .500 so far.

 

BTW, I saw it at the Arclight, it LOOKED stunning.

[Duncan Buckley]

Loved the film, thought it was ace. The story does get a little complicated and bogged down but its still great work. I found the festival scenes breathtaking, so much detail and colour its really amazing what can be done.

 

I dont mind the use of CG in animated films, for buildings, cars and basic shapes. The reflections on the cars looked ace as a testiment to CG.

 

Just wish there were more releases of this kind.

[Sam Wells]

I would say thumbs up from me, and the festival scene was indeed stunning.

 

I am not an "Anime fan" but it's an interesting genre, one I haven't had time, or taken time, to really look in to.

 

...I sort of like the idea of drawn, constructed comic characters discussing wether dolls can have souls :)

 

-Sam

[Phil Rhodes]

Hi,

 

The problem with the dubs is that they spend absolutely no time or money on them. You get the voice actors who just did the latest kiddy cartoon and one day to do it. In Japan, anime is a much more mainstream artform and attracts better talent, more care, and larger audiences. Always listen to the Japanese with subtitles; most anime dubs are uniformly godawful.

 

Phil