rosenbaum.gracie - 2015-02-15 20:39:01

[Old review is old.]

Ghost In The Shell is undoubtedly one of the most important anime movies ever made, proving itself as a highly exceptional piece in both writing and animation. 20 years after it’s release, it easily annihilates any animation job coming out as I type these words. I consider it an absolute essential film for any anime fan, and I can barely think of two other anime, be they film, show, or special, that could also hold that title. 13 years after it completely blew away the competition, Produciton I.G. decided that they wanted to reboot the film in order to get it up to speed of the current anime industry. But considering that the alterations have aged horribly overtime, and ninety percent of the scenes are barely changed in the first place, it’s safe to say that Ghost didn’t need a remake in 2008.

Everything scriptural is nearly identical from the first time around, side from the villain’s new female voice which erases huge visual thematics in the Puppet Master entering a foreign body compared to the Major in her familiar one. Beside that pointless change which just happens to spit on Oshii’s fantastic art direction, it’s some of the best writing in sci-fi, let alone anime. The bad updates to animation isn’t enough to stop me from getting completely invested in the rich police story or the amazing lectures in philosophy. The problem is that I’ve seen this exact script, this same exact story, these same exact characters, word for word, action for action, theme for theme, verbatim, in a film from 13 years ago. While I’m getting sucked into the story of 2.0, I attribute my enjoyment to the work that deserves it, and when it’s been copied over it ironically becomes its own death. How careless could the studio get when it ignores the major theme of its own magnum opus?

Let’s get to the things that have actually been changed. The 3D in this movie is horrendous next to the 2D art. The revamp of the intro only reminds you that the newer attempt is embarrassingly outdated, and that it took away some amazing hand-drawn animation. The title sequence is redone in fancy, flashy visuals, as if it somehow wants to hide the fact that The Matrix stole from the simple green text, though that in itself may be understandable. The diving sequence in the middle of the film serves no purpose to be animated with CGI, and just makes the transitions from 3D to 2D unnecessarily difficult. Aside from CGI that would lose its luster one year after release, the only thing different about the art is an orange hue that ends up looking extremely forced. Glaring and overdone in the first ten minutes, it felt desperate to make visual changes to the coloring and reused cels in its streamlining. By the halfway mark, the warm overtones in color were nearly gone anyway, so even the attempt to make the colorization more appealing ended up backfiring. One final attempt in the ending shot to fool the audience into believing that they were watching a complete overhaul, and the film ends as a failure.

A couple recognizable changes to the overall sound design honesty didn’t bother me that much. I did miss the classic 90’s sounds whenever the cyborg hands went into super speedy typing mode, as well as the weapon SFX and movement noises during the final battle. Compared to something as ineffective as the 3D, it isn’t even a problem.

Really, the only thing this movie has to offer a question. Do you want to watch dated CGI or the best human and mechanical animation ever accomplished? There was no reason for this movie to be made aside from ticket sales and DVDs. By 2008, Production IG was out of ideas, especially for the GITS franchise after an influential movie, a great show, specials, and a mixed sequel. By this point it’s nothing but milking without result, and thankfully it’s come and gone without much recognition. It has no reason to exist, but I can’t fault animation and writing that carry over so well that they completely outdo the efforts to make it shine even more.
Ghost In The Shell 2.0 (2008):
3.6/10