Ghost In The Shell 2: Innocence (2004) Movie Review
PG-13 | 100 min
Genre: Animation, Drama, Sci-Fi
Writer & Director: Mamoru Oshii
Plot: In the year 2032, Batô, a cyborg detective for the anti-terrorist unit Public Security Section 9, investigates the case of a female robot--one created solely for sexual pleasure--who slaughtered her owner.
Ghost In The Shell 2: Innocence takes place years later after the first film and this time our main protagonist is Bauto as we follow his investigation on doll like robots being controlled by someone. His new partner is Togusa this time who he has to learn to get along with as well. They both try to solve this mystery while trying to keep everything as quite as possible because they are let off the case. This is how a great sequel is done that stands on its own in animation, style, and story and doesn't have to rely on its original film.
Ghost In The Shell 2 has some of the best animation I've seen out of a anime film. I personally do prefer the original films animation due to its use of being all hand drawn and shot on film, but this movie really does prove that its really about how you use the CGI and animation. There is CGI in the movie, which sometimes doesn't fit the most in animation, but here its almost not noticeable at all, its blends in perfectly with the hand drawn animation and even was hard to distinguish the two. I tend to not like CGI but the way its used here is definitely something that stands out and stands on its own from the original film.
My only real mixed feeling on the film is the plot. Mostly the execution of the story. Its done in such a stylized manner that its becomes hard to follow, even at times hard to tell what is even going on. I understand that it was going for a more slow paced philosophical approach but it was bordering on the line of almost becoming not interesting.
Now for the overall style of the film, its is noticeably different from the first film, but thats not necessarily a bad thing here. The first film was very cold and dark and mostly took place in the city which match the tone perfectly. This film however is much more warm and much brighter, its works for the scenery and the locations and does add to a different feel that stands on its own. I like that a sequel to a film can make enough changes to make it feel like something original than just riding off the original.
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