I have always been a fan of the Ghost in the Shell franchise, from the movies to the TV shows, they have always had good quality and very interesting story telling. While I haven't reviewed the new Arise Ghost in the Shell OVA's (which I'm still on the fence about doing) I have watched them and thought they were as a whole pretty decent. When I heard that there was going to be a new Ghost in the Shell movie in 2015 I was really excited because at this point in time it will have been 20 years since the first Ghost in the Shell movie back in 1995. 

The inciting incident is straight forward making it easy to follow what is going on at the start of the film but as it goes on they jump from so many places and plot point that it hard to keep up with what is actually going on. The pacing is so fast that there isn't a moment of emotion out of any of the characters, especially during scenes that were set up for it.

There is a moment in the middle of the film that I asked myself  "What is going on right now?". This is something that has been in all the other iterations of GITS, but for the most part you are easily able to put the pieces together and get back on track very quickly. Here that doesn't happen and you just have to go with it until things start making since again. 

Now Ghost in the Shell Arise has had a trend of having twist endings or just twist about the half way point. Its here as well, but I thought the twist was much to obvious than it needed to be. I like the mystery and the build up through out the film of it, but when I guess the twist of a film five minutes into it, that isn't a good sign. 

This isn't a spoiler by any means, Arise has been projected as a prequel to the Ghost in the Shell franchise as well as being its own entity, not being connected to the other films or series before it. I like that idea because you aren't restricted creatively and you can essentially do whatever you want with the characters. During the ending of Ghost in the Shell: The New Movie, the creative team decides to recreate the beginning of the 1995 GITS films and not only that they also recreate a scene from Stand Alone Complex later in the credits. 

I still don't know how I feel about this because while I like connecting things, its just doesn't make sense to recreate this world only to connect it to other worlds that stand on their own. But looking back this is something that Arise in general has a problem with. That being said the ending was well done and I do like that at least making an attempt to recreate those great scenes.

This movie isn't bad its okay, with points that are really good. But the best way to describe the film is that it doesn't do anything new to stand out from it self. If I didn't know this was a movie I would think it was another OVA from the previous films.This movie does a fine job telling its own story and has enough entertainment through out to get you through the entire movie. 

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