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Ghost in the Shell 2 - Innocence Actors: Akio Ôtsuka, Atsuko Tanaka, Tamio Ôki Director: Mamoru Oshii Number of Items: 1 Format: Animated, Color, Widescreen, Dolby Audience Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested) Running Time: 100 minutes Studio: Umvd/Dreamworks Product Group: DVD Release Date: 2004-12-28 Buy from Amazon |
 "A Beautiful movie but too many missing features."The DVD release I have to say is just awful. There is no english track of any kind given this movie was targeted to American audiences. The second thing the commentaries was in japanese. I'm sorry but the majority of everybody here speak english and even if we sushi, we still speak in American tongues. This movie probably would look better on the book shelf or with your super anime collections and thats probably it. Until Dreamworks re-release Ghost in the Shell 2 with an english then I'll buy it. Otherwise, Pass. "The 1 is for the DVD, not the movie!"I agree with everything stated here about the cheap-ish way in which they slapped this DVD together. What is a truly memorable and fascanating film, was relabeled, boxed (art work - awful), and sold to unsuspecting people. Anyone who saw the first movie wasted no time buying the second movie. Honestly, we should get our money back, and the DVD should be free. Riiiiiggghhhhht! Sure, bud! We'll get right on that . . . sucker. In closing, "did you remember to submit your TPS reports?" :)  "excellent movie, lousy DVD"Ghost in the shell 2 is an excelent follow up of the first movie (ghost in the shell). Keeping the same characters and adding a new twist keeps you glued to the the tv. The animation is very clean and sometimes realistic. The only draw back and unfortunately ruins the veiwnig pleasure is the hearingimpared subtitles. I always watch my anime in subtitles and usualy have no problem reading it and following the movie, but this was annoying. I give the movie 5 stars and the dvd format -5 stars. Do not let the format stop you from buying it however, becouse the movie makes up for the the lousy format. "Left my jaw in my lap"I'm kind of puzzled with all the negative reviews floating around. Hardcore fans are ripping on the packaging and completely losing site of the movie itself. First, this is not a movie that stands on its own. A first time viewer will not understand this movie. There's too much hidden context and too many references to other works in the series. Add to this the language barrier. The captions demand the eye's attention for the majority of the movie. I'm not going to touch the dubbing argument other than to say I personally prefer hearing the original Japanese voice actor's emotions over understanding the mechanical English voice actors. Add to this the overpowering graphical presentation. It's going to take a normal person two or three viewings to appreciate this film. So, the whining about hearing impaired versus the non-cc captions is inane. It's a few extra captions. Drop it already. The dubbing argument is more problematic. But, in a nutshell, if a non-English audio track bothers you, skip this release. The movie itself is simply brilliant. It is one of the very FEW movies on my shelf that I would watch again and again. I am not the type to watch Star Wars 12 times. But this movie struck a chord with me. It's appeal is difficult to explain. The visual presentation is flawless. It's like watching a 3d still frame animation expo in motion. The philisophical blending of man and machine is intriguing (although the character conversations on the subject were often flat and odd). The action is incredible. And getting lost in the film is much more fun than having all the pieces ahead of time. I quite enjoyed reverse engineering the plot and figuring out what I couldn't possibly have known just from watching this movie. I'm not going to make any corporate slams here or try to guess what went on in a boardroom meeting. DVD's have been a scam from day one. The DMCA, greed, and DVD can't be distinguished any more. *Shrug* I just like the movie. But with that said, watch out for the ripoff sound track release. It's an "anthology" that amounts to the soundtrack placed down on top of some slow zoom stills straight from the movie. A friend gave me this anthology thinking it was the movie. The anthology is junk. Avoid it.  "The Movie ain't that great either..."I feel the fanboy pain on the extras issue, but the movie is a major letdown after the first one. Why? Well, the CGI is so ubiquitous and intrusive, the purity of the cel animation of the first film is totally overshadowed. The mix of ultra-real computer animation and flat cel animation totally takes you out of the story. You get the impression the film makers were so taken with the possiblities of CGI, the plot was totally lost. There are the kind of beautiful and poetic moments you expect from a GITS flick, but the storyline is hard to follow and the surrealist detour the film takes in the second act is pretty and all, but way too showy and distracting. To make sure I wasn't just being cranky, I watched the first one again and my initial opinion was confirmed. And if you're expecting extras, you'll be let down on that count as well. Still, bad GITS is better than a lot of the Anime out there, so you may want to pick it up. Just don't expect too much. |
