Holding up the Wall

Ghost in the Shell

I'm sure that there are people out there who haven't seen GitS yet. And for them I weep. I think it's the same feelings old people are supposed to have about Bambi or Snow White. One of those animated movies that you grew up with. The ones that just happened to get to you when you were young and impressionable. An experience by which you judge every succeeding event.

Or it could be just a good movie. At any rate it's thoroughly enjoyable. The strongest element that sticks out in my mind is the level of pseudo-realism the director held everything to. The animation is the most obvious; instead of doing the cheap thing (like most anime does) in which there are whole conversations in which the characters never move or do stupid things like talk for five minutes with their eyes closed, everybody in GitS is always doing something. One scene in which two garbage men are talking in the front seat of their truck goes from good to awesome for an instant when they turn a corner and the sunlight moves across the cab. However, its not just light, the way the characters move is near picture perfect. Fer instance: everybody who's ever seen anime has chuckled at the characters running around with their arms sticking straight out. It's that kind of exaggeration that gets tiresome and cheap after a while.

The story is nothing to scoff at either. Although it bogs down a few times in conversations that could probably have been rewritten to make more sense (truth be told I've seen GitS a few times and only this last time did I finally understand EVERYthing that was going on) instead of the not-making-sense that must have made sense to the translators. In fact the single thing that detracts from GitS as a story is that you don't care about any of the characters. The only guy who generates a little bit of pathos is a garbage man struggling with false memories that an AI hacked into his brain. Everybody in the movie is so detached and expressionless in the face of what turns out to be events with great potential impact that by the end you almost feel like you watched an historical documentary.

I never read the manga by Masamune Shirow. It was probably better than the movie. You should still see it though. It has robotic boobies, explosions, cool technology, and storyline that'll make you think if you can actually figure it out.


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Ghost in the Shell I'm sure that there are people out there who haven't seen GitS yet. And for them I weep. I think it's the same feelings old people are supposed to have about Bambi or Snow White. One of those animated movies that you grew up with. The ones that just happened to get to you when you were young and impressionable. An experience by which you judge every succeeding event. Or it could be just a good movie. At any rate it's thoroughly enjoyable. The strongest element that sticks out in my mind is the level of pseudo-realism the director held everything to. The animation is the most obvious; instead of doing the cheap thing (like most anime does) in which there are whole conversations in which the characters never move or do stupid things like talk for five minutes with their eyes closed, everybody in GitS is always doing something. One scene in which two garbage men are talking in the front seat of their truck goes from good to awesome for an instant when they turn a corner and the sunlight moves across the cab. However, its not just light, the way the characters move is near picture perfect. Fer instance: everybody who's ever seen anime has chuckled at the characters running around with their arms sticking straight out. It's that kind of exaggeration that gets tiresome and cheap after a while. The story is nothing to scoff at either. Although it bogs down a few times in conversations that could probably have been rewritten to make more sense (truth be told I've seen GitS a few times and only this last time did I finally understand EVERYthing that was going on) instead of the not-making-sense that must have made sense to the translators. In fact the single thing that detracts from GitS as a story is that you don't care about any of the characters. The only guy who generates a little bit of pathos is a garbage man struggling with false memories that an AI hacked into his brain. Everybody in the movie is so detached and expressionless in the face of what turns out to be events with great potential impact that by the end you almost feel like you watched an historical documentary. I never read the manga by Masamune Shirow. It was probably better than the movie. You should still see it though. It has robotic boobies, explosions, cool technology, and storyline that'll make you think if you can actually figure it out.