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Title:
  Ghost in the Shell

UK Distributor:  Manga Entertainment

BBFC Certificate:  15

Suggested Retail Price (SRP):  £17.99

Running Time:  90 mins (approx.)

Audio Options:  English 5.1 & 2.0; Japanese 2.0

Subtitles:  English, Portuguese, Danish, Finnish, Norwegian, Swedish

Reviewer:  Rich (Webmaster)

 

When I first saw Ghost In The Shell I was practically blown away.  I had only just started to get into anime so had not seen much and I was also at the age when only effects mattered in a film.  That was about two and a half years ago and my opinion of Ghost In The Shell remained the same until a saw it again last week.

I was looking forward to watching an anime classic again but what I got was something that was all style and no substance.  The animation is superb and there are some truly great action scenes but these do not impress like they once did and because of this I noticed the flawed script.  Flawed because the characters insist on explaining absolutely everything that is going on on the screen, often in a very unnatural manner, as though they are forced to.  This results only in patronising the viewer and also looking at your watch waiting for the character to shut up only to have another one explaining something else in massive detail after.  The film seems to think you have no idea what is going on where as in fact you will know exactly what is happening.

The animation however can still impress in places, particularly the opening and final battle, but that is about the only good thing I can say about this film.  For example during the truly awful boat scene the viewer is given a brief history of what happened before the film is explained in a way a science teacher would tell it.  It is very badly done and only the fantastic animation during this scene keeps it afloat.

There are only two things I can recommend this film on – animation and action.  Unfortunately the animation will not continue to impress you on repeat viewings and there is not enough action to call this an action film.  Overall Ghost In The Shell is a vastly overrated film which seems to have only been successful as it was wrongly compared to the superior Akira.

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