Grade: B
Film: Movie Reviews [Ghost in the Shell 2]
Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence: (Go Fish/DreamWorks)
By Josh Herman
Synonyms for ghost are phantom, spirit, specter. All are terms of ambiguity that are used to describe something you just aren’t sure how to describe. Ghost In The Shell 2: Innocence is equally ambiguous. It’s a simple story with extraordinarily complex philosophical meditations.
Simple story: Atou, the cyborg from the original film, 1995’s Ghost In The Shell (Kôkaku Kidôtai), investigates the case of a female robot – one created solely for sexual pleasure – who slaughtered her owner.
Complex philosophical mediations: If The Matrix sequel was Philosophy 101, this is post-graduate level study. Pontifications exist in the non-space between humans and machines, the forgetting of what makes one human, the exorcising of the psyche via architecture, and how the ghost of a man – Bateau – can retain his humanity when inhuman acts are committed upon non-humans.
Phantasmagoria, however, implies some unequivocal – and innocent – beauty that director Mamoru Oshii (a perfectionistic animator) infuses his machinated world with. The movie is like my histrionic ex – nice to look at, even if you have no idea what she’s talking about.
Article posted on 9/21/2004
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