Ghost in the Shell

An interesting premise, but the animator was too enamoured with his artwork to keep the story moving (for example, there was one long scene of city streets, no dialogue, only music, dragged everything to a halt, just when the story most needed to come to some progressions). An editing room would have helped this film tremendously. This is considered Iconic cyberpunk, and, many people speak of it being evocative of BLADE RUNNER, but I found the exposition to be labourious, and the anime self indulgent. I, apologetically, give it a 5 (meh) out of 10. I am, however, curious to know where the evolution (pun intended) of the story goes.

Having seen the movie twice in short succession, I still don't understand any of the politics, which is a pretty hefty chunk of plot and expository dialogue. But I don't think it's important neither really the point of the film. The images are stunning and the sound is superb. The main points of the movie about consciousness, life and also some of the more dark aspects of cyberpunk dystopias are very well executed. The first two hinge a bit too much in exposition, but the latter is kind of scary. Not about the deep philosophical issues, but the mundane practical stuff of everyday business. This is a universe in which (some) people's brain can be hacked and implanted with false memories, don't own the body they inhabit and are in complete dependence of third party constant maintenance. You realise that the darkness about becoming more like machines than human is not an abstract sense of humanity, feelings or some esoteric division between biological and mechanical entities; no, it's about how limited machines are and how you lose so much of the benefits of biology.