Ghost in the Shell

This review contains minor spoilers.

OK, I'll admit it. I am not fond of anime at all, and yet I have a friend who keeps trying to get me into it. Half of the time I speak to him, he says 'You will like Noir, you know' or 'Watch Full Metal Panic!' or 'Love Hina rules!', and if it is not one of them, he talks about another anime program or film. I just can't take them seriously. One that is mentioned quite a lot is 'Ghost in the Shell'. Of course, I ignored him, but when I downloaded the 3DMM movie, Ghost in the Shell, I had mixed expectations. On one hand, I was expecting a masterpiece, as commented by many reviewers and directors. On the other hand, I was expecting this to disappoint me. Fortunately for me, Ghost in the Shell is good. Very good.

Ghost in the Shell achieves something not many action movies do. It entertained me through the majority of the movie, and its story was more than great. It is set in a time where cyborgs exist, and the futuristic feel has been done well. Of course, you want to hear more about the action, right? The action is truly amazing. Blood, gunfire, bullets, they were all animated beautifully. Each death was directed wonderfully, and the direction used was fantastic. My personal favourite action scene is in the third part when the cyborg makes its escape. Brilliant. OK, now I am running out of descriptive words to describe the awesome action scenes.

Because of its long runtime of over an hour, Ghost in the Shell has been split up into three parts, and this was a good idea. The intervals allowed me to gather my thoughts of what happened in the twenty or so minutes that just went. And atmospherically, for the first two and a half parts of Ghost in the Shell, this film was superb, with music greatly chosen in connection with the events. The exception though was the last few minutes of the final part. More on that later. With the atmosphere, the sound effects, the music and especially the animations and the direction being done so well for the majority of the movie, is this worthy of a 100/100 score? No, with two main reasons.

Unfortunately Ghost in the Shell suffers from the odd slow-paced and dull scene. Many of the 'explanation' scenes were rather boring, and perhaps they could have been livened up a bit, or at least shortened. I kept thinking 'how long does this go on for?' and I wanted to see more action, not more story. You're asking me, 'why should I complain, surely not many action films have a great story?', and you're right, Ghost in the Shell is one of the rare few which has one, but some of the story-related scenes should have been better told. Don't worry though, all this is redeemed with the stunning stealthy and action-packed scenes.

Every movie comes to an end, we all know that. Some have great, climatic endings, whereas some are not wrapped up properly and leaves viewers confused. The ending of Ghost in the Shell unfortunately is not as good as the first two and a half parts. My main gripe is the anti-climactic ending. What a way to go out. Here we have an amazing action movie, with plenty of great fast-paced stuff, and instead the final battle, just like Stranger 4, did not feel like what a final battle should. Admittedly, it is not all that bad. We do get a final battle which lasts a couple of minutes, but perhaps more dramatic music should have been used to tense up the atmosphere more?

But overall, Ghost in the Shell is a masterpiece. Despite a couple of boring 'explanation' scenes and a rather anti-climactic ending, this is still one of the best action movies there is, certainly the best in 2003. I really can't see how this missed out 'Best Action Movie' in the 2003 awards, but then again, I can't do anything about it. Weirdly enough, after watching Ghost in the Shell, I feel like I should go and have a look at the real anime film, something which I never thought I would want to do. Damn you Redwampa and Spencer, you have slightly changed my views on anime. Now, I can't go up to my anime-obsessed friend and say 'I will never ever see any more anime' because this revolutionary 3DMM movie you have created is tempting me to see some.

Score: 91/100