Sunday, April 8, 2012

Ghost in the Shell (1995)



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Rating: 3!
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Next up is the anime movie Ghost in the Shell.

By 2030, technology has become part of humans physically and cyborgs are not an uncommon thing. Major Makoto Kusanagi of Section 9 is an example of one of these cyborgs. Along with her squad, Major Kusanagi attempts to hunt down a powerful hacker known as the Puppet Master.

Ghost in the Shell (GitS) is a movie that kick started part of the hyper tech movement in film and even directly inspired The Matrix.

Visually, GitS is spectacular. The backgrounds are fitting of a 90s anime (amazing) and the characters match it. This movie manages to have the characters and background actually feel like part of the same movie. Sometimes the background gets too finished looking while the characters are either a rush job or are done differently because they move more. Everything with GitS belongs together.

The technology involved is quite amazing. The biggest example of this is the neural interfaces that are accessed through ports in the back of the neck. These allow people to connect visually and audibly with each other, including sending videos and pictures. Other tech involves different styles of weaponry and mechanized vehicles.

The version of GitS that is on Netflix is the dubbed English version so at times the voice acting falls a little short as anime is usually best viewed with subtitles. The English voice actors can sometimes be an inappropriate choice but GitS pulls this off fairly well.

The plot does take awhile even though it is an hour and 22 minutes. There are times when it feels as if those making it were attempting to lengthen it by showing prolonged cityscape scenes.

Ghost in the Shell is unrated with violent bloody scenes and nudity.

If you are a fan of The Matrix, I highly recommend this movie. It is a visually pleasing movie that toys with futurist ideas of technology that gives for an exciting movie.

No April movie for Sunday, although a movie might still pop up. Hot Tub Time Machine is scheduled for Monday!

6 comments:

  1. I haven't heard of the Ghost in the Shell, but it does sound interesting. :)

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    1. I'm happy that I've gotten to share this with you. I hope you can get around to watching it but even more so I hope you enjoy it :)

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  2. Sound pretty good. It's interesting how even a movie from 9 years ago can seem dated because technology has advanced since it was made.

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    1. It is. What's really cool is that the movie was remade in 2008 Called Ghost in the Shell 2.0 with updated graphics. So the new technology has made it look even more futuristic again.

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  3. Great reviews here and it's wanna make me take a peep at them movies. Nice work.
    On a tour of the AtoZchallenge blogs and i stopped by...i can be found here: www.seewilliams.wordpress.com

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  4. I loved GitS when I first saw it years ago.
    I used it later to get my wife interested in Anime. It didn't work, but then I showed her "Witch Hunter Robin" then she was hooked.

    I am trying to read all the A to Z blogs, but coming back to the ones I really like.
    Looking forward to seeing what you do all month!

    Tim
    The Other Side
    The Freedom of Nonbelief

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