Ghost in the Shell

Ghost in the Shell is one of the Anime classics like Akira, that anyone with even a bit of geek cred has at least heard of. And just like Akira, all I could say about Ghost in the Shell was that I'd heard of it. Well, 14 years later now I can say I've seen it.... and my world is unaffected.

One branch of Manga that I've never liked is the very technological branch. This is the same reason why my favorite cartoon growing up was He-Man, and not Transformers or Voltron. As such, Ghost in the Shell was going to lose me rather quickly, being in that end of the spectrum.

Essentially, it's a quasi-luddite story, with a cyborg wondering what it is to be human. In this sort of dystopian future, either people have figured out how to hack the human brain (the titular ghost in the shell being the human soul or independent unique thought) or humans have gotten computers put in their brains... I was never really clear which it was. Anyhoo, besides that we have also created cybernetic technology, whether a person needs a replacement/enhancement here or there or the whole entity, it can be done.

The main character, Motoko Kusanagi, is a cyborg who's not really sure where her humanity begins or ends. She's pretty sure she still has a human brain, but also acts oddly for a cyborg, enjoying diving, and just generally questioning life. While on the case of a ghost-hacker known as the Puppet Master, Kusanagi meets, and opts to bond with him creating a whole new life form, which is part cyborg, part human, part information? That's more or less what I gathered.

This movie has some very interesting queries into the nature of life... not quite going for the "us versus them" of Terminator, but nor is the human/machine relation quite all sunshine and lollipops either. The action, when it happens, is pretty cool too, with people using Big Ol' Guns, which cause massive damage to machines, and even more massive damage to the poor hapless humans who get in their way. It seems however that the two just can't quite mix seamlessly.

While I never hoped for an interruption of one for the other (too much action, get introspective or vice versa), I almost felt like I was watching two different movies. Perhaps it was the confusion for a lot of it (just grasping the general plot can take some time) or something else, but this movie is not the "legendary" status I supposed it might have been. Then again, perhaps it never really stood a chance in my eyes to begin with.

3 out of 5 stars. It'll make you think, and the action's decent but at the end of the day, it's just another movie.