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Your Learning Zone - Ghost in the Shell 2 - Innocence
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List Price: $19.99
Our Price: $9.00
Your Save: $ 10.99 ( 55% )
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Dreamworks Video
Starring: Akio Ôtsuka, Atsuko Tanaka, Tamio Ôki, Kôichi Yamadera, Yutaka Nakano
Directed By: Mamoru Oshii
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Audience Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Binding: DVD
Brand: Paramount
EAN: 9781417011490
Format: AC-3
ISBN: 1417011491
Label: Dreamworks Video
Manufacturer: Dreamworks Video
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: Dreamworks Video
Region Code: 1
Release Date: 2004-12-28
Running Time: 100
Studio: Dreamworks Video
Theatrical Release Date: 2004
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: Wait for Bandai Visual's rerelease!
Comment: If you're interested in getting this movie I'd suggest preordering the version coming out next month by Bandai Entertainment/Bandai Visual USA. That release will have newly translated subtitles, the original Japanese dialog in Dolby 5.1, two English 5.1 soundtracks (The R2 UK dub that was produced by Richard Epcar, the English voice of main character Bateau, and a newly commissioned dub adapted from Bandai's new translation), and Director's commentary. There is officially no reason to buy Dreamworks' pitiful release.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Pretentious and meandering, but still worth a look
Comment: First off, most of the one star complaints stem from the awful subtitling for the hearing impaired. This means you'll get the [helicopters approachine] and [dog barks] subtitles. This is annoying, and hopefully a subsequent release will have simple english subtitles.
***Spoilers**
As for the movie itself, the artistry in this movie is incredible, with a smooth mix od 3D and 2D animation in all sorts of surreal vistas. It's alomst worth watching in and of itself. The future looks very real, with the grittiness of the streets to the almost disturbing cleanliness of the laboratories they visit.
My personal favorite scene was when Togusa and Batou were entering a hackers mansion, and get stuck in an hacked into and thrown into a "virtual tangle" causing them to go through the same motions in a slightly different environment every time. The shootup in the grocery store was another excellent scene, making the viewer think along with Batou that he being attacked while his brain is actually getting hacked.
There is way too much meandering talk about free will versus determinism, how one can realize whether someone is truly conscious or not, and the nature of what is a "true" experience. The long monologues lead to no real further understanding of the subject, were oversimplified, and destroy the entire point of fiction, which is to SHOW these dilemmas rather than TELL. The movie SHOWS very well, and doesn't need to dumb down the conversation by stating explicitly what the viewer should ponder while watching it.
Overall, not nearly as good as the classic first, but still pretty good.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Buyer Beware: No English Dub!
Comment: This movie looks good but is unwatchable due to the lack of a English vocal dub, what a disaster. Sub-titles are one thing, but, come on now, not on anime of this quality, there is too much visually to take in besides reading dialogue! Oof!
Customer Rating:
Summary: Not as good as the first.
Comment: The thing that bothered me the most about this movie is the PG-13 rating, which you can tell in the movie they strived for. No gore at all! Not that gore is the number one factor in an anime, but it feels like a more kid friendly version of the first movie. Also, with Studio Ghibli being involved, I thought the animation would be better.
Customer Rating:
Summary: I'm Not Going to Complain About the Captions....
Comment: ...because I returned the DVD and got a non-captioned version. So to all you people who insist on filling up page after page of complaints about the captions...STOP IT! I went scrolling through the 1-star reviews looking for differing opinions on the movie, and all people could talk about was Dreamwork's screwup.
Let me also preface this by saying - I don't mind that there's no English dub. And no, I don't speak Japanese, but I like the sound of it. Would hearing dozens of Confucian-lite quotes in English over and over really have made for a better experience? I mean really, it's not like people spend the whole movie talking. I'd be willing to bet only about 50% of the movie has dialogue. I got an idea - why don't we just put an English dub on every great foreign film ever made? Seven Samurai, Breathless, Fellini's 8 1/2. Why not? Gotta make 'em palatable for Americans, right?
Some of you people make me sick: "If I wanted to read, I'd get a book." Truth is, if you read books - EVER - subtitles aren't that hard. The amount of time it takes your eye to scan down and quickly go over a line of dialogue is not that long. But seriously, on to talking about the movie, 'cause I'm getting a little pissed here.
Like many people upon first seeing this, I was just in awe. The melding of CG with the 2D animation is top notch. Look at that scene in the beginning when Batou is walking down the alley and tell me that's not photo-realistic!
However, I watched the movie with a more critical eye lately, and plot-wise, there are a few problems. One, the dialogue. Entire conversations between characters are made up of quotes and parables. I mean, does everyone in the 21st century walk around with a copy of the Tao Te Ching in their pocket? Two, there is this feeling of malaise throughout the whole thing. Obviously, Oshii is trying to carry over the feeling of what is real/what is a soul? etc. from the first film. But there is no resolution to this conflict. The pedantic existentialism mostly revolves around "the soul of a doll" (Oshii even mentions this in the extras). The monologue of the Puppet Master in the first movie is much easier to take than all the crap that pours out of the hacker Kim's mouth.
Third and final point - the last half of the movie absolutely drags, basically everything after Batou decides to go North. The overlong parade sequence, the slow walk into Kim's place. It's like they took the sequence from the first movie when the Major is on the boat looking at the Tokyo skyline and stretched it to absurd lengths. Don't get me wrong, it all looks beautiful (especially the parade stuff) but to what end is it serving? I mean seriously, the last half of the movie is like Valium in DVD form. And the mediocre action at the end doesn't make up for it. I don't feel that threatened by a whole army of killer nymphet cyborgs.
So in conclusion, this is not a hands-down great film. It has great execution, but the ideas ultimately come off half-baked and unresolved.
And a minor quibble, but what does the word "Innocence" in the title have to do with any of this?
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Editorial Reviews:
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Studio: Paramount Home Video Release Date: 05/01/2007 Run time: 100 minutes Rating: Pg13
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