TIFF Report: Ghost in the Shell 2 (Innocence) Review

This one's going to brief out of necessity ... I'm just way too tired to go into detail right now. Perhaps Nick or Jason will see fit to expand on this later on tomorrow ...

First viewing of the festival: the much anticipated Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence. I've been waiting for this for so long, anxiously snapping fansubs of the Ghost in the Shell Stand Alone Complex TV show to tide me over until this finally released and I'm a little bit disappointed. Of the three Ghost titles I think this one is the weakest. It's not the visuals or animation work - this is one of the finest technical pieces of animation you'll ever see and is well worth a viewing on this level alone - but that Oshii seems to have lost sight of his characters in all the philosophizing. The character quirks are all but gone and there's nary an actual conversation to be found with Oshii preferring to have Batou, Togusa et al drop famous quotes at each other rather than say anything in their own voice. There are some very clever, very funny exchanges, but on the whole the dialogue feels more like you're reading an essay than it does like you're listening in on actual people having actual conversations. This is particularly sad considering how the dialogue is such a major strength in the first Ghost in the Shell film and the subsequent television show.

So, to sum up: pictures good, talking bland.

And now I sleep.