Ghost in the Shell 2

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Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence

Reviewed by Lee Shoquist
for Reel Movie Critic

H H

Written and Directed by Mamoru Oshii. Animated Action. Rated R (violence, language, animated nudity). 100 minutes. Go Fish Pictures, a division of Dreamworks. Japanese with English subtitles.

Ghost Searches for Humanity in a Lost World

"The human is no match for the doll, in its form, its elegance in motion, its very being. The inadequacies of human awareness become the inadequacies of life’s reality." -- Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence

Nine years on the heels of Mamoru Oshii’s wildly popular and often imitated philosophical anime landmark Ghost in the Shell comes Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence, a grim investigative procedural that takes a page from Bladerunner in telling the story of a half-human futuristic mercenary on the trail of some murderous androids.

Set in an unspecified Asian city circa 2032, in a nightmarish society aided by vast technological advances, civilization has "progressed" to a state where humans and non-humans cohabitate with little distinction. The world is predominantly populated by cyborgs and dolls. Cyborgs are machines with human spirits inside, while dolls are cold machines with no inner "ghost." Lingering among them are a precious few organic humans.

Batou is a cyborg employed by a governmental anti-terrorist operation to track down a defective female robot—designed for sexual pleasure—who has killed her master. Joined by human sidekick Togusa, they descend into a dark world existing at the intersection of corporate corruption, violence and danger. Batou, still haunted by memories of a long-lost love, comes face to face with a world where humanity has all but been extinguished, providing the film with much social philosophizing to chew on. And it’s here that director Mamoru Oshii’s ambition gets the better of him.

The film is often rigorously intellectual, even literate in its approach to the big questions that plague Batou (and Oshii): Why are humans so obsessed with recreating themselves? Where does human arrogance and deceit begin? Are all life forms—humans, animals, robots—equal? What effect does a society of unease and detachment have on humanity? What role has technological overload played in moral bankruptcy?

There’s a soaring sequence in the center of the film that is truly visionary, involving an Asian street celebration that plays like an exotic, ornate Eastern Mardi Gras. These visual moments are frequent in the film, but as they pile on, one after the other, something odd starts to happen: a cold, static, empty, lifeless and remote gloom falls over the film. Maybe that’s part of the point.

For a film that is so acutely focused on the wages of lost humanity, Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence, feels oddly, emotionally truncated. It’s a mostly lifeless affair studded with spectacular imagery, sound and color. Perhaps exploring the notion of lost humanity through the eyes of a partially non-human character makes perfect sense here. However, the film needs more human interaction to make us care. As it is, the film is a feast for the eye and a sometimes-engrossing head-trip. It’s where the heart comes into play that Ghost in the Shell: Innocence really stumbles.

The original Ghost in the Shell is said to have influenced directors like Tarantino, Cameron and the Wachowski brothers. Director Mamoru Oshii has said that he harbors a worldview of modern society as a cruel and frightening place, filled with fear and anxiety. "Sometimes I imagine eliminating all human interaction and spending the rest of my life at home," he adds.

Unfortunately, Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence has done virtually the same thing—there is nothing in the film to connect with beyond the visuals. At times it’s enough. By the time this picture finished, the empty feeling that plagues Batou’s soul also filled mine.

lee@reelmoviecritic.com