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 t's difficult to dislike Mamoru Oshii's sequel to
his seminal anime work "Ghost
in the Shell", the cyberpunk sci-fi that influenced "The
Matrix" and many others. Then again, it's also difficult to
completely like "Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence", if for no
other reason except that it's a ponderous, slow, and cumbersome 100-minute
movie that feels like an over extended 30-minute episode. To be sure, the
animation is superb -- but then again, it would only be worth mentioning
if the animation wasn't fantastic. Like the Koreans when it comes
to movie aesthetics, the Japanese owns feature length animation, and
anything other than spectacular is a letdown.
True to its pedigree,
"Innocence" is indeed a terrific film to look at. The sequel
follows the adventures of cyborg cop Bateau (Akio Otsuka), a supporting
character in the original "Ghost in the Shell". Now partnered
with the terribly uninteresting Togusa (Koichi Yamadera), Bateau is
assigned to investigate a recent rash of murders committed by sex
androids. The one thing the victims have in common is that they all got
their androids from the same place. Bateau's investigation leads him to a
corporation churning out the product, but that's hardly important because
plot is something "Innocence" is barely concerned with.
What "Innocence" is really interested in is
talking about the nature of humanity, and its clashes with machinery.
Technology is threatening to run amok (literally, as in the case of the
killer androids), and figuratively, as in the film's surrounding
environment. And no one does futuristic cyberpunk settings better than
writer/director Mamoru Oshii, who has applied his eye for detail to the
live-action "Avalon"
and before that, "Patlabor:
The Movie". In this futuristic tale, technology is so much a part
of man that it's hard to tell the difference -- and indeed, the film seems
concern that there might no longer be any distinction between man
and machine.
And if one was so inclined to approach
"Innocence" from a cerebral point of view, there's enough
chitchat about souls and machines and their various corresponding
analogies to make one tremble with overwhelming pleasure. But if you were
looking for a futuristic action film, there are only about 10 minutes of
"Innocence" that will meet your standards. In deference to the
film's themes of humanity becoming more cold and soulless the more we give
in to technology, I suppose the fact that almost no one in the movie
exerts anything resembling human traits is part of the "game
plan".
Then again, spending 100 minutes with unsmiling faces
that have the bad habit of just standing around jabbering away all day
about droll subjects such as the human soul does not an exciting film
make. If watching live actors do this is bad, imagine watching animated
characters, which quite literally stand/sit/pose in place for long
stretches at a time without movement. I "get" the attempt at
cerebral storytelling, but there is something to be said about not boring
the audience to death while doing it.
While the animation is flawless and quite wonderful,
as a sequel to 1995's "Ghost in the Shell",
"Innocence" just ends up regurgitating a lot of the original's
themes, and indeed even some of the conversations get recycled. And while
Major Kusanagi, the heroine of the original, eventually shows up to do
battle toward the end of the sequel, she's sorely missed for the other 90
minutes of the film where she's only mentioned in passing. Too bad,
because this means having to endure Bateau's unsmiling face and the
nagging Togusa, who between nagging is equally as dull and uninteresting
as everyone else in the movie.
As far as action goes, "Innocence" offers a
brief skirmish in the beginning, a loud firefight about 40 minutes later,
and a final 10-minute battle with an army of sex androids to cap things
off. Alas, not exactly the stuff "action movies" are made of.
In-between the sporadic action (which, in fairness, are quite excellently
rendered), there are a lot of conversations about the nature of man and
machine and blah blah blah. If that is your cup of tea, you'll get a kick
out of "Innocence", because it's obvious that's all Oshii seems
to care about.
And without enough involving action to keep one's
attention, I'm afraid no amount of wild techno babble or scientific jargon
is going to save the day. As a sequel, "Innocence" is far
inferior to the original. In a funny way, just as "The Matrix"
was heavily inspired by the original "Ghost in the Shell", this
sequel seems to give off the distinct aura of pseudo/faux philosophy that
made large chunks of the "Matrix" sequels so blasted
intolerable. But then again, at least the Wachowski brothers had the
decency to supply us with groovy action in-between the gabfest. Oshii
can't even be bothered with that.
As a 30-minute episode, "Innocence" would
have been just a tad too long. As a 100-minute feature length film, it's
simply untenable.
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