Ghost in the Shell: 2.0 (Review)
Monday, 19th October 2009, 15:56

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Introduction
Are you kidding? Another Ghost in the Shell review… This is my third for this site, and you have to wonder if I’m beginning to let a perfectly healthy obsession spiral out of control. In fact, I’m going to rein that obsession back in, and point you to my previous review of the Special Edition so you can get a quick idea of what the movie is about. Back already? Let’s get down to the confusion then, as Ghost in the Shell 2.0 isn’t the sequel (That was Ghost In The Shell 2: Innocence), this is the current vogue in cinema for directors to revisit past works and update them for the 21st Century. It isn’t a new phenomenon certainly, with George Lucas the most famous proponent, when he went back to the original Star Wars trilogy, and cleaned them up, inserted new effects, made them look brand new, and made a million fanboys cry in terror when Greedo shot first.

Mamoru Oshii is no stranger to the practise, as he’s already revisited his Patlabor films and given them an aural upgrade. But when it came to Ghost in the Shell a few years ago, he went for the full Lucas, upgrading the audio and the visuals, inserting new effects and generally remaking the film from the ground up. He also altered the dub slightly, offering an Easter Egg for fans of Stand Alone Complex. I can see three reasons for doing this. In an industry where visual effects technology changes by the day, there is an argument that what may have been cutting edge CGI ten months ago, looks hopelessly dated today. Ghost in the Shell was one of the earlier films to use CG animation, albeit for the computer displays alone, and that’s the part of the film that looks the most dated. Upgrading these scenes alone would make the film relevant to modern audiences once more. The second reason is continuity. Innocence redefined the state of the anime art a few years ago, and as a sequel to Ghost in the Shell, in some way reinvented the world and the characters. Upgrading the original movie goes some way to restoring continuity between the two films. Finally there is the old ‘bums on seats’, keep the tills ringing motive. I think there is an element of all three in Ghost in the Shell 2.0. I just hope there’s no Greedo moment.

Picture
Ghost in the Shell 2.0 gets a 1.85:1 anamorphic transfer, and I once thought that the Special Edition had a good presentation on the DVD format. This blows it away, with a consistently smooth and seamless transfer, with none of the usual problems with compression and noise. I didn’t even notice the usual anime blight of colour banding. This is an excellent transfer, and can probably only be surpassed by the Blu-ray disc.

The movie has undergone a substantial overhaul, with perhaps the most contentious issue, a couple of blatant CGI moments looking a tad out of place with the rest of the animation. Another point of debate will be the upgrade of the computer graphics and displays that were in the film. Gone is the green and blue colour theme of the original, and in comes a profusion of red and gold, to provide continuity to the Innocence sequel. The quality of the graphics has also entered the 21st Century, and it looks a substantial jump forward in technology. The rest of the film appears to be the untouched 2D animation, until it becomes clear that not a single frame of the movie has escaped renovation. The 2D animation now feels softer edged, the quality of light is subtly different, as if the film has an inner glow, and the colour timer-ist has been at work, toning down the primary colours, and giving the film a more realistic, nuanced palette. For want of a better word, Ghost in the Shell now seems less cartoon-like.

Sound
Third time’s the charm for Ghost in the Shell via Manga. The first time there was that sound sync error, the previous disc had the LFE channel missing, this time the audio is all present and correct. And this time I’m going to tell you to ignore the English dub. This isn’t the usual sub vs. dub debate, it’s just that the English dub is the same as before, getting close to 15 years old now, and even with the changes to the film, I noticed little difference in the English audio. This time, I’m telling you to choose the Japanese audio because it kicks arse. Mamoru Oshii took the whole kit and caboodle to Skywalker Ranch, and now the Japanese audio is so well defined, loud and dynamic, that this disc really ought to have one of those teeth loosening THX logos at the front end. I switched the disc on last night at my usual DVD listening levels, and had to turn the volume down when the helicopters passed by overhead. Then I had to turn the volume down some more when the SWAT team was fired upon.

I think the audio has almost been completely reworked, certainly there are new sound effects to appreciate to go with the new visuals, the dub is different in places, most apparent with the new voice of the Puppet Master, and I get the feeling that Kenji Kawai has revisited some of his music as well. Either that, or the 5.1 mix was revealing musical instruments I had never heard before. There is a problem though, and it wouldn’t be Ghost in the Shell without a problem. The English dub is the old one, and it seems that the English subtitles are from the old release as well, albeit in a much more appealing white font. It means things get a little screwy when the Puppet Master is revealed. The character has changed gender in this 2.0 version, and the new Japanese dub reflects that, with characters referring to the Puppet Master by ‘Kanojo’ instead of ‘Kare’. However, the old subtitles still refer to the Puppet Master as ‘He’ and not ‘She’, indeed it’s still that way in the English dub, so it may offer a second or two of confusion. Also, the film would have benefited from a signs only track.

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