Ghost in the Shell 2.0

Not to be confused with 2004’s ‘Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence’, this is effectively a straight rerelease of Mamoru Oshii’s breathtaking 1995 existential, cyberpunk android-riot-police yarn, which has been given the most superficial aesthetic and aural souping-up in the digital restoration lab. Indeed, the gorgeous hand-drawn visuals from the original version have been needlessly sullied by a few hideous 3D computer-animated sequences that appear to have been arbitrarily slotted in to the action to make the film feel more ‘modern’. Yes, the dialogue still sounds like it was filched from some trashy, over-reaching sci-fi novella, and you still feel that the story needs to be three times longer to make even a modicum of sense, but it remains an emotive, sensuous and visually arresting work despite the unnecessary tinkering.