GOD...the cartoonish CG elements they added...

I finally got to rent a copy of GITS 2.0, to determine if it's worth buying. I was wary about the changes they made, as written on the back on the blu-ray case. The verdict: Excellent picture, but the 3D animation enhancements they put in sink it. And it's not so much that I'm against CG enhancements; it's that the CG is cheap and cartoony! What I would expect in the opening crawl of your standard PS3 game, not a motion picture. The opening titles with the fast moving numbers (one of many things that influenced The Matrix) have been replaced by the background menu of a PS3 player, from the looks of it. It's one of many graphics changes. And yet, I could almost forgive all the background changes - except they chose to re-animate in CG our main character (Major Motoko Kusanagi) in two major sequences that are distracting beyond belief! The original filmmakers names are still on this; I don't know how they could think this would look any good, cutting from fake-looking 3D animation back to cell animation in the same scene. The 3D elements in the sequel, Innocence, look better by comparison; likely because it was planned that way.

One blu-ray bonus is that the original version of GITS is in the special features. But I swear they made it look grainy and dirty on purpose (like it was captured off laserdisc or something), just to make 2.0 look like the better, true version. My DVD of GITS looks much better in comparison to this transfer.

The extra blu-ray flash of Ghost In The Shell 2.0 = Fail.

"Everyone else may be an a**hole, but I'm not!" - Harlan Ellison