Innocence (2004)

I don't know if I'm the only one, but I found this to be of a completely different order than part one. The slower pacing is a relief, and visually I also found Innocence much more impressive (while one is of course not wrong in terms of production design). After all, I also really like philosophy. One had that too, but there it came in less because of the speed with which it passes in review. I thought that a film that would focus on Batou instead of the Major would be more distasteful to me, but nothing turned out to be less true.

Film with a great re-watch value. I have the feeling that I have missed a lot, there is so much in this that it still makes me dizzy.

4.5* for now.

Translated from Dutch · View original

Innocence

Visually, Innocence looks really great and the attention to detail is amazing. Batou is also an interesting character, but the story itself is a lot less successful. The beginning is still quite easy to follow, but it gets more and more complicated and especially confused. The philosophical dialogues and reflections don't help either. There will certainly be an idea behind it, but that philosophizing started to get quite irritating at some point. Fortunately, it is visually all astonishingly beautiful, which keeps you captivated.

Translated from Dutch · View original

The blurring of the boundary between man and machine guarantees the necessary ethical frictions in Innocence. The philosophical approach to cyberpunk really appeals to me, but the volley of tile wisdom during the dialogues sometimes feels a bit pompous. Despite this, director Mamoru Oshii manages to keep you on your toes from start to finish thanks to the audiovisual delights. In terms of story, Innocence is definitely inferior to the first Ghost in the Shell, but it is all in all a worthy successor to the classic.

Translated from Dutch · View original