5/5 Robot cartoon
  by Ásgrímur Hartmannsson (Vestmannaeyjar)
The DVD extras: making of, in japanese with subtitles, loads and loads of text information on various topics related to the feature, the feature trailer, and a rather caffeinated preview of other products from Manga-video.

The DVD has two languages: Japanese with subs being default, but the subs can be removed, or the film played with the english dub.

The film:

The protagonist is a cybernetic denizen of the uncanny valley who is working for the government looking for hackers. These are not the sort of hackers that invade company home-pages and replace them with random images, and turn out to be overweight 14 year old kids when they are caught. These have a much cooler evil scheme.

The story goes about in the future, which happens to be rusty and used up, but unlike so many live action cyberpunk films the sun does shine in this one. Which is how we can see the rust. Then the sun goes down sowe can see the neon. Can't have cyberpunk without neon. Or at the very least a creepy guy called Neo.

Creepy things happen, stuff blows up, there is spectacle.

In the oriental style, the film states its message and ends. That makes the film feel cut off at the end, but it actually said what it came to say, and didn't bother going into fireworks or other showmanship to do it. It is more of an idea movie than an action movie - on the bright side it is an amusing idea you may have considered yourself or seen it on Star Trek. In which case this can add something new, or just a different point of view. Afterwards you could watch the series. They are good, if different in many ways.

3/5 Same merits and flaws as 'Akira'
  by H. Jin (Melbourne, Australia)
I saw this film around the same time as 'Akira', and was struck by the similarity between the two. 'Ghost In The Shell' has a similar sci-fi/cyberpunk atmosphere, and features outstanding animation and artistic quality. But there is also the same sense of style overcoming substance, and the whole experience left me feeling a bit flat.

First off, the animation: it was some of the best of its time, with a seamless integration of hand-drawn and CG elements. The anime really succeeds at bringing to life this futuristic, AI-dominated world. Just a pity it couldn't make a story to go with it.

Like 'Akira', 'Ghost In The Shell' is a compression of a very long manga, and again it feels too rushed and sketchy to satisfy. Apparently the story was taken from the very first and very last part of the manga, meaning the film has a first and third act but not a second. It really does feel as if the movie jumps straight from the set-up to the conclusion without much substance in between. At under 90 minutes, this film simply cannot do justice to its very complex, detailed story.

In a similar vein, the characters are given little room for development; they're all cold, ruthless, determined types, and the heavy focus on the Major means the remaining members of Section 9 are given cameo roles at best. Why does the Major look so different from her manga appearance? And all that nudity is just distracting.....yes, we GOT the point the first time....they overdid that concept to the point of it being gratuitous.

It's probably better to view the various television series first, or even better, to read the manga. Both of these do a much better job of fleshing out the story, environment and characters of this world. The film makes far more sense as an extension or conclusion to these series than as a stand-alone piece.

5/5 Truly Visionary
  by Paul O
This is the Movie that got me to pay serious attention to Anime. Although the voice acting, especially of the major sounds a little wooden sometimes, the movie is truly stunning.
As with many of these movies the thought and detail that goes into the cyborgs, robot think tanks etc is simply amazing.
Highly recommended, this one I would say you should own and not just rent.

The TV anime series Ghost in the Shell SAC is also extremely good :-)

5/5 such a surreal, and stunning animation.
  by Chris Mahnesmith (Chillicothe, IL)
Such Beautiful animation, and a great story as well, one of the best Animes out there that I have seen so far.

I would like to see more from the director..or any of the animators, I will have to check out the IMDB.

2/5 Overrated, in my opinion
  by Ana Mardoll (United States)
Ghost in the Shell / 6304493681

*Spoilers*

Obviously, a lot of people really like this movie, so your mileage may vary dramatically, but I personally did not care for this movie. We're currently going through a lot of anime at my household, and I genuinely like most of what I see, even if it's just because I appreciate the artistic experimental nature of many of them. But "Ghost in the Shell" felt excessively pretentious and dull - in fact, halfway through, my fiance recalled that he *had* seen the movie before (I was surprised that he hadn't, as he's a bigger anime buff than I), but he'd just forgotten it because it was so preachy and dull.

"Ghost in the Shell" feels like a movie written by and for thirteen year old boys who can't decide whether female nudity or computer AI is more exciting, but were able to agree that the two *combined* would be the best thing ever. The starring female cyborg regularly strips down to nearly-nothing in order to blend, chameleon-style, in the environment around her. I say "nearly-nothing" because, oddly, she can still wear clinging, thigh-high boots without hampering her chameleon disguise. Interestingly enough, all the men in the movie are able to use *their* chameleon powers without taking off *their* clothes, probably because god forbid we see male nudity when this is supposed to be a nerd-off for pubescent boys. Later in the movie, a computer program takes over a cyborg body (an 'empty shell') and the shell chosen is a "realistically" (sans body hair, of course, because - again - this is a pubescent boy fantasy) fashioned female body that never wears a stitch of clothing and is of course built like a lamppost with two watermelons nailed onto it.

And, really, I don't mind female nudity - if I did, I'd have to give up most anime entirely. That's fine, really, whatever. But make it plot-relevant, without the holes that accompany "Ghost in the Shell" like "Why does the major need to strip in order for her camo to work, but no one else does?" or "Why did they take the time and money to create realistic nipples on the cyborg body?" And if you can't make the female nudity plot-relevant, then at least HAVE a plot - and this is where "Ghost" falls down, because there really isn't a plot here. The whole movie is basically one big attempt to be "deep" and create a ridiculously artificial situation in order to allow one character monologue for *forever* over the nature of life, artificial intelligence, what constitutes a soul, and what defines humanity. Imagine the Architect scene from the Matrix, with all the coolness and interesting character development stripped out, and padded to an entire movie length, and you'll have a good idea of what this movie is like. Oh, and the Architect is now a naked blonde Playboy model. If that appeals to you, you'll probably like "Ghost" and you should ignore this review entirely, but if you'd like some actual plot development in your movies, "Ghost" isn't for you.

Oh, and one more gripe - someone needs to tell these writers that some of us are familiar enough with the Bible that pulling out the "see through a glass darkly" verse doesn't cause our heads to explode with respect at how "deep" and "cool" the dialogue is. I don't know if that verse is obscure enough in Japan to seem super-uber-cool, but trying to build the entire movie around it as something impenetrably deep and mysterious will fall flat for people already familiar with Western Christianity.

For the hearing impaired, the English subtitles don't match the English dubs, and the dialogue can be tricky to catch as it is often obscurred by loud explosions and/or gunfire - something to be aware of.