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Ghost in the Shell (1995)

Score: 9/10

Director: Mamoru Oshii

Stars: Atsuko Tanaka, Iemasa Kayumi, Akio Ôtsuka

1995 Original

Animated Movie

Synopsis: In the year 2029 technology has advanced so far that cyborgs are commonplace. Major Motoko Kusanagi is an officer in Section 9, an Elite Secret police division that deals with the most dangerous criminals.

Review: Major Motoko Kusanagi is a cyborg. The film shows us what it means to be almost completely cyber enhanced in a world with regular non enhanced humans. The film also shows us what it means to be a human. You only really understand humanity when components of the human being are removed, in this case we have a cyborg. The Major has members in her team that all have varying degrees of cyber enhancements, all expect one. Its like a spectrum, the character Togusa has no cyber enhancements at all while the Major is almost a complete robot. This high tech team takes on all manner of crime as a secret police unit. They seem almost unstoppable with their cyber enhancements.

The AI Program

'Puppet Master'

The program known as the Puppet Master is one of the greatest villains ever. It knows nature and humanity so very well. The best thing about this villain is that it is not wrong about it’s view of the world. It understands the necessity of ‘Merging’ in order to survive and thrive in the world. So basically the Puppet Master exploits what happens if you make almost all of the infrastructure in the world digital. A Blackhat like the Puppet Master can take over your systems, like mind hacking and giving the victim a simulated experience to cover up the Blackhat’s nefarious dealing. Its not just people that are vulnerable to cyber attack but also major architecture and infrastructure like a power grid or a network. Interestingly enough, we are seeing this kind of cyber attacks on systems and data bases all over the news in the real world today. The characters should be glade that the Puppet Master is not as evil as Ultron from Marvel. That would be a complete disaster for the team. Out of no where, the powerful people are losing their power when this AI starts taking control of their systems. The best part is that the powerful Elites in this film built their own greatest adversary

'Shelling'

Making a Cyborg

The film focuses on the concepts of evolution, stagnation, nature, adapting, determinism, and transhuman synthesis. The technology shows us the evolution concepts of the movie. We see what direction the whole human species is headed, basically to the level of immortality. Those who do not progress forward and evolve, die. This is very true in nature its self. Different species evolve to survive what ever Mother Nature throws at them. The same can be said for us humans as well. From living in caves to building skyscrapers. The film shows us a big city that the Major lives in. This is a representation of how humans have prevented stagnation, adapted to their changing environment, and nature it’s self. Determinism is shown to us when we see people living their lives as though cyborgs are normal all through out the film. To us at the time of this review, cyborgs are a thing of wonder. From science fiction to medical prosthetics, we see this kind of technology all of the time and its no doubt, the future. Transhumanism is the concept of merging humans and technology alike. This has already happened in the form of smart phones, smart watches, Bluetooth ear buds, and Google glass like camera glasses. Yes folks, this is cyborg technology and its not going away at all. From drones delivering packages to your door step via online ordering to popular AI that talks to you like Alexa the Amazon Echo AI, its already here. The movie its self is excellent because we get to see where we as a human race is headed.

The Major

Motoko Kusanagi

The cinematography is great. The director knows when to speed up the story and when to slow it down and let the atmosphere sink in for the viewer. This is an artistic master piece. Its well paced, well layered, and very well written. There is so much psychology in this movie that I cant possibly cover it all. The cinematography is truly artistic. The music is awesome and very well fitting. This is one of my personal favorite movies. The movie its self is layered with all kinds of life lessons. From over specialization to personal growth. Its easy to see why this movie lead to many other forms of media in the franchise. Superb!

Ghost in the Shell (1995)

1995 Original

The AI Program

'Shelling'

The Major

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