I'm sorry, this movie is fantastic...

yeah, I just watched it and agree with that

I've been catching bits and pieces of it on PlutoTV lately and I gotta say, I like what I see.

Although I preferred the cartoon, I did enjoy the film a lot. I think it was too concerned with action and "flash" to dive deep enough into its ideas and really connect us with the main character, but it was deeper than most of its critics say, and it's better than they say, too. It was a solid sci-fi action film, and maybe it didn't maximize the depth of the original's ideas, but it didn't butcher everything.

Saw it in the cinema - enjoyed it - completely forgot about it.
That's OK for a piece of entertainment but I guess it also means there was nothing particularly interesting about the film.

Agreed. As someone who isn't a particularly big fan of the original, this was a decent surprise. Ghost in the Shell for me, has always felt like a second rate knock off of Blade Runner and not much else. It has the visuals and the mood, but it lacks the depth, ambiguity, and emotional touch of Ridley Scott's classic. It's by no means a terrible film, but aside from its ambience, it's hardly a film I have much admiration for.

This version doesn't necessarily fix all the problems I had with the original, but it lessens them by being just a bit more fun and enjoyable to watch. I still find the story largely unoriginal and recycled here (in fact, maybe even more so), but the tone and presentation felt a lot less pretentious and uppity about itself. There's a lot less of the endless panning shots of cityscapes and streets as there were in the first film, as Sanders' direction seems to favor brevity and economic pacing over atmosphere and mood. And yet, the film still retains a similar look and feel as the original, it's just not as in-your-face artsy about it.

On top of that, Scarlett Johansson's portrayal of the Major resonates with me more here, as she's given a bit more warmth and tenderness in her personality. The lack of characters with recognizable personalities and humor was another thing that bothered me about the original, and like with the story, this film doesn't necessarily fix that but it's lessened here as Johansson brings a certain dose of likability and charisma to the protagonist. It helps too, that this version makes the stakes more personal for the Major by having her go through a journey of discovering who she was before turning into a cyborg. The only problem here, though, is that the journey she goes through is incredibly predictable and uninspired (almost like a beat by beat retread of RoboCop at times).

With that said, though, while I would hardly rate this version as a classic, it is a moderate improvement over the original. At least with this one, I was never bored.

As a standalone this is sure a really well made sci-fi film with such an emotional backstory.

With the anime I actually prefer the prequel series aka Arise compared to original film. I highly recommend you watching that and this is coming from someone who isn't a fan of anime. Was surprised to hear how hated it is among the original fanbase.

I really like it too. It works well on it's own.

4 yrs later - wait til you see it on a VR headset - it's awesome!