Ghost in the Shell 2017: Lean & Mean Edition

Ghost in Shell 2017... More like Blade Runner 2049 on steroids. The movie is not that bad actually. Obviously, it is miles away from the original anime movie.

It displays great visual appeal, but the narrative falls on its face compared to the source material or source materials... I think there is no saving the movie even with the magic hands of Fairfairy. But he did manage to make it enjoyable to watch.

The edit itself already deserves a 10 out of 10 with the iconic "shelling sequence' synchronized alongside Kenji Kawai's original soundtrack. I got goosebumps when I saw it. Great work on that.

Other than that, this edit is much more focused and enjoyable to watch than the original theatrical release. Sure, it might feel short for some, but remember the 1995 movie clocks at 88 mins. Which is even shorter than Fairfriend edit.

On a technical note, I did notice not any issues with the soundtrack and even if some cuts are hasty and it did not border me.

For GITS fans, I highly recommend watching this version rather than the theatrical release!

I already liked the original cut of this movie. but this edit is so much better. it improves the pacing and all the other changes are completely justified

I'm not a fan of the original source material or anime in general and originally only watched this as I was able to find a killer deal on the movie. This is my second outing with the film thus far. I purposefully did not return to my previous review of the movie or try to remember it before going in as to try and view this edit with the freshest of eyes and ears and narrative following as possible.

Audio/Video Quality:
The file looks great. Some dark areas have some artifacts which I'd have thought wouldn't be as prevalent with the file size, but they aren't overly distracting.
8.5/10

Visual Editing:
Great visual editing here. The only issue I saw was a single video/audio sync error.
9/10

Audio Editing:
Again, great audio editing here. For the most part I didn't hear any of the cuts you made. There is a lip/audio/video sync issue at 16:58 that I'm guessing was a line replacement. The audio works, but the video doesn't quite work with it. The only other cut that stood out to me was the end when Cutter dies. The music jumps unexpectedly, though it isn't overly jarring. Other than those, the audio work was pretty flawless. The new song during the credit scene was seamlessly integrated.
9/10

Narrative:
The narrative changes really focused the story. I think the only part that might have suffered was the relationship between Major and Kuze. Their bond doesn't seem as strong in this one due to some removal of flashbacks and information that was removed about Motoko. I kept returning to those scenes in my mind so I'm not sure if a first time viewer would understand the totality of their connection. Does this diminish the narrative, not at all. It's still compelling and a tighter focus on the Major makes their intimate connection less integral to the story. One interesting thing that occurred from the rearranging of the beginning was that the credits scene almost made this feel like a tv show by it's placement after the hotel raid. It also created a perhaps unintentional implication that the Major would get a brand new body each time she is hurt, though we see throughout that this is not the case. Because of this, my mind took it as a TV like intro. This didn't harm the narrative, but it did leave a small inconsistency in my mind. While I personally like some of the omitted narrative components, this edit worked pretty flawlessly. Great work!
9/10

Enjoyment:
A tighter focus worked great with this film. I barely noticed or missed any of the 15 minutes cut from the story. The rearranging of certain scenes was also fantastically integrated. It's always enjoyable to see how adjustments alter the outcomes and presentation of a story. With a few slight adjustments to the audio this would be a solid 9.5 for me.
8.5/10

Great work from a new up and coming editor :)

It's been a long time since I've seen the theatrical cut. I was not a fan at all, but with some time now passed, I was curious how this edit might come across since the aims seem to fit with what I'd want out of the film.

Quality is good. I saw mention of compression artefacts in dark areas. The overall edit seemed a bit dark to me, but maybe that's the look of the film. I didn't see any actual blockiness on my end, personally, even though it can look a bit soft at times.

I'm sure there were many cuts throughout and the edit largely flies by with transitions unnoticed. I did pick up on a handful of moments though, some worse than others:

- 12:16 - sounds like a subtle dip in audio from crossfade
- 13:44 - audio and visual cut is rushed
- 16:58 - music suddenly fades in and the dialogue is out of sync with the major's lips
- 39:25 - this transition doesn't work at all IMO. It's very odd to have the audio fade out and have dialoguee start part-way through an action sequence
- 1:21:08 - rushed audio fade
- end credit music is a lot louder than the rest of the film mix

The only narrative issue I picked up on is at 1:09:30 - Batou is about to be attacked, but when we cut back he's suddenly driving. Feels like an odd jump. Otherwise, pacing feels fine and I did not miss any cut subplots.

I would say I actually enjoyed the film less this time around. I'm sure this has little to do with the edit, because I know that some of what bothered me before has been removed. I think it's just certain aspects hammering home for me on a rewatch. The edit itself is largely well put together and I would say it is a definite improvement over the original - there are things I remember annoying me before which are mercifully absent - but for me, it only turns a bad film into a mediocre one. The goals were to bring this more in line with the spirit of the 1995 anime but I think more could have been done to achieve this. The opening was a good choice and numerous changes to dialogue have been made to help, but there still remain a lot of forced moments. Equally, by its nature, the narrative of the theatrical cut is watered down and derivative, and I'm not sure that's something that can be fixed. The "it's what you do that defines you" is also such a trite and Hollywood theme that is hardly needed, let alone to be repeated explicitly more than once in the film (which is kept in this edit). It's kind of astounding how so much can be removed in this version and yet the film still comes across as over-explained and simplistic, especially compared with the more philosophical and meditative nature of the original.

The theatrical cut feels like such an odd product to me, deriving its visuals and story from different anime incarnations of GITS (and Innocence) as well as Blade Runner (most likely inspiration for the original GITS as well). There are a handful of aesthetically pleasing moments, but everything has the clumsy feel of a youtube fan film with a decent budget. The way people walk, the way people talk, the way the action is executed. It just falls very flat. I do think there is more room for improvement in "lean and mean" - more dialogue that can be removed, and further tweaks to how some of the action is edited, but at the end of the day, I don't think the original film can be "fixed". Or at least, you can't change its essential nature. It feigns substance, drawing from other more significant films but watering down their themes, and bringing nothing new to the table.

Do I recommend this? If you liked the original in spite of some flaws, yes, I absolutely do. You will likely find this an improvement (and clearly a lot of people have enjoyed it a lot more than me). If, like me, you were sorely unimpressed by the theatrical cut, I would guess this edit won't change your mind too sharply.

GitS is one of my most enjoyed franchises since I first saw the original film sometime in 1996 - I have read and watched all the different series/manga/films several times over the years. When I walked out of the cinema after the first showing of the live-action film I was gutted. Why had the film makers decided to bolt on a Robocop lost-memory plot? Why the need for an almost comically bad moustache-twirling style villain? Why was everyone referring to the Major as “Major” like it was her first name? :) (…and “I am Major” at the end, lol wot?)

After several years I was doing very well in forgetting the film apart from a few visuals, and then I found out about this fan edit - and I’m super happy I did. This edit is superb - much closer to the source material and, I’m happy saying, worthy of the name Ghost in the Shell.

This fan edit has literally saved the film for me - I’ve now added the disk to my shelf with the other GitS collections, but it will stay there and I’ll only ever watch this version of the live-action film in the future.

If there was one thing I could find fault in: there’ll never be a 3D version :)

I watched the fanedit in my Quest 2 VR headset via the Skybox app which enables a (virtual) full-sized cinema, and the film looked fantastic.