Ghost in the Shell 2017: Lean & Mean Edition

Magnificent, simply magnificent. This fanedit is so well done as it cuts out irrelevant scenes, cheesy 'on the nose' and exposition dialogue, and the mother subplot that all bog this movie down. By getting rid of the fat it made this movie far more of an engaging and entertaining movie, it's not a perfect movie but this edit makes it close to being one for me. The editing for me was seamless and the music particularly in the shelling sequence synchronized with Kenji Kawai's original soundtrack simply brilliant. In general high praise FairFriend knocked it out the park with this edit and this will be an easy replacement over the theatrical cut.

I find this fanedit quite enjoyable, I actually discovered Fanedit.org by searching this fanedit specifically,

I was dissapointed on the threatical release, like most of us, fans of the cyberpunk genre and the original and first Ghost in the Shell Movie (1995), the tone, the asthetics. I was very thrilled that the movie was set into production and anticipaded the release with such excitement, but like most comercial releases it has it's mesure of cheesyness and unnecesary plot holes.

This fan edit is GREAT and makes the movie worth watching ,thrilling and gives us some justice. Great cue on the shelling scene with the original GITS (1995) OST LIKE IT SHOULD HAVE BEEN. Thanks FairFriend you did us cyberpunk fans a favour!! Hope you have a great present as an editor pro.

As stated by digmodification and some others the audo/video sync at 16:58 catched my eye.

Audio could've handeled a bit better, it's not bad, tho it could have been better, maybe using Izotope RX for the dialogues, and matching the room sound with better editing. There were minor details. I'm no pro, I'm starting on video editing myself. But from an audience standpoint you made WONDERS with the source material, I liked this like an 90's or 2000's action flick! Keep up the good work.

Also a sugestion for the credits music, I'd pick a synthwave version of the soundtrack that could represent the cyberpunk asthetic even more, I made a small YouTube curation on the remixes of Kenji Kawai's Making On A Cyborg (I literally heard all remixes available on YouTube), I'm a musician with a fair experience on music production and these are my 2 cents on the matter, anyway I present you my top 3:

1st place YXYZ Remix (Mixing and Arrangement are extremely well made tho the genre it's somewhat edgy to some ears)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ghuD2VdilnA

2nd place Justa Armada Remix (The idea is great but lacks on a great mix)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_5C9CLCFAk

3rd place Steve Aoki Remix (This is fine as Steve Aoki's overall work, just not my usuall cup of tea)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PCe_UeHF7H8

Definitely the go-to version of the film. Big fan of GITS here, and upon watching the theatrical version thought that the sequence of the story, mother subplot, extraneous scenes, lack of expositional restraint, cheesy 'on the nose' dialogue etc etc really detracted from and bogged down the kick-ass postcyberpunk film that could've been. Ever since that first viewing in the cinema, I've been waiting for a faneditor to craft the film I knew was in there somewhere. This is that fanedit. Though the film is by no means perfect, what FairFriend has done here is focus and ground the characters and story (as much as one could, given the material available) and eliminate the expositional overload (which deprived the audience's imagination any mysterious elements to explore) and the cheesy/pandering/on-the nose aspects to create a tight, immersive cinematic experience of the GITS world, ensuring that all the neonoir/cyberpunk/postcyberpunk themes of identity, memory, technology, transhumanism, corporate greed and corruption, the exploitation of marginalized sectors of society, and the procedural whodunnit mystery are intact. The 'lean and mean' approach of cutting everything except the essential elements of the story adds to further bolster and highlight the key strengths of the film: the production design, cinematography, effects, and amazing electronic score, creating a cult classic that should be shared w all fans of GITS who were disappointed by the original theatrical cut, and, as mentioned, should be the go-to version for those who haven't seen the original. Well done, FairFriend!

*Like digmodification, I too noticed the aforementioned audio/video sync at 16:58 and the sudden cut re Cutter's death; also, apparently in earlier test screenings there was a whole different scene involving Cutter's death that involved a geisha and Aramaki, a pity we don't have access to it.

You have done this film a great service. I will now be able to show this to my anime-hating wife >.

As a big fan of the original anime movie, I was somewhat disappointed by the original live action Ghost in the Shell release, which I saw in theatres. The main criticisms I had were around the dumbing down of the material, significant changes to the overall visual style, lack of story coherence, and the score. Nerdwriter does a very insightful comparison of the visual elements here, which really resonated with me: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v2soHxEN79c&feature=youtu.be

This edit does a fantastic job at fixing these issues, as much as possible in a fanedit, while also improving the pacing. I think removing some of the 'on the nose' explanations helps the viewer focus on exploring core cyberpunk elements themselves. Trimming sub plots to focus on the main story arc works really well, and gives more relative time to the core Major experiences.

Thoroughly recommend over the main theatrical cut.