Online Exclusive: Ghost in the Shell 2 Innocence

Online Exclusive Ghost in the Shell 2 Innocence
The notion of intelligent machines rebelling against their masters is about as old as science fiction itself. If the human body is a machine-one of the ideas that comes up in the anime film "Ghost In The Shell 2: Innocence"; then the story is as old as the Book of Genesis.

That may explain the Biblical references in the movie. Certainly, of all the many tellings of this story, few have considered the philosophical issues of creating intelligent, human-like machines as seriously as this film does. It's unfortunate that its philosophies are over-ambitious and its dialogue impenetrable, because visually, it's quite stunning.

The story picks up where the first film left off, following some of the same characters. You'll likely need to have seen the first film to understand some of the plot's finer points.

The movie is set in the year 2032, in a cyberpunk dystopia, where androids and cybernetic modifications are so common that purely natural humans are the rarity. Certain androids, made by an Evil Corporation with ties to the Yakuza, have been murdering their high-profile human masters. Inspectors Batou and Togusa, agents of a special anti-terrorism task force, are assigned to investigate the murders.

The androids, they learn, have been pre-programmed as assassins, while overtly (that is, covertly) sold as "sexaroids"