An excellently crafted film with amazing animation and direction. As with Mamoru Oshii's other works, the pacing is slow and the dialog is very heavy, but fortunately there are enough action sequences throughout to keep you going. The character design is very good except for (in my opinion) Major Kusanagi - she's fairly androgynous and lacks the charm and appeal of Shirow's original character design.

The English dubbed version is actually quite good, although the subtitled version adds more depth and understanding to the material.

One thing that did carry over from the original version of Ghost in the Shell is the depth and complexity of the plot. Shirow is well known for intricate, hard-to-follow stories that blend political intrigue, science fiction, and philosophical exploration. On that mark, this version of Ghost in the Shell definitely holds up, and although it is somewhat abridged from the comic version, most of the original concept is still here. There is less action, to be sure, but the politics are still present, and there's more than enough exploration of what it means to be human and the effects of technology on the human soul to keep you thinking. There may actually be too much plot for some viewers--some of the intrigue (particularly the political stuff) is so involved that it's easy to get lost, and the philosophical discussions were rather heavy handed, but neither of those are necessarily a down side, depending on your taste.

Artistically speaking, Ghost in the Shell is beautiful. The animation is fluid, the backgrounds are (true to Shirow's style) realistic and filled with detail, the hardware is realistic, and the art is generally sharp and extremely well drawn. The character designs are quite realistic and interesting as well, although they look quite a bit different from Shirow's originals. Regardless of which you prefer, the character animation is great--the little things are smooth, subtle, and natural, and the motion during action scenes has even more attention to detail. Those two action scenes (one at each end) were somewhat subdued, true to the feel of the move, but they were nonetheless spectacular. But make no mistake, this is most definitely not an action movie--despite the cyberpunk origins, Ghost in the Shell is more about philosophy than people blowing each other up.

The acting on both sides of the linguistic fence was good. In the Japanese, almost all of the casting was dead on, and the low-key performances by Motoko and Bateau were top-notch. The English casting was also very good, although the acting was not of quite the same caliber. The Major was acted quite well, although I thought the performances in the dub were a little too low-key (read: robotic) for their own good. The music was very interesting; more Akira than Bubblegum Crisis, it was very cerebral and surprisingly understated. Traditional sounding and somewhat surreal choir and slow drumbeats, the music was unfamiliar and a bit eerie, but very creative and it fit the production quite well. More noticeable than the music, though, was the lack thereof; many scenes (most notably the action ones) were almost silent.

Ghost in the Shell maintains a unique feel throughout, is visually striking, and there is enough philosophizing for the deepest viewer, making for an unusual and engaging movie. On the other hand, fans of the original and people looking for cyberpunk action may well be disappointed, and the plot and philosophy may be too monotonous for others to really enjoy. As for Shirow fans: if you've ever wanted to see a serious take on one of Shirow's stories, this is it, but if you like them just the way he wrote them, you've been warned.