Dense dialogue burdens 'Ghost in the Shell' sequel

This anime film is visually stunning, like the original.
By GARY DOWELL
DALLAS MORNING NEWS
The first "Ghost in the Shell" was a skillful -- albeit talky and pretentious -- blend of science fiction and philosophy. Unfortunately, its sequel, "Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence" is a rehash that takes a timely theme, mankind's obsession with technology, and bloats it to the point of incomprehension, cramming meaning into dialogue that has none.
Like its predecessor, "Innocence" explores the fabric of what it means to be human. Set in the year 2032, the story focuses on a cyborg cop named Batou (voiced by Akio Otsuka), a human soul encased in an increasingly artificial body. He's investigating a case involving a series of malfunctioning "gynoids," female robots designed specifically as sex toys, that have gone haywire and killed.
Batou and his (mostly) human partner delve into the shadowy machinations of the company that makes these robots, called dolls for their lack of intelligence (artificial or otherwise), and encounter characters and situations that call into question what it means to be human in a world where the distinctions have become blurred.
Stunning
There's no denying that "Innocence" is visually stunning, deftly combining computer generated and hand-drawn animation to create surreal landscapes and environments and bathing them in vibrant, shadow-enshrouded color schemes. All of this suggests that it was for the best that Disney gave up on hand-drawn animation.
While it's nice to look at, it's a lot to slog through in terms of narrative. The rules of director Mamoru Oshii's fictional world aren't well explained, and the story loops back on itself a number of times, especially during a sequence in which Batou visits a cyborg informant and finds himself in a virtual trap. It doesn't help much when characters toss around oblique quotes from John Milton, Descartes, Confucius and the Bible along with techno-babble about e-brains, ghost dubbings and firewalls.
No doubt hardcore anime fans, particularly those for whom the original "Ghost in the Shell" is a classic, will eat the sequel up and beg for more. Everyone else may opt for a memory dump.