Daniel Smolkin
The movie itself is great. It's like the Ship of Theseus but with our bodies: if we gradually replace our body parts with robot parts, when do we stop being ourselves? Moreover, if our arms, legs and torsos are artificial, how can we know our brains are not? And does it matter? The central theme seems to be this last question: can a sufficiently advanced artificial intelligence be called alive? The movie offers three view points: the protagonist, Major Motoko Kusanagi, hints that she believes artificial intelligence is not truly alive. At the very least, she is clearly troubled by the possibility that she is fully mechanical and not organic. She has two foils: one is Batou, a half-cyborg soldier, who argues that the distinction is meaningless and the question is moot. The other is the Puppet Master, a shadowy hacker, who argues artificial intelligence is as deserving of the status of being "alive" as any human intelligence. Anyway, I love this film and I would give it five stars if not for the bad subtitle situation. Mainly, their timing is all wonky. It's unfortunate that google play has us choose between a horrid dub and these wonky subtitles.