I had to watch this sequel to Ghost in the Shell because I just had to.  I was curious to what happened to Major, and wanted to know more about the story as I thought the first one touched so little. 

Once the anime started, I could tell that this is very different from the first Ghost in the Shell.  Almost everything look computer generated to a level that's even higher than the first Ghost in the Shell.  The graphic looks so real, and I think a lot of parts in the anime is really just showing off the graphics, and not so much on story building.  They were just aethetic views and pictures that did little for the story.  I thought the background graphic looks so real that the characters in the anime didn't match with the background.  It's like Roger Rabbit where they mixed cartoon with real life.  It looked kind of funny to me, but it seemed like no one else shares my view.  I read some other reviews on the movies, and it's whether they went ga ga over the graphics or that they hate the story because they don't understand it, no one mentioned how the characters don't match with the background.  Oh, well, maybe I am weird and I don't know what I am talking about. 

So, I guess if you are easily pleased visually, you'd like this movie, and if you are more story-oriented, you'd hate this movie.  As for me, I am in the middle.  Sure, the CGI graphics looks really realistic, but it's not like something I've never seen before.  (When did this anime come out?)  Different elements of this movie reminds me of various other movies I've seen.  The virtual setting that Batou was seeing looked really weird and out there, and it reminded me of the movie The Cell - it was a world that looks very different from what we are used to seeing and the feel of it is very much like the one in The Cell.  The lobby area in the beginning, with the two grand curved stair cases on both sides, reminded me of Beauty and the Beast, although in this case, the colors used are more mysterious and almost has an evil taste to it. 

On to the story of the anime, itself, I think the author tried to make it really philosophical.  In the first Ghost in the Shell, Major was doubting her own existence, and in this one, they robbed ghosts  from girls and placed them in dolls. This reminds me of Neon Genesis Evangelion.  If you know me, you'd know how I feel about Neon  Genesis Evangelion.  Keep your philosophical babble to your silly self.  According to the reviews, no one understood the philosophy trying to be conveyed to the audience anyway, so why bother?  Actually, I find a very similar parallel with this and Battle Angel, except for Battle Angel, it's about the brain, and here it refers it as the ghost.  But both has similar ideas, but I think Battle Angel conveyed it much better - even though it's not as "sophisticated" as what Ghost in the Shell 2 (What's the point of being so sophisticated that no one understand?  Just to show off how deep you are?  Gimme a break!  I say that's a complete failure on the author's part.), but at least the audience was able to FEEL it.  Lastly, iRobot was another movie that I thought of when I was watching this anime.  I saw some parallel similarity between the robots in the movie iRobot and the dolls in Ghost in the Shell 2. 

After watching these two Ghost in the Shell anime movies, I have no interest in watching the TV version.