The film special effects of the scenes are breathtaking. And when a review starts with the special effects, the film has failed. The scenes special effects are so busy and take up so much screen time that they distract from the story. Director Rupert Sanders also must think that people who see his movies are dimwitted, because he beats up the audience with exposition explaining the film over and over to the point of abuse. We get that Major is a cyborg with only her brain being human, we get it. We got it in the first scene, but Rupert has to tell us over and over in the film. The film spends so much time on special effects shots and exposition that it totally lost the depth of the anime for which the film is based. I also found Scarlett Johansson's performance hurt by the low emotional state of the other characters in the film. When everyone else is acting robotic, it is impossible to establish that her character feels withdrawn from the world. Did I mention that Major is a cyborg with only a human brain? Overall the film has a few good scenes, a strong ending and the rest is boring and insulting. See it only for the beautiful Scenes,... and Major is a cyborg with a human brain. Note: If you seen this film and have not seen the anime it is based upon, do not let this film turn you off of seeing it.

Visually stunning and painfully boring

People have complained that this is a watered down version of the original anime. That may be true but for the uninitiated this is still a pretty good film, interesting but now conventional themes on what it means to be human, spectacular visuals and decent action. Its not perfect, purists will nitpick, but its not as dumbed down as expected.

The atmosphere is impressive, the story somewhat different and simplified from the anime

Effects, music, acting crew, all superb. Almost had that full anime feel to it