Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

First of all, I am NOT against owning this. The UHD is the best looking version of this film by a mile, and it's worth having it because of that. The ending theme while not paramount for most people to enjoy the film, is just a sore spot because it means some fans will have to seek out other ways to have the film complete. In fact, people have already ripped different audio and combined it. It shouldn't have even been something we had to worry about. The slipcover censor is mostly minor, taking out the covered nipples and masking her gun. I love the art on this release regardless. The steelbook is also very nice, and has a beautiful transparent cover masking the robot underneath. Both are fantastic art design. Either or they all have the same issues. Last time it was subtitle problems and other mistakes. This time they borked the soundtrack and didn't even think to give us the original 2.0 audio already available in the Japanese UHD version. Yes, you read that right. They included 2.0 audio here in Japanese but probably downmixed from the Atmos they have with the same Eno song at the end. At this point you have to be out of your mind as the person managing this release to already have the proper original mix, but you feel the Eno song should play over the credits on ALL language tracks regardless if it was ever there in the first place. Nevermind it's just bad taste regardless. For those reasons I have to mark this two stars with hesitation as most people will fully enjoy the package. It should be noted the slipcover does actually look very nice in itself, and the art is tastefully done and masked with shiny, holographic material. There are three chants in the film: the first chant at the title sequence is called "Making Of A Cyborg," the next during the city montage is called "Ghost City," and the last chant, called "Reincarnation" plays over the ending credits. These chants tell a story of a wedding and transformation mirroring the film and thematically tying it together. Kenji Kawai wrote this score specifically to tell a story, and it is objectively integral to the film. Even on the Japanese Atmos and Stereo audio track they hacked the Brian Eno song One Minute Warning into the credits. It's unfitting and completely destroys the ending, however small this may be to some. Most people seem to believe the incompetent crew doing this, and perhaps every botched release, of this film used a previous 5.1 mix for Atmos, and this is why the Eno song plays. People are also reporting Dolby Vision flickering which is a major issue, but no one knows if it is the player or the disc. It seems to only affect certain equipment, and there is an HDR10 encode as well anyway. There are some issues with the dubtitles as there always are. Why they can't be bothered to retranslate this film is beyond belief. It's not that hard, and it would probably improve the experience. The UHD is a touch more defined and natural than the bluray. The UHD is the best this film has ever looked by a fair margin. It is no longer dull looking, and it remains quite vivid and beautiful. For that alone I could recommend a buy at this price but only with the nice slipcover as opposed to buying it a this price with no slip at all. Amazon seems to run out of them quickly with some releases. The included bluray has also been remastered, and it looks pretty fine. The brightness and overall saturation is up a notch too high compared to the UHD, and you will immediately notice these changes. The conversion here favors the UHD, but the bluray will give you a decent upgrade from past releases. No major issues as in the soundtrack. A touch of DNR shows up here on both dsiscs, but I usually don't care too much on animation unless it egregious, e.g, The Sword in the Stone bluray fiasco. But it is there for those who care. Here it can be noticeable in places, and some people will harbor disdain for it. Another issue down the drain. Overall, it's a pretty nice release, but I cannot in good faith give it any more than two stars for the hatchet job on the soundtrack. The review is just here to warn those unaware, and hopefully it might call attention to the issue so it will be fixed in another release. I feel the film and physical product deserves 4.5 stars overall, but to insult this audience and yet again put out a flawed release makes my blood boil. The Eno song should be nixed FROM BOTH versions of this film! The suits back in the day felt their audience not culturally aware enough to appreciate the ending theme. A completely illogical and ridiculous reminder of corporate inanity. The Eno song could be provided as an extra, but it has no place on either the English or the Japanese version, and it was never on the Japanese version to begin with. Furthermore, there is AMPLE space on this disc to include another audio track, but that was never needed as the Japanese Atmos track should have never had the song to begin with. Kenji Kawai wrote an amazing score, and to disrespect his original vision like this is simply not okay, duly so when they easily could have remastered the song and included it in the mix with a little work or just included the previous 2.0 audio they have sitting on their computers from past releases. Insane really that nobody thought to do this on a major release. It points to obvious incompetency, which is nothing new with a slew of this film's releases having errors and issues across the board. So to summarize, the slipcase art is censored in two places, which is not a huge deal as it still looks very nice, and the actual thematically correct credits song, that completes the trio of chants, is completely missing from all Japanese audio tracks There is some DNR on the picture, yet it easily looks the best it has ever looked. The lack of original 2.0 audio tracks on these releases is very troubling, as at least that would have made the audio issue nil, plus they had space for it. No reason NOT to include the original audio, and I really hope this trend stops on UHD. This film has had problematic releases going back decades at this point, so we are yet again going to wait for another release in the future. Incredibly disappointed yet again with another Ghost in the Shell release, but that shouldn't probably deter people from owning this one. It's still a bonafide classic.