The movie itself is an entirely new and has a complete story that can be followed with only a bit of knowledge of Stand Alone Complex. But the first 25 minutes worth of film contain a ton of spoilers for anyone who hasn't seen 2nd GIG. So, consider this fair warning. The movie takes place in 2034 Japan and another hacker called the puppeteer is drawing all of Section 9's attention. As with the other Ghost in the Shell animes the plot is rather convoluted. Not to worry, if anyone gets lost or confused, there are points of exposition at the end of each act to bring everyone back up to speed. The really great part about this story is that all of the characters aside from the Major are changing and maturing.

This is especially true for Togusa. Actually I haven't liked Togusa since the first movie. I always felt that he was fairly weak and whiney, almost useless, compared to the others in section 9. In this story Togusa has grown up so to speak and has become far more interesting. There are plenty of action sequences to keep things moving, and a head to head sniper dual with Saito that is just darned cool.

For this movie, the already high production quality of the TV series has been turned up to for this movie. There is ton of eye candy everywhere. 

Another great aspect of this story is that it further expands on the possibilities and consequences of a future that is dependent upon the net and the cost of physically connecting oneself to that net. An underlying tone of current political struggles in Japan is moderately veiled, and adds to the believability of this world. A negative criticism of Solid State Society is that the plot is more or less the same idea that was dealt with in the previous installments of Ghost in the Shell. That is a fair criticism, but what is important here is that the creators keep inventing new and interesting ways to approach this same idea.

I can't see anything wrong with that. After all, this is a sequel and the characters have a very specific job that they do. I somehow can't see Batou doing comedy or anything else that wouldn't have a gun in his hand or his elbow in somebody's face. So, aside from the superficial plot line similarities, this is a fresh and interesting story that is worth seeing. Plus there is a twist ending that surprised even me.

For this movie, the already high production quality of the TV series has been turned up to for this movie. There is ton of eye candy everywhere. Production I.G does an outstanding job recreating the world that Masamune Shirow first visualized in his original manga. Everything has a real but futuristic feel to it. Research for what the world will look like in the future is so thorough that Production I.G even partnered with Nissan Motor Corp. and used actual concept vehicles for section 9 to use, as well as other actual but retro-looking vehicles.

Personally, I think Batou has the best taste in cars ever. 3D integration with the 2D elements has been smoothed and often it is difficult to distinguish between the two. In the TV series I sometimes found that the 3D elements were sometimes too clean and they looked like they didn't belong. This was especially true with the Tachikomas, because they usually appeared right along side the 2D main characters. The animations are top notch and there is only one awkward motion study that I could see, but it was only after several viewings. It is very impressive that so many complicated movements can be hand drawn with such a realistic movement and weight.

What is even more impressive is the number of cuts used throughout this movie. Normally in anime the scenes with a lot of cutting are reserved for the action scenes to aide in making them more exciting, because of their expensive nature. Not here, Production I.G constantly cuts throughout this movie, and, as a result, scenes where the camera fixes on a subject for a length of time really builds tension and drama. Was it necessary to do all of that shot cutting to tell the story? No. Did it help make the movie awesome? Yes.

Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex-Solid State Society is one very solid title and anyone who is a fan of GITS will not be disappointed.