It has a totally different feel than the anime. It's less subtle, less deep. It demands less of the viewer than the original. Watching the anime I constantly felt like I had to think, fill in the gaps. Hollywood movies don't do that. They spell everything out for you. But I actually liked some of the scenes they added. The bit where Batou lost his eyes. It made me want to read the manga and find out of they took the scene from there or came up with it themselves.
I also liked the addition of Major's mom. It added a bit of that Hollywood-ish Happy End to the mix, but it wasn't sickeningly sweet. It worked. It was well made. There weren't too many words, it wasn't overly spelled out and that's why it worked.
Scarlet isn't a bad actor. She does her best. Does she capture the essence of the character? Does it feel like the same character? Not to me...I just think this role needs a Japanese woman.
I liked the Japanese guy there was. The one who actually spoke Japanese, but it kind of made it even more clear the film was kind of racist.
The city they were in was weird too. In the original it feels like they are in Japan. In the movie it's some weird futuristic city and one doesn't really get if they are Japan or America or in some new weird country.
I liked that they didn't make it very Matrix-like. The original was older than Matrix, but it still reminds people of it and had the film used that esthetic too much it would have looked like a knock-off.
I liked that a lot of scenes were visually incredibly similar to the anime. The plot was different, but not terrible. Not as good, sure, but you can't make a greater thing out of something that was already brilliant.
In conclusion: Watch the original, but if you're interested give this movie a try too.
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