Got a free ticket to see Ghost in the Shell and I'm glad I did see it. It's actually a good scifi movie on its own. If it wasn't an adaptation, it would be considered quite good overall. As an adaptation though, I feel its mostly there. Like 75%. They recreate a lot of the iconic scenes from the movie that look real good and the story elements are there, but they clearly only lightly delved into the deeper aspects of the original movie and show, because there is a lot of dialogue going on with this series where it's just people talking about ghosts, humanity, identity, etc. It's there in this movie, but I think they could've spent more time in a few series or certain interactions taking it further, but I figured they didn't want to make it quite as heavy as the original series is. I mean, I can't blame them, I like it, but I for one could never truly understand everything that GITS is talking about lol
I also am a little bummed they didn't do much with the rest of the crew. Batou is great, I think they did well with him, Togusa is in it abit and so is Aramaki, but the other members of Section 9 don't get much attention. Saito shows up at the end, and apparently the other three regulars are there, but I don't think their names are said and they certainly were played by different looking actors if they were. That's so weird to do when the other main members of the cast look pretty close to their anime counterparts.
There's a good bit fanboys of the series could probably nitpick and will, but as a GITS fan and a scifi movie fan, I can certainly say its worth a watch.