The Slow plot was incredibly nessecary to the point of the Movie though. that's the thing that gets to me about that particular critique. Granted, it is a jump from a lot of anime, but GiTS isn't about action, or even storyline in particular IMO. It's alot like Reading Ayn Rand i guess. You get a fantastic and enthralling story, but it comes at a slow pace to force you to analyse each characters, in terms of their purpose, their particular ideological views, and how these views sit with the authors favored viewpoint. if the movie just rolled along at a good clip, you'd be looking at the action and the story rather than enjoying the play between Batou and the Major, or going into the philosophical implications on technology that the anime does so well.