I caught wind of the series young but it never did anything for me, but after years of staring at the half naked Robot chick with a gun I watched it as an adolecent and it was one of the only anime after Evangelion that actually made me think a little. I can understand why youu may have found it dull, it's a slow, procedural and methodical film.
But even if I i take off the nostagia googles for the Original film, this story has been done to death, I'm privy to questions like "how far is too far for scientific human advanced?" the problem is, it's reduced to "stealling random people, taking out their brains and creating new memories and bodies to be different people, duh!", the movie gave an over-simplified answer to what should be a complex question.
I suppose i'm jaded from over exposure to everything that came before it, it didn't necessarily needed to say something new but it could have delievered it differently or better yet, not at all.
You really, REALLY need to watch Blade Runner and and the Matrix, Blade Runner particularly handled this stuff far more effectively and for better or worse defined the Neo-futuristic dystopia troupes we know and love and handles the concept of what makes humanity far better, and it wisely doesn't give you a "happy ending".
I was personally fine with the stiltedness of either, it adds to the characters overall detachment, I feel. mind You even Transformers does well in Asia so... :P