To prepare for the viewing of this film, I re-watched the original 1994 anime, because, while I enjoyed the movie back when I watched it several years ago, I didn't quite remember the plot (This movie had an entirely different plot anyway, so that was unnecessary). I still enjoyed it as a philosophical cyberpunk story on the nature of technology, humanity, and life. In this franchise, I've only seen the first movie, and not anything else (the anime, the manga, the second movie). I know that several elements of this film were derived from those sources, but as I am unfamiliar with them, I can't comment on them or state their fidelity to the source material. I only have the first film to compare it to. So, I essentially went in with a moderate knowledge of this franchise, not really knowing whether it would actually be good. This movie has been in production for many years, and it has been cited as a prominent example of a live-action anime adaptation being stalled. Having now seen the film, perhaps they should've kept in there longer.
Based on the manga Mobile Armored Riot Police (or Ghost in the Shell over here in the states) by Masamune Shirow and the media franchise that spawned from it, the story is set in futuristic Japan, where people have reached such a point in transhumanist and cybernetic augmentations, where they could now create whole bodies which could work from the human brain. Mira Killian (Scarlett Johansson), the lone survivor of a plane, is one of those people now stuck in a robotic body. Despite the protests of the attending scientist to her creation, Dr. Ouelet (Juliette Binoche), Cutter (Peter Ferdinando), CEO of dystopian megacorp Hanka Robotics decides to utilize her as a solider. Sure enough, a year later, she is working with government anti-terrorist unit Section 9, along with Batou (Pilou Asbæk). She foils a terrorist plot at a Hanka building by disarming a geisha bot (apparently an element from the second film). She learns that the geisha was hacked remotely by a mysterious figure called Kuze (Michael Pitt), who is attempting to take down Hanka Robotics. As she and Batou investigate this terrorist, she begins to question her own identity, as her memories are at best incomplete, and her investigation will turn up some stunning implications for both her and everyone around her.
This film looks stunning. It captures the look of the anime setting very well, and uses the strong influence Blade Runner had on the original to great effect. It is a great visual film, and has an interesting soundtrack, which also stems from the original 1994 film. (which actually was also a problem, as I'll explain later). The people who created this movie clearly love the source material, and try to bring it to live-action to the best of their ability. It also flirts with some of the more cerebral ideas that the anime dealt with in terms of memory, AI, the relationship between humans and machines,and how far we can lose ourselves into the machine. The fact that the 1994 film went on to heavily influence films like The Matrix was actually less distracting than I thought, and it doesn't really feel like it's directly ripping off any other film in particular.
This is my main problem with this movie: It is incredibly boring. I normally don't feel drowsy or distracted during a movie, but I almost fell asleep in the seat watching this film, and I kept checking my phone. It's really monotonous and slow. I'm fine with slow movies. My favorite film of all time is 2001: A Space Odyssey. But this is slow without the weight to justify it. In the good parts, I said "flirts with", because aside from bringing it up, it never really delves into the ideas of the original, or utilizes it well in the context of the story. It's merely hinted at, rather than explored in detail, and the movie doesn't really make you think the way the original did. The action scenes feel less energetic and dull compared to the fight scenes in the original movie, where they have a lot of tension and suspense. It also inserts music, which also lowers the tension, and makes it into a generic action movie scene. The acting is uninvolved from everyone involved. Only Michael Pitt (seeming to be doing his interpretation of "James Franco as Max Headroom") is trying, and even his performance doesn't really illicit any real emotion from me. I was debating whether to address the issue of Johansson's casting in this film. Having seen the film now, (and this is a minor spoiler), when we learn more about Major, the fact that the actress wasn't Japanese is actually egregious, and is very distracting once you learn this fact.
Even taking the original film out of the equation, it's still a mostly tedious, pretentious film, which fails to have much impact or memorable elements to it for the audience. If you've only seen the first movie, like I have, you might not get much out of this as you had the original. You won't get much even you've never seen the first one or just want an action romp. Bigger fans of the franchise have said they disliked this movie for botching up the parts of the franchise which made it work. So, by all accounts, I can't recommend this movie. Not awful, but could've been much better.
Based on the manga Mobile Armored Riot Police (or Ghost in the Shell over here in the states) by Masamune Shirow and the media franchise that spawned from it, the story is set in futuristic Japan, where people have reached such a point in transhumanist and cybernetic augmentations, where they could now create whole bodies which could work from the human brain. Mira Killian (Scarlett Johansson), the lone survivor of a plane, is one of those people now stuck in a robotic body. Despite the protests of the attending scientist to her creation, Dr. Ouelet (Juliette Binoche), Cutter (Peter Ferdinando), CEO of dystopian megacorp Hanka Robotics decides to utilize her as a solider. Sure enough, a year later, she is working with government anti-terrorist unit Section 9, along with Batou (Pilou Asbæk). She foils a terrorist plot at a Hanka building by disarming a geisha bot (apparently an element from the second film). She learns that the geisha was hacked remotely by a mysterious figure called Kuze (Michael Pitt), who is attempting to take down Hanka Robotics. As she and Batou investigate this terrorist, she begins to question her own identity, as her memories are at best incomplete, and her investigation will turn up some stunning implications for both her and everyone around her.
This film looks stunning. It captures the look of the anime setting very well, and uses the strong influence Blade Runner had on the original to great effect. It is a great visual film, and has an interesting soundtrack, which also stems from the original 1994 film. (which actually was also a problem, as I'll explain later). The people who created this movie clearly love the source material, and try to bring it to live-action to the best of their ability. It also flirts with some of the more cerebral ideas that the anime dealt with in terms of memory, AI, the relationship between humans and machines,and how far we can lose ourselves into the machine. The fact that the 1994 film went on to heavily influence films like The Matrix was actually less distracting than I thought, and it doesn't really feel like it's directly ripping off any other film in particular.
This is my main problem with this movie: It is incredibly boring. I normally don't feel drowsy or distracted during a movie, but I almost fell asleep in the seat watching this film, and I kept checking my phone. It's really monotonous and slow. I'm fine with slow movies. My favorite film of all time is 2001: A Space Odyssey. But this is slow without the weight to justify it. In the good parts, I said "flirts with", because aside from bringing it up, it never really delves into the ideas of the original, or utilizes it well in the context of the story. It's merely hinted at, rather than explored in detail, and the movie doesn't really make you think the way the original did. The action scenes feel less energetic and dull compared to the fight scenes in the original movie, where they have a lot of tension and suspense. It also inserts music, which also lowers the tension, and makes it into a generic action movie scene. The acting is uninvolved from everyone involved. Only Michael Pitt (seeming to be doing his interpretation of "James Franco as Max Headroom") is trying, and even his performance doesn't really illicit any real emotion from me. I was debating whether to address the issue of Johansson's casting in this film. Having seen the film now, (and this is a minor spoiler), when we learn more about Major, the fact that the actress wasn't Japanese is actually egregious, and is very distracting once you learn this fact.
Even taking the original film out of the equation, it's still a mostly tedious, pretentious film, which fails to have much impact or memorable elements to it for the audience. If you've only seen the first movie, like I have, you might not get much out of this as you had the original. You won't get much even you've never seen the first one or just want an action romp. Bigger fans of the franchise have said they disliked this movie for botching up the parts of the franchise which made it work. So, by all accounts, I can't recommend this movie. Not awful, but could've been much better.
