movie: Ghost in the Shell (2017)

[Art Blade]

"Remake" of the cult anime Ghost In The Shell (Kôkaku Kidôtai) from 1995
Instantly recognisable: Scarlett Johansson
Also starring: "Beat" Takeshi Kitano

It's not an anime this time but instead, some sort of Sci-Fi action film with real actors. The look and feel of it reminds me of Blade Runner, the remake of Tron (Tron: Legacy), the remake of RoboCop (RoboCop from 2014), and other rema.. er, movies. They stole a bit from everything. A lot of CGI went into the film which I'm always a fan of. Overall, I do recognise the basic story but it's just not the same. It wasn't even close to the anime roots. As an attempt of an independent stand-alone Hollywood interpretation of the theme, it's almost alright. Really nothing major, except for the visuals (although even they aren't groundbreaking) so I'd say it was somewhat worth watching it if only because of the CGI and because of the two aforementioned actors. So, it's nothing I'd beg you to watch
But in case you don't know what else to watch and do like futuristic cyborg robotic stuff, hell, it's not that bad, either.

I used to not like Scarlett Johansson much when she was new to the business, too much hype and all that. But I do like the fact that they keep casting her for Sci-Fi flicks, ever since I've liked her a lot better. Takeshi Kitano is a great man, I've always liked to see him in films (my favourite is The Blind Swordsman: Zatoichi, from 2003 but he played in quite a few films that I like) and it's good he kept his own voice (they subtitled his Japanese lines) so the two of them made it quite OK for me, I'm not saying it was complete *bleep*. It was "simple" entertainment, nothing you wouldn't expect, no wicked turns, no big surprises.

Apparently 118k+ people thought about the same. An above average rating of 6.5/10 seems to be fair.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1219827/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1

Here's a cynical review

[fragger]

I might give that a look when I'm next in the mood for a movie that I don't expect too much from It looked quite interesting from the trailers. I'm not at all acquainted with the original anime story. Sounds like that might be a good thing from what you said, Art - I won't have any preconceived expectations.

Scarlett Johansson has sort of grown on me too. I first saw her when she was a kid in The Horse Whisperer (I think she was about 12 or 14 or something) but I'd never heard of her at the time, so when she became a big thing as an adult I didn't equate her with THW. It was quite a surprise to me to learn that was actually her. I've since checked out THW again and I was quite impressed with her performance at such a young age.

[Art Blade]

 

From watching trailers, at least the one I posted, didn't it sound weird if not outright wrong to you when they said things like, "your shell belongs to them.. but not your ghost?" Or, "we made you a new shell.. but your ghost.. is still in here?" To me it felt like a blunt word by word translation (and at the time wrong in a way that it didn't sound like proper English) just to make sure that, by explicitly using those key words, the audience actually gets what the film is supposed to be about. Kind of "and now for dummies:" Let's say, "shell" is arguably somewhat alright but damn, I've never heard "ghost" in that context. I'd have used "spirit" or even "soul" but not "ghost."

I don't know whether or not the 1995 anime is able to impress as much today as it did then and whether or not it has still got the power to become today what it became for the audience from back then. Today it might come across as just another weird typical Japanese anime that looks and feels a tad dated. However, you should give that one a try if you hadn't even heard about it until now. At least you will be among those who know and can go, "Crikey.. really? Seriously, really? You really don't know Ghost in the Shell? Oh man.. *sigh*"

[Dweller_Benthos]

I saw the anime a long time ago, so I wasn't really familiar with the story too much, as I'd forgotten a lot of it. The movie was OK, a sci-fi action flick with lots of CGI and Scarlett in a body suit which didn't bother me.

As for the "ghost" and "shell" business, I always figured that was the best way it could be translated or it was what sounded cool or something. The "shell" being the robot body and the "ghost" being the consciousness running it.

[Art Blade]

As far as I remember the original, they never mentioned "ghost" and "shell" -- they trusted in the audience to make that connection by themselves.

[mandru]

As far as I remember the original, they never mentioned "ghost" and "shell" -- they trusted in the audience to make that connection by themselves.

I liked both the anime movie as well as the series for Ghost in the shell.  I was able to catch both on Cartoon Network's late night programming session called Adult Swim.

But this is a modern day action movie.  Some production companies want the audience to be spoon fed easily digested information and eye candy so that they are caught up pure viewing mode.  If the audience starts thinking they might start picking holes in the plot.

[Dweller_Benthos]

There was a plot?

[Art Blade]

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