Ghost In The Shell (Live-Action) (2017)...
I went out to see the big-budget Hollywood live-action version of Ghost In The Shell with Scarlett Johansson...
From a pure entertainment perspective, Ghost In The Shell has a decent amount of action. There is a lot of gun play and some hand-to-hand combat. But, some of the action scenes seemed to be over sooner than I would have preferred. And, visually, eye-candy abounds in the movie from 3-D billboards to all sorts of mechanical and CG effects. Of course, aside from the Major's bare cyborg body, there are no naughty bits.
While the Major versus walking tank scene in the live-action movie does check all the necessary boxes, the tension of the original anime just isn't in the live-action movie. Don't get me wrong, the live-action Ghost In The Shell movie is a very entertaining movie. But, as a fan of the Ghost In The Shell anime, the live-action movie doesn't quite fit in the anime franchise. That being said, as a fan of the Ghost In The Shell anime, I really can't be mad at the live-action movie. It is, what it is, and it's actually a good movie. Overall, I would give the live-action Ghost In The Shell movie a 3 out of 5.
John, a contributor to the AnimeNation blog, expressed his concerns about this incarnation of the Ghost In The Shell franchise...Scarlett Johansson stars in this sci-fi action film as a cybernetically enhanced policewoman who's hunting a dangerous hacker. Michael Pitt and Juliette Binoche co-star. Directed by Rupert Sanders (Snow White and the Huntsman), Ghost in the Shell is based on a popular Japanese manga series, which was already adapted into an iconic anime film.
I really do want to like this American adaptation, and I'm both hoping for the best and keeping an open mind. However, I’m very conflicted over this extended preview. Scarlett Johansson is a good enough actress (see, for example Under the Skin as evidence), and she's played enough secret agent roles to pull off Motoko Kusanagi convincingly. The look and the action is commendably faithful to its source material. The CG backgrounds of the cityscape appear a bit artificial, but I can overlook that. I’m much more concerned with the way the African businessman lays on the "philosophical" discussion about as thick as syrup on pancakes literally within the first five minutes of the movie, just to allay viewers' anxieties that the movie jettisons all of the source material's intelligence. The original GitS movie never needed to be quite this blunt and heavy-handed with its philosophy. The need to spoon-feed audiences which appears to be a prominent attribute of this live-action movie worries me.After seeing this incarnation of Ghost In The Shell, I see that it differs from the official canon in a fairly significant way. The Major's backstory is clearly different and some plot lines were changed from the original anime. Purists will likely have some strong reservations, but, while I have seen all of the anime movies and all of the anime TV series, in my humble opinion, this new incarnation still manages to feel like Ghost In The Shell. Even though some liberties were taken in the execution of the live-action movie, the filmmakers did take some pains to pay homage to some of the classic scenes from the original anime movie.
From a pure entertainment perspective, Ghost In The Shell has a decent amount of action. There is a lot of gun play and some hand-to-hand combat. But, some of the action scenes seemed to be over sooner than I would have preferred. And, visually, eye-candy abounds in the movie from 3-D billboards to all sorts of mechanical and CG effects. Of course, aside from the Major's bare cyborg body, there are no naughty bits.
While the Major versus walking tank scene in the live-action movie does check all the necessary boxes, the tension of the original anime just isn't in the live-action movie. Don't get me wrong, the live-action Ghost In The Shell movie is a very entertaining movie. But, as a fan of the Ghost In The Shell anime, the live-action movie doesn't quite fit in the anime franchise. That being said, as a fan of the Ghost In The Shell anime, I really can't be mad at the live-action movie. It is, what it is, and it's actually a good movie. Overall, I would give the live-action Ghost In The Shell movie a 3 out of 5.
