Ghost in the Shell is the live action, American adaption of the famous manga, which follows a law enforcer called The Major, who is a human brain (a ghost) inside a completely robotic body (a shell).
The only other version I am familiar with is the 1995 anime, so I can't help but compare it to that masterpiece. Obviously this is nowhere near as good, but that doesn't mean I didn't have fun.
This is missing anything remotely complex present in the anime. Any ambiguity, subtext, subtlety or social commentary is completely abandoned for the sake of action. There is some social commentary, but it is mostly in clunky throwaway lines that seem to more be references to the anime. There are plenty of visual references to the anime, and a scene partially lifted that doesn't quite fit. The lifted scene is the bin lorry scene and its aftermath. In the anime it works due to the context, but here it seems as though it is there to pander to the fans.
The plot is mostly changed, which I like, but the new plot is more conventional, predictable and safe. They try to have an ambiguous villain, but the twist is really obvious and neither villain is well developed. And with the changed plot removes any ambiguity that may have surrounded The Major.
Scarlett Johansson does the action scenes convincingly, though I don't doubt the use of stunt doubles, and handles the rest of the scenes well. Pilou Asbæk (I'm really glad there's no audio aspect to these reviews as I would have butchered his name) is very well cast as Batou. He is visually very similar to the character in the anime.
In fact, the visuals are easily the best part of the film. You can see that they have put most of their budget on screen. There is some impressive CGI, and the city looks fantastic. This is a prime example of style over substance.
I wanted to have this review up as soon as possible, but since Saturday I have postponed it. Since then it was revealed that it only made $19 million opening weekend in the USA, currently the world's largest film market. The film has a budget of over $100 million so it will be difficult to make it back (it made $40 million everywhere else). I am honestly not surprised it made relatively little. There is the whitewashing controversy (which isn't fair if you haven't seen the film) and some poor marketing.
With the marketing, they definitely made it known that it was coming out, but it was how. I don't think they made it too clear that Scarlett Johansson is playing a cyborg, and the trailers made it look like a typical sci-fi action movie. When I saw Free Fire, the opening 15 minutes of Ghost in the Shell were shown in 3D(don't). This footage instilled confidence in me, but it didn't really help explain the film to those unfamiliar to the subject. Afterwards my dad said that he had no idea what was going on.
In that preview footage, some of the shots were slightly different. In fact the difference was that they had blood, and the final product didn't. One of the shots is even in the trailer(attached somewhere). This made me think that the studio corrupted the directors vision in order to get a lower rating. This is despite films like Kingsman, Fifty Shades, Deadpool, John Wick: Chapter 2, Get Out and Logan all proving you can be successful without an all ages rating. I won't be surprised if a 15 rated cut will be released on the DVD.
In short: Ghost in the Shell is a beautiful film with no depth. Just watch the anime instead.
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