Directed by: Rupert Sanders
Written by: Jamie Moss, William Wheeler, Ehren Kruger (based upon The Ghost in the Shell by Masamune Shirow)
Starring: Scarlett Johansson, Pilou Asbæk, Takeshi Kitano
This adaptation of the popular manga/anime Ghost in the Shell offers a gorgeous and overwhelmingly stimulating visual world, but tells a story that doesn't seem to address the same issues that were explored in the 1995 anime version.
*Warning: Spoilers Ahead*
We're introduced to a futuristic world, where people augment themselves with cybernetics that allow them enhancements such as strength, speed and intelligence, as well as the ability to store thoughts and memories as data directly from their brain. The film follows Major Mira Killian (Johansson), a member of Section 9, an anti-terrorist bureau, the first person to be a human brain inside an entirely mechanical body. We see Major struggle with her identity as the only one of her kind while tracking down a terrorist who uses robots and eventually human cybernetics to attack members of Hanka Robotics, the creators of these augmentations and robots.
The film's plot seems to have avoided considering the same ideas that the anime dealt with, changing enough details in the nature of Major's origin and the world around her to help fit the themes that the filmmakers must have wanted to look at instead. The 1995 original looked at the world in a broader sense, tackling the philosophical and ethical potential behind humanity losing itself as it slowly turns to a cyber existence as well as the 'humanity' of an artificial intelligence, in addition to some thought put towards the way we view memories and how we see our lives, using the Major as a vehicle for the exploration of this world as much as a subject of the plot. The intrigue was not just in the fact that someone was hacking other people to do their bidding, but also in the way he would replace people's memories or the mystery of his identity. The new film touches on these ideas, but so lightly that they're barely a factor of the story, instead turning all of its focus upon the Major as a character, and paying particular attention to the tweaks that were made to her character in order to fit this adaptation. There's nothing particularly wrong with changing things in adapting them, however I believe Ghost in the Shell has not improved upon its source material with the changes; the concept of the film is lowered in an attempt to attract a larger audience. Major's uniqueness is played up to no end; the film reminds you of her 'one of a kind' status often enough for it to be obnoxious, instead of just letting her being an upgraded standard model 'shell', because the film wants her to be the first of her kind rather than the relative norm, and turn the mystery in to something surrounding that fact alone. While this could work, there's nothing offered up to really attach the audience to Major as a character. Themes of loneliness and searching for a connection in the world can make for a solid story, but the constant reminder of Major being completely unique makes her too different, too 'other' to be relatable, and all revelations about her character or about her past are hard to care for. Moral grey areas are removed entirely, bad guys are bad guys, good guys are good guys, no AIs are around to complicate the narrative, it's all relatively straightforward and easy to follow, but made shallow because of it. Mentioning that when Mira was human she used to write manifestos about the evils of cybernetics is only a little clever because it makes her current state ironic, and it doesn't do anything to make me care more about the character or the issues related to cybernetics because the film barely develops Major and only lightly touches on the potential dangers of cybernetics without exploring the idea as a whole. It doesn't help that the film hamfists tidbits of philosophy throughout its dialogue, rarely enough that when it happens it comes off as forced, but often enough to be noticeable and annoying. It's as if the filmmakers were trying to say "hey guys, we still care about the message of the original see, we just want to tell our own story here, ok?" It isn't really bad, but it isn't particularly good either, and the film's devolution in to a dusty and incomprehensible action piece in its finale just devalues what little weight their was in Major's journey.
That said, despite the mediocre-at-best plot, the film does go a long way to fully show the world of Ghost in the Shell. Every scene is packed with heavily coloured and hologram-ed information, just covering the screen with the different colours and bright lights of the city as seen in the manga/anime, revealing to us a vibrant, living and breathing neon cyberpunk space that just begs to be explored. It's another case of the world's live-action depiction alone almost making the movie worth the watch. The soundtrack helps, too, with a very obvious 80s cyberpunk synth influence, doing its best to affect the mood of every scene as accurately as possible. While these aspects don't erase the shortcomings of the film entirely, they are very well done in their own right.
The Verdict: The visual style and soundtrack of Ghost in the Shell are dazzling almost to the point of sensory overload, but this adaptation is lacking in its story, trading the philosophical and slightly mystical discussion found in the 1995 version for a plot that's far more personal to its main character, without actually making the main character personable. This film seems to miss the point of its source material, and doesn't ever try to show real depth, so I can't see it offering much in the way of value to fans of the manga/anime in terms of story, but the world seems fully realised in its translation from animation to live-action, so people familiar with the material might appreciate the effort that clearly went in to making the film look great. As for newcomers, the film doesn't try to be as lofty as the story it is based upon, so it should be more accessible, if distinctly shallow. I don't recommend this film, although I don't recommend against it either.
Rating: 5.5/10
Published April 6th, 2017
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