Ghost in the Shell

Anime and live action American adaptations have the history of abusive relationships: The idea may sound nice but, for some reason, a lack of compromise between the two ends up with terrible offsprings that are still waiting apology tours (Dragon Ball Evolution and Speed Racer). Usually the most responsible for such disasters are the directors, writers, and/or production crew members that turn an interesting concept to adapt into horrible products. Then, for the past couple of months, trailers have arrived with another anime live action adaptation, Ghost in the Shell. The reactions were polarizing with praise for some of the visuals in the trailer but criticism for Scarlett Johansson's casting (basically reactions for polarizing films from 2016). Being a casual but not hardcore anime fan, I have heard a little about the franchise but haven't seen it while growing up. To prepare for the movie, I recently watched the 1995 original classic that combined influences from older cyberpunk films and has influenced other including the Matrix. While I can't say I fell in love with it immediately since I never grew up with it, I liked what it had presented, enjoyed the atmosphere, and loved the science fiction elements combined with an intriguing premise. When it released into theaters, it was received mixed reviews from critics and fans. I went into the theater to judge it on my own and left it glad that I saw it as well as confirming it as the best anime live action adaptation so far (which isn't saying much).

Plot: The story takes place in the near future in a cyberpunk environment, where cybernetic enhancements are trending as the norm, and follows a cyber soldier going after a hacker terrorist while uncovering truths about her past. The plot doesn't actually follow the 1995 original anime film but does its own story while being an homage to the material in the franchise, not only including the movies but also the manga (even though I haven't read the manga, I heard they tapped into those sources). To the film's credit, this works well in putting in the effort to create a different take on the material they're using instead of just doing what was done before but in live action (Beauty and the Beast). It also takes the complex concepts brought up from the franchise and simplifies it down to help move the plot forward for audience members with varying degrees of familiarity with the series. The downside of this, however, is that it doesn't necessarily explore those ideas further, but given with the direction the movie is taking, the writing may not have been able to succeed in that area. The story goes at a slow pace and lets the intrigue build with the environment as well as the obstacles put on by the enemy. For the most part, the structure and writing hold up fine until the third act where it can get a little rushed and wonky. Overall the plot of Ghost in the Shell is a original story that both simplifies the original concepts and presents homages from the source material with the writing construction doing well enough for the most part.

Characters: The characters to focus on are The Major (Scarlett Johansson) and Batou (Pilou Asbaek). The Major is cyber soldier in an anti-terrorist bureau, Section 9, who works to take down extremist threats and starts to uncover pieces of her past before her surviving brain was placed into a cyborg body (and yes that's the "Ghost" in the "Shell"). Scarlett does a good job with this role as a cyborg with no memories of her past and is shaken by new developments on that front when a mysterious hacker gets her bureau's attention, even though at this point the actress should consider breaking her typecast role in action films (notably the MCU) and try new genres like comedies or dramas. (It took me this long without mentioning this part) It's no secret that this movie was accused of whitewashing with the casting of Scarlett in this movie. The plot kind of addresses this in a way that might anger some audiences members but it doesn't hurt the overall experience that much. There are opinions on both sides of the argument: In the series, the brain of the main protagonist is Japanese. On the other hand, cyborg bodies don't necessarily have a race or ethnicity. Personally with this circumstance, I don't really care but I see the reasons on both sides. Batou is the second in command operative of Section 9 and Major's right hand man. Pilou is a great standout for his performance in this supportive role with his calm, laid-back attitude that helps to lower the tension during the story as he helps Major during the hunt for the cyber terrorist. An honorable mention for performances goes to Michael Pitt, even though the writing could have been improved. Overall the cast of Ghost in the Shell do their best with the material given to them, even though some of the more important parts could have been written better near the end.

Overall Consensus: Ghost in the Shell provides a good start for increased quality in live action anime adaptations with gorgeous visuals, nice action, and some good performances while still showing room for improvement on writing issues and expanding ideas. ⭑⭑⭑⭑

Reasons to watch it: You like Scarlett Johansson and/or Pilou Asbaek. You like slow paced sci-fi action movies. You have seen the anime series and want to see how it honors the source material. You haven't seen the anime and want to judge it without any familiarity to the series. You like movies that are similar to RoboCop and Blade Runner. You want to see the gorgeous visuals. You want to hear the beautiful score that accompanies the movie. You want to see what progress is being made on the anime live action adaptation front. You don't care about white washing accusation surrounding this film.

Reasons to avoid it: You don't like any of the aforementioned actors. You don't like slow paced sci-fi action movies. You don't like cyberpunk movies. You don't care about live action anime adaptations.

Coming up next: So far April has started out pretty interesting with exploring the progress the live action anime adaptation genre. It has shown good effort but needs better writing to reach for more successful heights. The action fest will continue this month with one of the longest running action franchises of all time, The Fast and The Furious (never thought I would end up saying that), as its eighth entry hitting theaters in two weeks, The Fate of the Furious!!!