Ghost in the Shell (2017)
First of, the complaint, as always. I absolutely HATE when they do the title
thing.. You know, the thing where they use a name that has already been taken.
There is already a Ghost in the Shell, it's from 1995, another one of the same
name can not possibly exist. They did it with Total Recall too, though with
that movie, the name was the least of their crimes (it was _THAT_ horrible).
Anyway, except for the naming thing, GIST17 as I will call it from now on, was
a really good experience... I consider myself somewhat of a cultural snob, and
I can see why so many have complained about various aspects of this movie. I
have a good friend who has told that he simply is not going to watch it because
of it being a Hollywood movie with Scarlett in the lead. He is a huge fan of
the original, and so am I. So it was with what I'd call a healthy bit of
scepticism that I went into the theater with my girlfriend to watch this movie.
I believe in watching things, even when you fear the worst (the IT remake being
another upcoming emotional hit-or-miss, I loved the original short series).
But still, the subject matter, if one likes it, stands on its own and in my
opinion always deserve the chance to be told again, and from a different angle.
Just as with the new Terminator, another franchise of which I'm a huge fan,
that movie did something even more criminal, it basically erased the entire
previous timeline! It basically told "all that has happend so far, all you have
some to know and love.. It never happened", THAT IS CRIMINAL. So, hopefully, I
have made a point, that I am not easily pleased and won't eat everything raw.
So, can we get back to GIST17 now? YES! So, I watched the movie in 3D, because
unfortunately it was only playing in 3D, and I prefer 2D, due to the way I like
to move my gaze around a lot to study every part of a scene in detail. Even
with that in mind, the visuals were great! Slightly undertoned in many ways,
classy, I'd say. The anime style representation of computers and networking
was very well brought over to the live-action. The robots were modelled in
intricate detail and it was just great. There were many great scenes of the
city, and especially the alleys were super awesome! Very cyberpunk indeed!
One thing that you get with such high fidelity is a clear enough view to start
wondering.. There's a scene where Motoko is cloaked, and standing in the water,
delivering the philosophical aspects was done almost as a duty,
they kind of missed that there should be indentations where her feet are.
As far as I remember, in the anime, they drew splashes where she ran around,
I missed that little detail, and the guy she was hunting looked much more like
a punk in the anime.. On the other hand, they did a really good job explaining
his situation, just as in the anime. I was dissapointed that the music in the
intro had changed, I was fired up and ready for "Making of Cyborg" in the first
scene, but there were only hints at it, maybe they felt it'd be too Japanese?
I don't know, but at least we were rewarded with it for watching the credits...
Back to the visuals, they did a good job of carrying over the spirit of the
original, the cars and bikes are 90s future-style, not 2017 future-style, nice!
Batau's lenses should have been a bit bigger, but I see how their size fit with
the more natural eye size of non-anime, so it's forgivable. Count takeshi was
perfectly cast as the inspector of Section 9, I think it's not unfair to say
the guy only has about two acting styles, but whicever one he chose for this
role fit nicely! Him speaking Japanese addded a lot too! As for the choice of
lead, I was sceptical of Scarlett as Motoko, but she plays the role just fine!
I'm not a big fanof her as an actress, but I also do not watch the type of
movies that she usually stars in. It does make some sense that she is not
very asian looking, the Japanese has an infatuation with the western look,
and i'd not be surprised by them making a more western-looking cyborg.
She does not look stereotypically western, it is a nice balance. It is an
even nicer touch that pre-cyborg Motoko is indeed played by a Japanese actress.
Kuze is just awesome in this movie, even better than in the Anime, the way
he acts with the voice is really adding the idea of an experiment gone wrong
and the character is portrayed in a balanced and complex way. The arrangement
of people in his "network" is beautiful to behold as well. I'd have to say as
a big fan of the oanime, I feel that this movie does it justice, and that it is
a very nice introduction to the universe for people who have not watched the
anime, I'd still recommend anyone who finds this movie good to watch the anime,
if only because watching the same story in different versions always adds to
the experience, and because it is _the_original_... The ending differs and I
did like the original ending more, it is a bit more open-ended and offers a
glimpse into the future which I miss from the live-action. Still, all in all
I agree with the IMDB ratings. The original got 4/5 and the live got 3.5/5.
I think I'd have given the original 4.5/5 and the live 3, but still, it was
worthwhile, even if it could have been better in many ways. For example, and
this is where I agree with the critics on a general level, Hollywoods take
on almost any kind of deep philosophy is abysmal, and it showed in this
movie as well, deep and complex ideas were emotionless oneliners that seemed
almost forced.. But still, that's just my opinion, watch it and form your own.
