Ghost in the Shell Review

Ghost in the Shell Review

"An incredible tribute to original movie and fans"

5/5 Reviewed by Adi Mursec

This review is coming from a fan of the Ghost in the Shell Manga, I’ve read the majority of it and seen the original anime from 1995 too many times to count. Personally I loved this movie.

So far I’ve not heard anyone I know who loves the original Ghost in the Shell anime say this was a bad movie, they have all said they would like one thing or another changed but overall have really liked what they have done.

It’s had a lot of backlash on casting which to be honest looks to have been drawn up by media sites for click bait, the majority of fans including the original anime director like the fact Scarlett Johansson was cast as the Major. With ScarJo you need to remember she’s an amazing actress. She’s probably more well known for her role as Black Widow in the Marvel movies but for me I love her for her role in Lost in Translation and her earlier movies. She’s a great actress and I can’t think of many actresses that could have given as much to the role as she did.

The original Manga was huge, so much story the Anime only managed to follow a small portion of it. To fit character development, action and a good story into the two hour time frame I think director Rupert Sanders has done an amazing job. 

As a fan of Ghost in the Shell I like to image this movie  to be set in the same world as the original but in an alternative universe. One where all the settings and cool technological advancements are present but the story is a little more compressed.

They closed off the movie well, it wasn’t left wide open for a trilogy like most movies made nowadays, but it was left open if they wanted to make a new movie. Personally I’d love to see more of this live action universe of GITS they have created but I’d be happy if they left it as it is. The crew behind this movie have really achieved something great. It’s not easy taking a cartoon let a lone a popular much loved Japanese anime and making a live action movie out of it. We’ve seen so many fail like Dragon Ball Evolution but Rupert Sanders really achieved something with this one, it’s set the bar high and has opened the door for high end live action anime adaptations.

One thing I’m looking forward to is the DVD release of this movie, I’m sure the DVD / Blu ray sales will more than make up for the lower than expected box office sales. The movie has so many hidden micro details which reference the vision of the source material. Everything from the camera angles in the scenes to the technology and those spider-like fingers used for typing.

Overall I’d say this movie was a real achievement. It’s not just remade the original anime in live action. In a lot of ways it’s taken the same ingredients and created something new. The story is a new twist on the original but still draws from a lot of the original influences like Phillip K. Dick’s Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep much like many movies like Blade Runner and Total Recall have.

Overall I’d highly recommend going to see this movie while it’s out at the cinema, Don’t listen to the negative reviews as this movie doesn’t deserve any of them. It’s not perfect but no movie is because no matter what you do you can’t make everyone happy. This movie had taken a fairly complicated story and simplified it to the point he general movie going public can enjoy it.

Posted by Adi Mursec on April 12, 2017

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