Ghost in the Shell

In a future where most people have some sort of cybernetic enhancement, Major (Scarlett Johansson) is still a unique being. She's the science project of some super secret government organization, made up of a mechanical body, or shell, that has been integrated with a human brain, or ghost. As super secret government organizations are wont to do, they use her as a soldier in the war against terrorism. Eventually, she finds herself battling a new type of terrorist, one who can hack into people's minds.

The elephant in the room is the whitewashing on display. In case you didn't know, this is based on a Japanese manga which spawned a vast and popular empire consisting of animated movies, television series, and video games. Yet, when Hollywood got their hands on it, they inevitably cast a white person in the lead. I'm actually a big fan of ScarJo's, and I know her name carries some box-office clout, but would it have killed them to cast a Japanese woman? I mean, the movie is set in Japan for crying out loud! Besides, there's been plenty of research showing casting people who aren't white as your lead character is not a financial death knell. The real key is how good you make your movie. Well, let's get into that.

At its core, the story is pretty simple. Our hero is chasing an elusive and powerful villain. Along the way, she goes through lots of introspection. The problem is she doesn't remember what it was like before she became Major. Therefore, her pursuit of the truth about her existence is intertwined with that of the bad guy. Things get a bit muddled as the screenplay constantly tries throwing us off the scent. One can get lost if you allow yourself to get caught up in all the twists and turns thrown at you. If so, stay the course. It's all coming together exactly like you think it will. Unfortunately, after all the detours we take to get there, we're like to be underwhelmed by the big reveal the film wants us to be astounded by. Instead of causing our jaws to drop, it will like incite our eyes to roll because we could've gotten to this point in a much more efficient manner. Another reason the story might fail to excite is that if you're a viewer of a certain age, or even if you saw a certain remake from a couple of years ago, this will feel all too familiar to you. It's basically Robocop meets Blade Runner. This might not be so bad, but instead of borrowing from and building on them, it pretty much just fuses the two stories.


The strength of this movie, however, isn't in its script. It's in the visuals. This is where taking inspiration from Blade Runner pays off. Ghost in the Shell is a spectacular looking movie. Nearly every frame of this thing has something in which to marvel. It's a beautiful yet unsettling look at what the future may look like. This goes for man and machine alike. It also goes for static scenery and action, alike. A ton of credit should go to Johansson for being a more than capable action hero. Still, the visual effects team did a fantastic job of seamlessly integrating her and the other actors into the world they created. And there is a ton of action. All of it is well done and exciting. Lots of thought was put into what was going on the screen and it shows. I could probably go on for hours gushing about how gorgeous this movie is, Suffice it to say, it keeps the eyes dancing.

Overall, Ghost in the Shell isn't a bad movie. It's action-packed, moves at a pretty good clip and is dazzling to look at. These things don't entirely make up for the lackluster script, but they do a pretty good job. It's not a great movie, but as early summer releases go, it probably should've have raked in more than the forty million dollars it did the U.S. domestically (against a budget of $110 million). By comparison, 2016's dreadful Independence Day: Resurgence took in over $100 million in the U.S., alone. So, what's the issue? Sadly, I think it comes back to its casting choice. The announcement of Johansson in the lead role was met with tons of backlash from fans of the manga and the anime. They lamented the casting of a white actress in a role created by Japanese people with a Japanese lead and a ton of financial success as just that. In today's social climate that's enough to cause some people, even white people, not to go see a movie. This doesn't even take into account how faithful the film is or isn't to its source material in terms of its story. Despite how popular I know it is, I can't say because I haven't seen it. I do know this one was met with derision by fanboys and fangirls. We end up with a movie that cast a white person in the lead, presumably to maximize box-office potential only to have that very thing derail it. A film that's pretty good, if clearly derivative of better movies, has become a cinematic pariah.