In the near future, Major is the first of her kind: A human saved from a terrible crash, who is cyber-enhanced to be a perfect soldier devoted to stopping the world's most dangerous criminals
(Source- Imdb.com)
Rating- PG-13
Genre- Action/Crime/Drama
Warnings- None
I wonder if I tell a lot of fun facts about myself on this blog. Regardless of whether I do or not, here's a fun fact for you: I am a big fan of anime. I loved it as early as 10 years old and it only continues to amaze me, sometimes disturb me and inspire me with its creative ideas and outstanding visuals.
Despite watching loads of Japanese animation during my childhood (and currently, though not as much), I never read the manga, "Ghost in a Shell" that was written by Junichi Fujisaku and illustrated by Masamune Shirow.
The story centers around a counter-cyberterrorist organization called Public Security Section 9, which is lead by the protagonist named Major Motoko Kusanagi. It also brought up philosophical questions like the consequences of technological advances and the nature of identity.
It sounds like a fairly well made story that I would enjoy, but I never got around to learning more about it, until recently when I saw the live-action remake titled under the same name. My thoughts on the trailer was that I thought it was visually stunning and looked like an excellent story to watch, but what bothered me was when I noticed that actress Scarlett Johanson would be playing Major, a character who originally identifies as some from Asian descent. Though, I gave the movie the benefit of the doubt and said, "Maybe––just maybe––ghere weren't any Asain-American people who fit the role" so with that problem out of the way, that left me with another negative I got out of the trailer: Johansson is the lead to an action movie.
After watching the movie "Lucy" (2014) I came to the conclusion that I didn't like how Johansson acts in movies. She always seemed very monotone and serious when it came to any situation she was in, even if it didn't call for it. Like if there was a moment that was meant to be silly or a moment that was meant to be emotional, Johansson would stay stoic or with an expressionless glare and once you start to notice it, that will probably get on your nerves as much as it does on mine.
Even so, I was convinced that I would still enjoy "Ghost in the Shell" to a great enough degree that I wouldn't sit in my seat bored out of my mind. So, let's see if my predications came true and the live-action movie was a joy to experience or did it just shut down my willingness to watch another Johansson related movie again?
Note, I will not be doing any comparisons to the animated version since I have yet to see it at this point.
Anyways, onwards!
The story of the live-action "Ghost in the Shell" stars Major, the first human to ever have their brain implanted into a fully robotic body. With it, she works to defend the company that created her but eventually, she learns the truth about her past.
The story is interesting to me, but the plot twist was something I found predictable. I mean, it was addressed in at least one of the official trailers so I wasn't surprised about most of it. Still, the story was good, but the way it was presented kind of threw me off, especially in the beginning.
In the first 20 minutes or so, I wasn't sure what purpose Major was trying to fulfill or what it was building up to. I don't know if this was the intention of writers, but I sat there with my head almost hurting trying to figure out what the heck Major was trying to accomplish with what she was doing.
Speaking of Major, time to release my rant.
I obviously do not know how the animated version of Major is like but Johansson's interpretation of her was similar to her acting in "Lucy": monotone and lacking emotion. The character is a robot, yes, but that doesn't mean you have to act like a robot the whole time. In fact, the human brain is still a part of Major, so all of her personality should still be there instead of having Major act like a literal robotic machine that can't feel emotion no matter what happens.
There are a few emotional scenes, but only like three times at most did Johansson convince me that she was truly invested in the moment. For the rest of the time, it was so annoying watching her flat voice give out dialogue when I know it can be delivered so much better. The worst part was when she would crack jokes to other characters, at most she gives off this weak smirk after her sarcastic comments and even then it's just a slight lift on the side of her mouth.
It's not like her eyes squinted slightly when happy or her nose scrunched or there was a little giggle after it. It was basically when you're trying to convince someone you're happy though you don't have the effort to really try, so when they ask you if you are okay, you respond with, "yeah, heh." That's how it was.
Johansson is probably a wonderful lady and she's very beautiful, but I don't like the way she acts, I'm sorry. Plus, while I let the "caucasian actress takes on ethnically diverse character" thing slide, after I watched the whole movie I sat there like, "Yeah, why didn't they get an Asian actress for this part?!"
This one is kind of hard to explain without spoiling the movie, but let's just say based on Major's background, it would have made more sense if an Asian actress played Major and it just makes things so obvious that Johansson was chosen probably because she was a big name in the entertainment industry.
The other characters were decent though. I liked the side characters like Batou (Pilou Asbaek) and Dr. Ouelet (Juliette Binoche), they didn't spark me as amazing but they weren't awful. I actually felt more sympathetic towards them than I did the main character who was turned into a freaking robot!
The villain of the story was also good, but I swear his character design constantly reminded me of a scene kid. It was definitely the hair that sparked that. It threw me off from how scary his character could have been, but that aside he was fine as well. Plus, I liked the way he spoke and how he has kind of a issue with how he expresses himself; it'll make more sense if you watch the movie.
The visuals were incredibly stunning; there's not much I can say about that. However, I noticed how often the movie would refer back to the same scenic view of the city the characters resided in which can get repetitive and lose the magic of viewing the futuristic city.
The action scenes were so cool, those were my favorite parts, so that's a plus from the movie. They certainly brought in the action and the effects were awesome. I felt so inclined to beg for more special effects because it felt like I haven't seen anything like it in a while, and it truly excited my eyes.
In the end, "Ghost in the Shell" is a decent movie and without Johansson's flat acting and the little confusion I had in the beginning of the movie, and the weird reason as to why Johansson had to star as the lead when the movie gives us reasons as the how that doesn't correlate with the situation she is in, then I would consider this an awesome action movie.
I give "Ghost in the Shell" a 3 1/2 out of 5 stars.
SPOILERS AHEAD!!!
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The opening scene with the making of the robot is so creative and cool!
Since when did they refer to the human part of the person as a "ghost?" They're just doing this so the audience could understand why it's called Ghost in a Shell, right? I mean, I could have understood that after a while.
1 year later? Why skip the part where Major was getting used to the body?
The geisha robots were awesome!
I wish I could turn invisible like Major.
Cat!!!
What did she put in the back of her neck?
Dogs!!!
Man, they sure like their scenery.
I liked the scene with Major and the prostitute, but my mother was commenting on how she couldn't understand what that scene was about. I got it though, she wants to feel what a human is like and only a prostitute would go along with someone touching her face, no question.
This villain looks like an punk kid; it's hard to take him seriously.
No, Dr. Ouelet. I like you, why are you on the bad side?
No, Dr. Ouelet! Why did you have to go?
That old Asain guy was so cool during that shootout!
Wait, is this Major's mother? She's clearly Asain...why isn't Major Asain too? I mean, it could be because they manufactured the robot.
See! Younger Major was Asain too! This doesn't add up. I can only assume that it's because they changed her robot appearance to make it not look exactly like her so people like her mother wouldn't recognize her.
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