Review of Ghost in the Shell (2017) by Bob J — 28 Aug 2017

This is an okay movie but that is about it. The blurb sounded quite interesting and the trailers were promising even though I always take trailers with a huge pinch of salt. I have never read the original Manga. Whether that is good or bad with respect to the movie I do not know.

The good stuff as far as this movie is concerned is, not surprisingly, the visuals. I would not say that they are stunning but the are quite good. The environments are interesting and the special effects are not bad at all. I have to say that the tank design was pretty poor though. Not very exiting as a fictional design and utter nonsense from a functional point of view.

This is as far as the good stuff goes. The story is okay but it is pretty predictable and not that much to get exited about. It could have been more developed for sure. I would actually have liked to see the Major do a few more missions beating up the bad guys. That was where the movie shined a bit and showed the best visuals and special effects.

The acting is pretty mediocre to be honest. Even Daisuke Aramaki, which was a character that I did like, felt rather bland. The main bad guy was just a uninspiring thug.

To me the movie more or less felt like the pilote episode of a TV-show with a huge budget for visuals. It was not WOW god but showed promise and I felt like I would like to see more "episodes". The fact that it is actually a movie and it seems unlikely that a sequel, even though the ending makes it pretty clear that they hoped there would be one, will be made left me with a unsatisfied feeling.

Bottom line, average movie with enjoyable visuals and special effects but one which do not manage to reach above the "just another sci-fi manga movie" segment for me.