Review of Ghost in the Shell (2017) by Feedthemonkey83 — 09 Apr 2017

Ghost in the Shell is an adaption of the 1989 Anime that is focussing on the moralic side of merging humans with high end technology. After seeing the movie yesterday in 3D im still ab bit confused of how to rate this movie exactly. Visuals:

So what comes in mind first is the visuals and artdesign that is used in this movie, that is in some parts excellent and in other parts very below average. It is necessary, that this oppinion is based only on the 3D version of the movie, as I think the 2D trailers are having way more aesthetics then the 3D version I was watching last night. When the visuals are great, they show us a nice steampunk world with cool action, as per the first action scene in the restaurant when major crashes a hack and slowmotion, mixed with a nice choreography come into play in the scenes. When the visuals are bad, we see flights through the futuristic Section 9 where the texture details are very low and show their CGI extremely obviously. About the interpretation of the look of the city one can argue. I found it in most time a bit distracting and too colorful. Story:

When it comes to the story, I was not too much in all the previous Ghost in the Shell movies, so I had the opportunity to watch the movie without too many expactations. But when it came to the plot, I was also a bit of mixed feelings, as the movie does not so well in creating "wow" moments, when it starts enfolding the plot.

It was to predictable even if you have never seen any Ghost in the Shell movie before. As my girlfriend was telling me the end after 1/3rd of the movie already. Also it is pretty hard to find out the attachments between the characters themselves because mostly they are just there and do what they do. Backstories are a bit neglected in here.

Actors:

This is were surprisingly the movie had its most points gained in my oppinion. Major, played by Scralett Johansson, was pretty close to the animes original. And Batou, played by Pilou Asbaek, was extremely well taken over visually. Before the movie was released I ready and heared a lot of concerns to take western actors to display the characters, but when you look the original Anime, you will see (as in most animes) the characters in there are also not asians. So this was fitting very well in my oppinion. I also think the acting itself was in most parts fine. One thing that distracted me however all the time, was the way Scarlett Johannson moved. It looked in most parts like she was trying to act how a robot would be walking. I think one can interpret it like that, but for me it was very distracting, as in the original movie I felt major was walking and moving just like a normal human. Verdict:

So when I just rate the fun I had with the movie I would give it a low 7 out of 10. I think also the visuals and the story, as well as the acting, was on the same level. It was okay to look and I was never bored. I would prefer to watch it in 2D again, with higher resolutions to maybe rethink my visual ratings.