Review of Ghost in the Shell (2017) by Jerrodadee — 04 Apr 2017

I've been a huge fan of the Ghost in the Shell series from the beginning, and the 2017 movie is by far my favorite iteration of it. (Be warned, I also rather enjoyed Ghost in the Shell: Arise as well, but I can tell you why.).

Ghost in the Shell from the beginning has always been about tackling a few ideas that are consistently played with over the different iterations.

Things like: What it really means to be human, the concept of primacy of consciousness, individual autonomy as a self-evident virtue, how do you deal with an ever increasing access to information as well as human ability, how do you try to seek out morals and justice in a corrupt or imperfect society, how do you deal with loss of identity in the face of technological integration with humans, how do you identify the real threats to forward human progress, or the real culprits of legitimate human suffering and deal with the problem, etc.

Over all of this, has always been the trouble of presenting these concepts to the Japanese public at large. There is a lot of battle and war to overcome in the very deeply ingrained nationalistic nihilism that is practiced by Japan's wider culture.

Because of this, many of the earlier and more 'classic' GitS pieces have dealt heavily in themes of nationalism, nihilism, working from within the governmental system always as much as possible, etc.

A lot of the smaller storyline pieces deal with the geopolitical and socioeconomic consequences of Japan's culture continuing to influence the country 50 years from now, while singling out varying levels of political corruption and trying to define a real yardstick for measuring when it dips over into true, naked evil. Consequently, the more overarching themes are woven into the Major's personal character arcs to deliver the deeper philosophical messages.

This is important background information because as you begin to examine GitS: Arise, you can see more and more of those original 'audience concerns' being pulled back and stripped away as the audience is far more familiar with the characters and who they are as people, far beyond that of just literary constructs.

There was a lot of collaboration with the creative lead from the original movies involved with this film, and it really shows. Creating a movie that is being marketed to an American audience allows them to sell the ideas of individualism, responsibility of action, etc, far more easily and purely than the original content was able to. And they absolutely took the opportunity to do so.

The story involved doesn't really present us with the 'Major Kusanagi that's been doing wetwork for years' which we've seen the most of previously. This piece is about creating that character, the setting, and most of Section 9 during a short amount of time.

Then they had to make sure they were doing it in a believable fashion to a wide variety of new minds, so that they can push even deeper into some more of the traditional sociopolitical complexity that GitS is often very heavily associated with using later content.

I can say this. Every character that we were given reason to care about was excellently played and sold, and had a story to tell far beyond just the lines of dialogue they were delivering. The casting and acting were singularly top notch, through and through. I have never liked a version of Batou better than this one.

Even though at times it felt like I was being bombarded by special effects, every single effect that I examined was well thought out and chosen. From the base platform and modifications of the Major's sidearm, to the way the road driving HUDs and road markers developed from existing technology and usage, and on, and on, and on.

From one of the most fluid tactical assaults by a 'Hollywood SF unit' I've ever seen portrayed, to the amount that Chief Aramaki represented a cultural link with Japan which the movie utterly needed to truly anchor it, there was somebody with a serious thinking cap on involved with every single detail of this film.

Scarlett Johansson. Oh, my love. She is every bit the Kusanagi that any actress could have managed in the role, and far more than most would have.

That being said I think in this movie Batou has the superior character. Scarlett Johansson stunningly nails a performance that will never win her an Oscar, even if it should.

If you can't tell, I highly recommend the film. Please go see it. Immediately. It is 100% through and through Ghost in the Shell, in every glory that means.

You'll need to wait for the characters to be established before we can get to the really complex stories, and expect that this story has been tailored to the viewing audience. You may just find however, as I did, that someone out there sold their soul a few years back so that ScarJo could nail a perfect 2017 live-action Ghost in the Shell movie.