Review of Ghost in the Shell (2017) by Dreamstate42 — 31 Mar 2017

This is one of the movies that I could actually give two scores for. The first one being a sci-fi / cyberpunk fan with no knowledge of the anime, the second one being a long-time Ghost in the Shell fan. The score I gave is from the second point of view, because, well, I'm a long time fan.

My biggest gripe with the film is that it just feels boring. I couldn't shake the feeling that they somehow tried to copy the anime visually, but did not really care about the original story. Visually, the film is absolutely stunning, no doubt about that. Sound design is also amazing, and Client Mansell's score is a perfect fit for the visuals. But that's about it. The dialogue, although never really "cringeworthy", always felt somehow "out of place". It's almost as if the director and writers didn't want to "burden" the audience with the philosophical depth of the anime.

If I had seen this movie without knowing GitS, this might very well have been a 7 or 8 out of 10. That being said, I would actually recommend this movie if you love cyberpunk settings, but have never seen the anime.

For the fans of the anime: I'd recommend to skip this movie.