Ghost in the Shell

Telling the story of Major Kusanage and the universe the Major inhabits is incredibly daunting. I've seen all of the Ghost in the Shell movies and television episodes, and I found this movie adaptation to be an excellent attempt at depicting the Major and her world. It is literally impossible to describe everything the Major is in a 2 - 3 hour movie, but the director and Ms. Johanson pulled it off. After watching this movie, I can't think of a better choice than Scarlett Johansson to be Major Motoko Kusanage. I never knew much about her past work, in all honesty, but it seems that Ms. Johansson really shines in the Science Fiction genre. Thank you, Director, cast, and crew for bringing this incredibly complex story to life in such a convincing and enjoyable manner. If ever any of the other Ghost in the Shell stories are being considered as a followup to this one, I pray that Ms. Johansson will be on board to reprise her role.

Faithful to the source material. The characters are cast perfectly. The film takes place in the future post-World War 4, the remaining world factions of USA, Great Britain, Japan, and China work together. The city in which the film and Ghost in the Shell franchise takes place, is the epicenter of cyber-enhancement and attracts many cultures and races from around the world. The company at the forefront of the technology is British operated company Hanka. And just like the source material the shell (or cybernetic body) that Major is in is a caucasian model. Weta Workshop did an amazing job on the practical effects and props, Rupert Sanders is a visual genius. The story has deep underlying themes that the haters ignore or don't understand. There are a lot of nods to all of the source material, like scenes from the shows and animated movies and manga. Batou in this film is inspired by the manga version and not the animated films and shows. A lot of influence from GITS 2: Innocence and Stand Alone Complex shows. This film is a work of art and a masterpiece. The music is also beautiful. ****SPOILERS AHEAD**** Unlike the source material (Manga, animated movies, and shows) in this film Major's true identity has more meaning, the name Motoko Kusanagi has more meaning. For instance in Stand Alone Complex, her identity and name is ambiguous, never seeing her face or knowing her race. In this film it is comfirmed her true identity is a Japanese run away, this was NEVER comfirmed in any of the source material.

Treats the viewer like an idiot most of the time. Makes pointless changes to the original story, always for the worst, never as an improvement. They throw in a lot of iconic scenes, demonstrating that they know what we wanted to see, but it's all jammed in during an otherwise generic sci-fi action thriller. Worst of all, they don't dive into any of the deep philosophy of the series. They mention it. They reference it. They hint at it. But they refuse to spare the minutes it would take to play out the conversations. This is also how the movie treats the viewer like an idiot. The entire first half of the movie, meant to set everything up, spells out every piece of exposition more than once. They beat you over the head with it a few times for each concept, all rushed, because they cannot take 5 minutes to stop being a generic action flick. They don't think the audience can sit still without bullets flying long enough to consider a question of morality or identity. But they have to still approach these core concepts to the series, so they just cram them in there. The iconic scenes they did throw in end up feeling like insults as a result.