I think I finally figured out my main gripe with the movie. It's not the story, or the whitewashing, it's that the Major in the movie is not the Major from the GITS series...
Scarlett Johansson's "Major" was the exact opposite. Nothing about her displayed any sort of competence at what she did. In fact, for any Gundam fans, I would consider traditional Major Char's Counterattack Amuro, while GITS 17 Major the equivalent of early Mobile Suit Gundam Amuro. She got by by virtue of having a more advanced body than everything else. She seemed less the commanding officer of the team and more like someone they had to babysit. She blatantly ignored orders for seemingly no reason, and with Aramaki just shrugging his shoulders, and couldn't lead the team for shit.
While the old Major was reflective, this Major seemed more confused and curious about everything, like a toddler would be. She didn't really seem to understand what was going on or what she was seeing. The scene with the freckled black woman amounted to absolutely nothing.
This movie got her character completely wrong, which is a shame because she is one of my favorite anime characters, and pretty much my favorite fictional female character
to be fair, with the backstory of the character in this film it makes sense she is rash and unprofessional, though i would argue this isn't outlined at all in the film and is something that could have been touched upon but isn't.
i mean tbh the plan in this film (i forget how the manga or 1995 adaptation plays it) is a bit bonkers, why would you make a highly capable weapon using
the brain of a rebellious teenager/young woman with no military background
?
i have just picked up my copy of the manga again afte seeing this adaptation and it's crazy how different the major is. she's a bit of a goofball at times.
also man this was a messy section 9, how many people do they kill during the film without jurisdiction and nobody seems to care?
Something I only just realized is, why would you make the skin for a robot conductive? I'd understand if it's to simulate nerves but they made it clear she doesn't have that.
I am a GitS fan, but I am looking at this movie objectively and as its own thing. Even doing so, I don't think it succeeds on any front. Yes, there are some positives. I thought ScarJo did a good job, as did the actor who portrayed Batou, and Batou's car is SO COOL I WANT IT, but the film is completely unfocused.
This movie has a lot of ideas, many of them interesting, yet does not expand on any in a substantial way. The general plot of the film revolves mostly around Major's identity crisis. Again, it had some interesting ideas presented
Are we really just a reflection of our memories? How much of Motoko is in the Major now? Would you want to return to a life you have no memory of?
but it doesn't delve deep into them. I thought the direction they went with Major's past was interesting and could have been handled well... but it seems so superfluous and filled with plot holes.
Why did it matter that she was Motoko Kusanagi in the first place? I guess it's extra messed up for the company to completely change your race, but they don't touch on this at all. How does the Major feel about being a Japanese person? Is she even Japanese? Did she even know Japanese? She apparently grew up in the city so you'd assume her primary language was English. I mean she could've been a white girl named Jill Jillerson in the past and it would have the same effect. Also her having a fabricated past makes no sense. Does the Major not remember anything past a year ago? What about childhood birthdays? Anything before the boat crash? She doesn't wonder about these gaps?
From a plot perspective, I have no idea what Kuze or Captain Eyeball were trying to do. I mean, I know WHAT they were doing, but WHY?
Ok I get Kuze wanted revenge against Hanka, but then he wants to evolve into a network or something? Why? Why does he just wantonly kill people not associated with Hanka? Is his goal to just murder a bunch of scientists and then live in the interet? And what was the Hanka guy's goal? Make super soldiers? For what? Why give the Major to Section 9? Why not employ her directly under Hanka?
The visuals and score are getting a lot of praise, but I felt like they didn't connect with me. I really liked that early sweeping shot of the city that hones in on Major on the roof. That looked amazing in IMAX. But the city is a big cyberpunk cliche of gaudy lights everywhere and people wearing goofy outfits. And the score... yeah, synth music. Get it? Cyberpunk. The 80s. THESE ARE THINGS. Batou's car was so cool though. It's apparently based off of a Lotus Esprit, but Batou's is more angular and low to the ground.
GITS FAN NITPICKING:
+Major was so weak throughout much of the film. She is basically a rookie in this movie as opposed, you know, a Major. She is so capable that scenes when she is on the receiving end of a beatdown (like the tank scene in the OG film or against the armored suit in SAC) are more impactful.
+Kitano gave the most phoned in performance of all time only to just go straight up 90s Kitano at the end. That doesn't suit Aramaki at all. Aramaki is a mfer, but in a different way.
+Batou getting his eyes during the movie was so stupid, especially since in the original material, you can see the clear contrast between Batou's more clunky and apparent cyber enhancements when compared to Motoko's seamless ones.
I find it a hard movie to recommend. We don't get a lot of movies like this so I wanted it to be good and succeed. When watching it, I could only think of The Matrix, another cyberpunk film that balances good philosophical mumbo jumbo with daring action. This film isn't very thought-provoking and doesn't impress with it's action. If they just went with one of those things I think it would've been a lot better.
watched this despite not wanting to - mostly because some reviews on here have been good
some cgi looks like videogame shots; its that bad
the movie had no tension and you just went through the motions with it
scarlett walked funny
the action sequences were decent enough but not exciting
michael pitt
looked like he came out of Metal Gear Solid/Raiden
Plot shenanigans
Makoto + Shell+mother post justifying how she's now a white woman
Um, fuck off. How was that even neccessary?
Music is not memorable nor the world building distinctive enough in that "future/neo tokyo" look. It just looks like a whole bunch of rando neon + signs that you didn't interact with. You never see any big city sequences with people in this city.
Scarlet is okay in it. But anyone else could have carried this. She wasn't great.
6/10
They could have coloured/lit the film so its more gritty/noir grit instead of this lollicolour universe we got.
Quick question: How much subtitles are in the film for nom-English parts?
I can't read subtitles on films/TV due to my sight and can usually make due and not get too lost, but a friend said there is a fair bit of subs in this.
Quick question: How much subtitles are in the film for nom-English parts?
I can't read subtitles on films/TV due to my sight and can usually make due and not get too lost, but a friend said there is a fair bit of subs in this.
Only CG that was offensively bad was the Major running up those falling concrete slabs while being attacked by the tank. That was awwwwwwful. Everything else was fine though IMO.
I thought it was okay just not great. It feels like ARISE, just an alright action movie with nothing to provoke thought like the 95' GITS and SAC series. Which in my opinion make the series so good.
I thought it was great and so did the people i went with. None of us had ant real attachment to the anime, i was the only one who had actually seen it. If you like sci-fi definately give it a chance.
I thought it was great and so did the people i went with. None of us had ant real attachment to the anime, i was the only one who had actually seen it. If you like sci-fi definately give it a chance.
this confuses me too. this is set in japan, right? everyone speaks english which is fine if they either decided that it was the dominant language or tech translated for them but then you had kitano's character speaking in japanese, which again everyone understood. nobody else spoke in a different language.
consistency people!
this confuses me too. this is set in japan, right? everyone speaks english which is fine if they either decided that it was the dominant language or tech translated for them but then you had kitano's character speaking in japanese, which again everyone understood. nobody else spoke in a different language.
consistency people!
He's the oldest human in the room, it would make sense that he would speak Japanese while a younger human like Togusa would be bilingual (or speaking English, which this movie treats as the common language of the post-future world)
I don't think they ever say where it takes place. I just think it's supposed to be a futuristic hub city. The blurring of boundaries is a common cyberpunk trope. There is a line about arriving on a boat, so there must be a port, which may be a reference to SAC since Section 9 is based in Niihama/New Port City. There is also apparently a prime minister like Japan has... but really I think it's supposed to just be Cyber City.
I don't think they ever say where it takes place. I just think it's supposed to be a futuristic hub city. The blurring of boundaries is a common cyberpunk trope. There is a line about arriving on a boat, so there must be a port, which may be a reference to SAC since Section 9 is based in Niihama/New Port City. There is also apparently a prime minister like Japan has... but really I think it's supposed to just be Cyber City.
They did a terrible job of portraying it. I said before, but they could have had lots of people speaking different languages to one another. Hell, the movie started off with people from some African Delegation. They could have easily had them speaking afrikaans or swahili or whatever regional language they spoke in their country, instead of the awkwardness of everyone speaking english BUT Aramaki (and I think 1 other unnamed character)
He's the oldest human in the room, it would make sense that he would speak Japanese while a younger human like Togusa would be bilingual (or speaking English, which this movie treats as the common language of the post-future world)
later on and she speaks english.
now obviously different people have differing degrees of aptitude when it comes to language but one person is the head of a government black ops agency and the other is a drunk.
I give the movie a solid B for really working a great atmosphere and doing pretty good by way of the source material. It's far from removed from the American Akira parody would have you think an Hollywood adaption might be at its worst, and in general I think it's *amazing* to see a big budget anime adaption happen when it does. I even kind of respect the original aspects to it because it, like so many iterations since the manga, are barely like the manga anyways so what's the point, might as well make it fresh and honour the overarching details.
I think they did parts about cyborg-human dissonance very well. Scenes like the Major touching a fully human woman "just to feel her" compared to herself worked. Or, of course, the visuals of her in the water without a mask, or what it's like to wake up as a robot and "breath air" for the first time (when you don't even have to). The visuals really sold the idea significantly more than dialogue did.
GITS FAN NITPICKING:
+Major was so weak throughout much of the film. She is basically a rookie in this movie as opposed, you know, a Major. She is so capable that scenes when she is on the receiving end of a beatdown (like the tank scene in the OG film or against the armored suit in SAC) are more impactful.
This I don't mind. If she was powerful, it'd make it boring. There were still a few times she'd get hit and not really react (yay metal body). Maybe in the future, if there is a sequel, they'd make her more powerful. But for "an origin story", I'd let it go.
+Kitano gave the most phoned in performance of all time only to just go straight up 90s Kitano at the end. That doesn't suit Aramaki at all. Aramaki is a mfer, but in a different way.
Probably my biggest hang up as well. I liked him towards the end, but nothing about him otherwise felt like Aramaki (I'm pretty sure he was sitting for like 95% of his screen time). He felt like some Japanese goodwill ambassador thrown in to get a popular Japanese name in the title... Which is great, but the actor barely worked.
+Batou getting his eyes during the movie was so stupid, especially since in the original material, you can see the clear contrast between Batou's more clunky and apparent cyber enhancements when compared to Motoko's seamless ones.
This I didn't mind either because I liked how they didn't really dote on it and make it the big dramatic event most movies might. Cybernetics is easy, he got a "tactical enhancement", the Major sees if he's okay, he is, and that's that. There's no breakdown or seeing him suffer, or adjust, etc. which, IMO would have been too much. I do agree that the contrast between his eyes and the Major's...whole body being a bit jarring, but hey, the characters just kinda look like that. : /
this confuses me too. this is set in japan, right? everyone speaks english which is fine if they either decided that it was the dominant language or tech translated for them but then you had kitano's character speaking in japanese, which again everyone understood. nobody else spoke in a different language.
consistency people!
It's weird to say this a second time in a week, but this movie needed to be longer. For the last decade we've seen a ton of blockbusters that overstayed their welcome. This had the exact opposite problem. It dives into the main story so quickly and doesn't give the viewer time to like the characters or care about the world.
Could've used an opening setpiece that introduced the members of Section 9, which then leads to the central mystery about Kuze. This jumps into it immediately and only takes brief moments to show us as confused Major.
The movie just felt really...presumptuous, I guess. Like I was automatically supposed to care about the characters, world, and villain right off the jump. It doesn't do much to earn any of that. Even The Major's identity crisis is fumbled along the way.
Elysium and the Total Recall remake are both movies I didn't really care for that much. But even those two movies did a better job at showing how shitty the future was for most people. Ghost in the Shell nips at the idea, but it never holds onto it. GitS just runs runs runs through its plot for some reason. I never really got the chance to give a shit about what was going on.
And I know the tanks are part of the Ghost in the Shell world, but I had to roll my eyes at them throwing that in there at the last moment. Reminded me of the Silver Samurai mech in The Wolverine just totally killing the vibe of the movie. Didn't make for a particularly​ satisfying setpiece to end on, even if it was a call back to the original movie.
It's weird to say this a second time in a week, but this movie needed to be longer. For the last decade we've seen a ton of blockbusters that overstayed their welcome. This had the exact opposite problem. It dives into the main story so quickly and doesn't give the viewer time to like the characters or care about the world.
Could've used an opening setpiece that introduced the members of Section 9, which then leads to the central mystery about Kuze. This jumps into it immediately and only takes brief moments to show us as confused Major.
The movie just felt really...presumptuous, I guess. Like I was automatically supposed to care about the characters, world, and villain right off the jump. It doesn't do much to earn any of that. Even The Major's identity crisis is fumbled along the way.
Elysium and the Total Recall remake are both movies I didn't really care for that much. But even those two movies did a better job at showing how shitty the future was for most people. Ghost in the Shell nips at the idea, but it never holds onto it. GitS just runs runs runs through its plot for some reason. I never really got the chance to give a shit about what was going on.
And I know the tanks are part of the Ghost in the Shell world, but I had to roll my eyes at them throwing that in there at the last moment. Reminded me of the Silver Samurai mech in The Wolverine just totally killing the vibe of the movie. Didn't make for a particularly​ satisfying setpiece to end on, even if it was a call back to the original movie.
The Tank fight also wasn't particularly exciting to watch. It tries to shoot her, she runs (looking like a videogame character hopping up some steps) and then ducks behind a column. It was very baseline serviceable action without the frenetic action, movement and tension of the anime - Scarlet Jo just never moved with the swiftness that Anime Major did
It's weird to say this a second time in a week, but this movie needed to be longer. For the last decade we've seen a ton of blockbusters that overstayed their welcome. This had the exact opposite problem. It dives into the main story so quickly and doesn't give the viewer time to like the characters or care about the world.
It really just needed to make better use of its scenes and not toss in useless references and action scenes for the sake of it. For reference the original movie had a runtime of 82 minutes vs this movie's 106. That's 20 minutes shorter, with number of scenes of just pans across vistas, and it still managed to be more coherent, developed, and less rushed
Elysium and the Total Recall remake are both movies I didn't really care for that much. But even those two movies did a better job at showing how shitty the future was for most people. Ghost in the Shell nips at the idea, but it never holds onto it. GitS just runs runs runs through its plot for some reason. I never really got the chance to give a shit about what was going on.
Also, I'm a bit confused by this. GITS isn't set in a dystopian future. The future it presents isn't suppose to be shitty. It's suppose to be a normal future with its own contemporary problems
it was definitely more hong kong with regards to the visuals. From the city to the butcher (which is classic HK)
the water bit where she was underwater and then surfaced to a nighttime skyline is vey much hongkong island vista, they filmed in HK + the water fight sequence with the crowded city shots are all hong kong
The Tank fight also wasn't particularly exciting to watch. It tries to shoot her, she runs (looking like a videogame character hopping up some steps) and then ducks behind a column. It was very baseline serviceable action without the frenetic action, movement and tension of the anime - Scarlet Jo just never moved with the swiftness that Anime Major did
Yeah, I tried really hard not to compare anything in this movie to the other films but that last fight was especially glaring. It's a retread of something that happened in the animated movie, but a way less exciting version of it. Even if they wanted to make Kuze a sympathetic character, they couldn't write in some goon that goes rogue for the Major to get into a hand to hand fight with? It felt like the movie just gave up on itself near the end and did the bare minimum to close things out. Major gone rogue...for a few minutes. Okay, give her a flashback that explains everything. Okay, we need a big fight...uh spider tanks, maybe?
I thought the helicopter was shot down near the start of the battle. Pretty sure there was a large explosion of some kind shortly after she disabled the spider-tank.
Does anyone else find it crazy that ScarJo feels more like the Major in the Marvel movies than she does in the actual GitS movie, WTF?! Everyone seems to think the Major was a downer questioning who she is when she really wasn't. She was smart as fuck and owned her place in the world. There was a reason they called her Major.
I don't remember anything from the anime, other than the underwater scene, and the way the major walked. But anyway, I enjoyed the movie, was good. I'm a sucker for Cyberpunk worlds so that probably makes me pretty forgiving though.
Still haven't seen the movie but i was talking on the phone with a GITS fan friend who just seen the movie. He shit the movie fromm the first frame to the end (as expected) and said stuf like MAJOR CRIES CAN U BELIEVE IT?
and apperantly she has a mom
... And he said Scarlett is so bulky in the movie and suggested how would it look if Milla Jojovich was in the movie as Major?
Still haven't seen the movie but i was talking on the phone with a GITS fan friend who just seen the movie. He shit the movie fromm the first frame to the end (as expected) and said stuf like MAJOR CRIES CAN U BELIEVE IT?
and apperantly she has a mom
... And he said Scarlett is so bulky in the movie and suggested how would it look if Milla Jojovich was in the movie as Major?
She visits her "mom", as in the mom of the person they got her brain from, doesn't really cry, but her eyes do get pretty wet, so sort of? And not sure what he means by bulky, she does move awkwardly in the movie, but iirc, that's how the major moves in the anime as well.
Saw the film again in legit big ass screen IMAX because I wanted to see those visuals as best as I could.
If there's one really good thing that this film should be remembered for, it's in the visuals and camera work. It's simply breathtaking at times. Some very clever use of practical effects that I thought were CG previously as well. Like, Damn! I'm buying this film on 4K UDH to watch on a big screen again. That being said, my experience seeing this film again in IMAX did expose a wrinkle. I'm talking about
the fight at the end of the film, when she runs up the bridge, what in the fucking hell was that low rent CG?? How did they let that ugleh ass shot get through post?? Seriously, it distracted me for the rest of the film.
Also, seeing this a second time, I really wasn't feeling ScarJo's performance. I mean, I get that it was an acting decision to be wooden and robotic, but Major in the manga was a bit of a witty wise-ass, and even a little bit in the '95 film. Hardly any of that here outside of some bits with her and Batou. And speaking of which, I know I love the visuals, but you're telling me they couldn't afford better eyes to use for Batou in the film? That shit looked like cheap bottle caps lol.
I guess other than the twist, I didn't have too much issue with the plot, it flowed pretty well and wouldn't have seemed out of place as an episode of SAC. But that's the thing, I would have loved for the film to be much deeper in exploring the themes of trans humanism, buuuut we got a Hollywood action flick.
If they were going to go live action, I would have preferred if they took bits and pieces from SAC. I mean there's tons of material they could have worked with, and maybe they wouldn't have had to make the very dumbass twist we got. Hell, the director loves SAC as well!
I dunno, but I liked it the second time seeing it. Seeing the bits from the '95 film adapted into live action was fun, ScarJo's performance was meh. The visuals were a-goddamn-mazing in IMAX. I just hope Hollywood leans something from this film and try to approach adaptations of Anime/Manga with a bit more caution and not act on tone-deaf stupidity. And honestly, this shouldn't be hard too! Western comic books and Manga share a lot of DNA, yet Hollywood can seemingly figure it out with one, but not the other? I know we're getting a Battle Angle movie, and James Cameron is producing and happens to be a big fan of it, so maybe there's hope?
Only CG that was offensively bad was the Major running up those falling concrete slabs while being attacked by the tank. That was awwwwwwful. Everything else was fine though IMO.
Agreed, the physics in that scene, like in a lot of movies, was off and it looked funky but that was also only for about 2 seconds tops.
If there's one thing this movie has going for itself is the amazing visuals. It's a tour de force for practical and CGI work. How anyone can come out of this movie thinking it looks like a video game is beyond.
If by some miracle they get to make another one, I hope they don't treat the audience like children. Seeing how the ghost is represented in this movie give me little hope though. I doubt there will be another one, maybe 15 years from now a awesome adaptation will happen.
If by some miracle they get to make another one, I hope they don't treat the audience like children. Seeing how the ghost is represented in this movie give me little hope though. I doubt there will be another one, maybe 15 years from now a awesome adaptation will happen.
if anything, this movie introduces the series to wider American audience. i personally never had much interest in it and i watch anime every now and then. now i will want to watch everything because of this movie
Good god they gave Rodriguez 200 mil?! That's really hard to fathom and I even like most of his movies. You could fit his entire filmography's combined budgets into that 200 million.
