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[Z3M0G]

Amazon.ca 3D:

https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B072FGFTT9/

BestBuy.ca 3D:

http://www.bestbuy.ca/en-ca/product/ghost-in-the-shell-3d-blu-ray-combo-2017/m2224644.aspx?

So I guess all Canadian retailers are on board with 3D! Feels good.

 

[The Elite]

Still debating the 4k steelbook version. I am not a huge fan of that art though.

 

[Z3M0G]

Still debating the 4k steelbook version. I am not a huge fan of that art though.

You mean this?

That is slick as hell IMO

I find it cool that the picture inside is the non-CG suite.

 

[katsubento]

You mean this?



That is slick as hell IMO

I find it cool that the picture inside is the non-CG suite.

I like that one too.

 

[jetsetnickradio]

I'm not a big fan of how the 4K steelbook looks. I think I'm just going to go with the 3D Bluray for now.

I haven't used the 3D glasses for my TV in probably over 3 years, though. I'm not even sure where they are. It'd be nice to find them and dust them off for once

 

[Herr Schwarz]

5minutes into it, and I can already tell this is some lazy shit

 

[Nev]

"Lazy" is the last word I'd use to describe it.

If they hadn't changed a certain thing it'd be a modern classic. As it is, it's still a solid movie with incredible visuals, good performances and a fantastic OST.

Haters can hate.

 

[RS4-]

You mean this?



That is slick as hell IMO

I find it cool that the picture inside is the non-CG suite.

This is the steel book I want, not that other 3d one.

The poster I have:

 

[Herr Schwarz]

It's just tonally flat as all hell.

Plus the world building felt really trite. The city with absolutely no one in it was really jarring. Like anytime the city is panned through on camera, it's fukin empty, where are all the people these massive sky scrapers are housing.

The way they went into issues of ghosts in the shell, and the whole machine and soul kind of shit. Felt like they were trying to use a sledge hammer on a small nail. Little to zero nuance in any of it.

Then it kinda turned into a bad action movie towards the later acts upon those big revelations.

Plus a lot of those guards need to, well instead of paying for "metal mouth" maybe pay for "aim hack" instead.

 

[DangerMouse]

Ugh, I wish there was a bundle that included the 4K UHD and the 3D Blu-ray. I don't normally buy 3D Blu-rays, but the 3D in this movie was actually done really well.

This. I would have loved to get both in the same package. The 3D was fantastic in the IMAX, so I'd like to own it in 3D, and I can't wait to see it in 4K HDR too. Will probably have to double dip.

This is the best sample of the actual music from the movie that I have come across...

I really hope this OST petition works out...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L7z8I4WccA4

Edit: Actually this one may be better but I can't give it a full listen right now: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zmBA6yWT9eA

Yeah, hopefully it does, had a great soundtrack and audio in general.

"Lazy" is the last word I'd use to describe it.

If they hadn't changed a certain thing it'd be a modern classic. As it is, it's still a solid movie with incredible visuals, good performances and a fantastic OST.

Haters can hate.

Yeah, I quite liked it.

 

[Herr Schwarz]

It just seems like, this isn't going to hold up at all. I've pretty much forgotten it already.

I suppose when you're trying to follow a property that was pretty ground breaking the bar is pretty high.

But it just felt like an intellectual cop out that tried and flailed at hitting the notes of the original and simply gave up and turned into a by the numbers action flick.

I can't overstate how bad the world building was in this too. The city seemed so clean and empty, lifeless CG with no grit.

But yeah, a clichéd directionless retread that lacks any real identity narratively and visually, ultimately being tossed in the bin labeled "forgettable reboots".

 

[Vic_Viper]

Just finished this for the first time. Took like 3 tries total to get through it. They really screwed up with this movie imo. They relied way too much on the original movie and Stand Alone Complex instead of just doing their own thing. This could have been such an awesome movie, trilogy even. Was Avi Arrad involved in any way?

Just saw Lucy for the first time the other night too.

 

[SillyEskimo]

Just finished this for the first time. Took like 3 tries total to get through it. They really screwed up with this movie imo. They relied way too much on the original movie and Stand Alone Complex instead of just doing their own thing. This could have been such an awesome movie, trilogy even. Was Avi Arrad involved in any way?

Just saw Lucy for the first time the other night too.

I started it last night. I'm going to try and finish it tonight. Any subtlety the cartoon had was thrown put the door in the first 5 minutes of this movie that insisted on giving step by step exposition. Absolutely no respect for the audience.

It really rubbed me the wrong way from the very start, so I took a break.

 

[wondermega]

Still surprised how much hate this movie gets. I'm looking forward to picking up the 3D version, there were some incredible sequences in this film.

 

[lightskintwin]

Just finished watching it for the first time.

It wasn't bad.

It was OK.

It was fine.

Shame they didn't explore deeper themes or philosophy or better action set pieces to make it memorable.

 

[obin_gam]

I tried watching it yesterday. Had to turn it off mid way through.
Will maybe try again later, but damn it was flat and uninteresting with stalemate pacing an just plain dull.

Which is really weird since the world seemed super cool and the music was great. Everything else was just lifeless.

 

[The Fatal Englishman]

"Lazy" is the last word I'd use to describe it.

If they hadn't changed a certain thing it'd be a modern classic. As it is, it's still a solid movie with incredible visuals, good performances and a fantastic OST.

Haters can hate.

Haphazardly abstracting a bunch of scenes and characters from the original movies and TV series and re-stitching them together with a nonsensical plot is pretty much the definition of 'lazy' as far as I am concerned.

I'm not even convinced by the visuals argument. The CGI looked cheap from beginning to end and some scenes look truly dreadful.

 

[cyberheater]

I finally got around to seeing this last night.

I really enjoyed it. It's a great sci-fi movie. I don't get the hate but sheeple are sheeple I guess.

 

[Chumley]

Haphazardly abstracting a bunch of scenes and characters from the original movies and TV series and re-stitching them together with a nonsensical plot is pretty much the definition of 'lazy' as far as I am concerned.

I'm not even convinced by the visuals argument. The CGI looked cheap from beginning to end and some scenes look truly dreadful.

You must have thought Blade Runner looked dreadful too. This movie had the most well realized Cyberpunk world and atmosphere since then.

You mean this?



That is slick as hell IMO

I find it cool that the picture inside is the non-CG suite.

I'm all over this once I get a UHD player.

 

[Mohonky]

I finally got around to seeing this last night.

I really enjoyed it. It's a great sci-fi movie. I don't get the hate but sheeple are sheeple I guess.

Yeh I enjoyed it.

Thought the 'puppet master' was brilliant because it was a lot easier to emphasise with their plight in the way their backstory was crafted and the character was played really well.

I understand people saying it feels flat, but the anime was also incredibly flat, it took my a few goes to watch the anime but I was genuinely interested in see8ng the film through.

 

[SJRB]

This movie was great.

Visual masterpiece, great soundtrack. Sure the story is rather bland with a steep nosedive in the third act, and some of the acting was kinda iffy, but the visuals more than made up for it.

Thoroughly enjoyed it.

 

[Moff]

"Lazy" is the last word I'd use to describe it.

If they hadn't changed a certain thing it'd be a modern classic. As it is, it's still a solid movie with incredible visuals, good performances and a fantastic OST.

Haters can hate.

what is that certain thing?
I think it was a really, really good scifi film, amazing visuals, lots of nice weird stuff and a cool story
don't get the hate (apart from the white washing), but I never watched the anime

 

[BocoDragon]

I think it's surprisingly okay GITS adaptation, except:

1. The deep philosophical musing was watered down to simplistic Hollywood platitudes. But IMO I think this says something about the nature of Hollywood and general audiences. I'm skeptical that a movie with deep philosophical talk is even feasible from this industry. So I "forgive it" in the sense that Hollywood popcorn movies aren't for a narrow audience of deep thinkers.

2. The subplot "hanging a lampshade" on the whitewashed Scarlett (and the villain) by explaining that she's a Japanese transplant is so bad. I don't even care that they cast a white lady, but this subplot forces us to look at their sin and laugh at their terrible efforts to explain it away.

Other than that, I think it's a really good "dumb popcorn movie" distillation of the theme. If you can accept that it's not going to be a deep movie, it's actually exceedingly faithful to the source. This isn't an Aeon Flux-style adaptation thing where they just change it all willy nilly. It's truly GITS, but through the compromise of a mainstream pop entertainment filter.

 

[ApharmdX]

Saw this film last night and there's just not much to recommend it. The pace was well done and the visuals were lush, I'll give GitS those two things. Otherwise I felt like it was a total disappointment, and I say that as someone who thought the Ghost in the Shell anime was more beautiful thought piece than a great film. The change to the villain (from the original anime) turns Ghost in the Shell from a thoughtful movie about the nature of consciousness and individuality into more of a direct revenge flick. Even the iconic action sequences of the original are drained of their power and symbolism. Particularly painful is the absence of the fantastic soundtrack that Kenji Kawai crafted for the original... this live action version's soundtrack is nowhere near as good.

Still, it wasn't some kind of awful travesty deserving loads of hate (aside from the deplorable whitewashing!)... this adaption of Ghost in the Shell is more forgettable and average than anything else.

 

[Adam Blue]

So I finally saw this - and I've never consumed any GITS media prior. ( I generally cannot get into anime, other than the Berserk movie on Netflix, FotNS movie, and Ninja Scroll)

I think the movie was incredible. I love the whole arc about her previous memory being wiped, questioning her current existence, learning about a previous life that would shape her humanity and conflicts of going down that path of discovery. And the villain, I love his motives. He's lost. He knows his life was taken away, but unknown to him what that life was. What more can be taken? If you're dead, (presumably) you wouldn't know your life was taken from you.

Favorite scenes: with her mom AND when Kuze and major met in the runaway spot that they had started a bond at which they never saw through.

Then, I proceeded to watch the anime. Obviously I can't help but judge it based on my positive experience with the live action film, and I gotta say it seemed to just tread regular sci-fi themes of humanity and robotics. The animation is incredible, but the actual story didn't move me like the live action film.

Though I think the 95 anime had a bit more nuance in that philosophical aspect, but as a whole, the live action film had more at stake for the characters.

Now, based on those opinions, would I enjoy the 2nd movie/show? I really want that deep machine/humanity philosophy, but I prefer a story arc to be centered around that.

Finally, I looked at the manga and see it is also completely different. So, I kind of like the idea that the GITS universe has different iterations to explore different aspects. At this point it's a matter of enjoying the vehicle which the story is delivered.

1. The deep philosophical musing was watered down to simplistic Hollywood platitudes. But IMO I think this says something about the nature of Hollywood and general audiences. I'm skeptical that a movie with deep philosophical talk is even feasible from this industry. So I "forgive it" in the sense that Hollywood popcorn movies aren't for a narrow audience of deep thinkers.

I'd say it is very deep, but in the way that the Dark Souls narrative is deep. Or even BvS, but I know how that film is generally looked at... Where the audience is sort of filling in nuance by connecting the dots. Basically, not needing to spell things out. The anime had so much of that! Like, I get it yet they'd continue to regurgitate exposition (I will say the scenes of world building exposition is the anime's strongest quality - the movie could have used that).

 

[Z3M0G]

4 more days!!

Though I see some people have seen it recently, I'm happy to see some positive impressions. I'm sure I'll still enjoy it for the 3rd(+) viewing(s) to come. I also hope to show it to a few friends who never made it to the cinema.

My Tips for Not-Hating-GitS (2017) :

- Accept it as a character origin story for Major. It would have been a fantastic primer for a franchise where movies 2,3,etc would have been more traditional GitS stories in the vein of the Anime(s).

- Accept that this may not even be in Japan. This is a very mixed-society world. There is never a mention of race or origin. It's a cultural mixing-pot. And who knows what future generation this is... cultures have clearly changed between now and then. Old Japanese ladies may not act exactly like they do today, for example.

- Instead of being angry about Hollywood whitewashing the casting, instead be angry about the

Spoiler

evil corporation that is ran and operated by White Westerners remaking people in their own image. Heck, take it as a self-aware critique of the Hollywood movie industry, if you like.

Don't take it as simply something horrible that happened to the film casting, take it as

Spoiler

part of the story and as something horrible that happened to the character.

- Forget the original OST, and allow yourself to appreciate the new music... because it's pretty darn good.

 

[Jobbs]

I just watched it. I really enjoyed it a lot. Much more than I was expecting.

I was familiar already with the original anime -- In fact, it was pretty formative for me -- And I appreciated the many shot and sequence recreations in this film.

It's a beautiful looking and sounding movie, and even if the themes are a bit underexplored (and it gets a bit dumb in parts) I enjoyed it on the strength of its style and the overall experience.

Scarjo is excellent as the major. I remember being skeptical when her casting was first revealed, but she nailed it.

 

[Turin Turambar]

4 more days!!

Though I see some people have seen it recently, I'm happy to see some positive impressions. I'm sure I'll still enjoy it for the 3rd(+) viewing(s) to come. I also hope to show it to a few friends who never made it to the cinema.

My Tips for Not-Hating-GitS (2017) :

- Accept it as a character origin story for Major. It would have been a fantastic primer for a franchise where movies 2,3,etc would have been more traditional GitS stories in the vein of the Anime(s).

- Accept that this may not even be in Japan. This is a very mixed-society world. There is never a mention of race or origin. It's a cultural mixing-pot. And who knows what future generation this is... cultures have clearly changed between now and then. Old Japanese ladies may not act exactly like they do today, for example.

- Instead of being angry about Hollywood whitewashing the casting, instead be angry about the

Spoiler

evil corporation that is ran and operated by White Westerners remaking people in their own image. Heck, take it as a self-aware critique of the Hollywood movie industry, if you like.

Don't take it as simply something horrible that happened to the film casting, take it as

Spoiler

part of the story and as something horrible that happened to the character.

- Forget the original OST, and allow yourself to appreciate the new music... because it's pretty darn good.

I followed your tips! And...

The film is till mediocre to bad.

Ok, so I accept it is a origin story. It's a bad, stereotyped origin story, with an unsurprising twist and uninteresting development, that's the problem, not the fact it was an origin story!

I don't care if the story is in Japan or not, and I don't worry about whitewashing because the film has many other more important problems.
Like why introduce several members of the team if you are not going to use them. Like the turgid dialog. Or the underwhelming unimaginative action. Or the obsession with re-imagining scenes from the original film (which in the end it only invites unfavorable comparisons), or why they would be so faithful in the wrong places (like the anime haircuts).

 

[Skinpop]

Saw it a few days ago. Was even worse than I had imagined. I usually like Scarlett so I thought people were exaggerating but no, her acting is awful in this one.

Generic and forgettable music. Can't say how much that pissed me off.

The film looks like shit. While the city in both '99 GitS and SAC feel believable and realistic this one looks like a cross between a Kinkaid painting and Bladerunner fan art. The holograms alone is one of the worst art direction decision in all of Sci-fi movie making. Gaudy, tasteless, nonsensical and pandering.

Then there's the plot and story and how they butchered the original material, but others have written enough about that. I actually can't think of a single thing this movie does well.

 

[muteki]

As meh as I ultimately felt about the whole thing, I do feel compelled to get the 3d version and watch it on my PSVR. Seems right.

Also looked into buying the original on blu ray, as all I have is the VHS and apparently all the releases are shit. Oh well.

 

[jetsetnickradio]

As meh as I ultimately felt about the whole thing, I do feel compelled to get the 3d version and watch it on my PSVR. Seems right.

Also looked into buying the original on blu ray, as all I have is the VHS and apparently all the releases are shit. Oh well.

Uhh... the bluray masters aren't perfect, but they're still way better than your VHS copy. They can be found for dirt cheap, too.

 

[Z3M0G]

This movie has a lot of parallels for me to the Silent Hill movie... both will be guilty pleasures for me as a fan of the source material.

Anyways, 3D Blu-Ray is now in hand. (A couple bucks cheaper at Walmart than at BestBuy)

I didn't expect that I couldn't redeem the digital code on Google Play... I thought you could redeem them anywhere... :/

 

[The Elite]

Picking up my steelbook tonight. Still haven't seen the movie.

 

[Burt]

It was okay. Directing was flat - especially when it came to the action scenes - but I was pleasantly surprised by the fact that I actually really liked Michael Pitt and Batou, considering I went in expecting to roll my eyes at them the whole time. Perfectly happy with it as a rental.

Scarlett wasn't as uniformly bad as say, the cookie cutter villain, but there were definitely some scenes where she took "act like a robot" about 3 levels too deep.

 

[Fox Mulder]

This movie was great.

Visual masterpiece, great soundtrack. Sure the story is rather bland with a steep nosedive in the third act, and some of the acting was kinda iffy, but the visuals more than made up for it.

Thoroughly enjoyed it.

This.

I hadn't seen any older stuff, so this was just a beautiful scifi movie to me. I'll check out the other stuff now.

 

[BrokenFiction]

I watched it tonight for the first time and really enjoyed it. I'm coming in with no baggage, having just started watching SAC. The one thing that does bug the shit out of me is the choice to go with 1.85:1 instead of 2.35:1. A big cyberpunk visual delight needs the space to breathe and the smaller aspect ratio felt confining to me.

 

[Mossybrew]

Finally got around to watching this tonight, and have to say I was pleasantly surprised. Sure I'm familiar with the anime but I understand this is a new interpretation for mass market cinema audiences and as such I found it highly entertaining. I thought it hit enough nostalgia beats but at the same time was its own thing. And I have to admit I was hoping the

Spoiler

spider tank

would show up at the end and when it did I was satisfied, and the iconic moment of that scene hit the right note. For me there were no "third act problems" at all.

 

[katsubento]

Still need to get my copy.




I like Robocop.

 

[Korey]

.

 

[blakep267]

I saw this the other day. And... I didn't hate it( well until the second half)

+ The world was interesting if underutilized(will come back to this)
+ the characters weren't bad except for the pseudo villain
+ kitano was awesome
+ seemingly kept the vibe from the anime. Cept for you know, Johannsen(more on that)

- Johansson was pretty wooden. Maybe that's the character but thumbs down for her. What I mean was she was trying to hard to be cold etc and it showed. It wasn't natural. Her walk kept bothering me. It felt like she was acting. House has a distinct walk. It looks natural when Laurie does it. Scarlett looks like she's trying too hard
- There was literally no reason for her not to be Asian especially with the dumb twist they threw in.
- They literally said ghost in a shell within the first 30 seconds of the movie.
- the story and plot was bad. Like I've seen this a million times in science fiction. The world is interesting but oh another"mybcreators are lying to me"
- Hacker guy was just horrible. Why was he here(rhetorical question)
- Resolution was lacking. Oh a random spider tank, then main villain gets killed by kitano. Happy ending


My biggest issue was the world and setting was there. The characters (section 9) were there. Except for white Major. Everything else was bad and it's a shame the good stuff was wasted

 

[Donos]

They pulled the ending scene with Major (obvious movie ending spoiler)

Spoiler

pulling at the tank top and ripping her arms apart

better than i thought. The short scene in the trailer with her weird stance had me worried but they dissolved it quite good.

Two friends talked briefly about the movie
"do you want to see that movie?"
"hmm don't know, isn't that the one where Johansen is naked?"
"yeah, she's naked in a couple scenes, walking around"...

I was close to opening my mouth but i just said "fuk it" in my head.

 

[xrnzaaas]

I tried to watch this movie, but I just couldn't. Dropped it after seeing about a half and I don't even plan on fast forwarding through the rest to enjoy heavy on CGI scenes (by the way the CGI in some scenes in the first part was actually quite bad).

 

[Lokimaru]

I saw this the other day. And... I didn't hate it( well until the second half)

+ The world was interesting if underutilized(will come back to this)
+ the characters weren't bad except for the pseudo villain
+ kitano was awesome
+ seemingly kept the vibe from the anime. Cept for you know, Johannsen(more on that)

- Johansson was pretty wooden. Maybe that's the character but thumbs down for her. What I mean was she was trying to hard to be cold etc and it showed. It wasn't natural. Her walk kept bothering me. It felt like she was acting. House has a distinct walk. It looks natural when Laurie does it. Scarlett looks like she's trying too hard
- There was literally no reason for her not to be Asian especially with the dumb twist they threw in.
- They literally said ghost in a shell within the first 30 seconds of the movie.
- the story and plot was bad. Like I've seen this a million times in science fiction. The world is interesting but oh another"mybcreators are lying to me"
- Hacker guy was just horrible. Why was he here(rhetorical question)
- Resolution was lacking. Oh a random spider tank, then main villain gets killed by kitano. Happy ending


My biggest issue was the world and setting was there. The characters (section 9) were there. Except for white Major. Everything else was bad and it's a shame the good stuff was wasted

The woodenness comes from Ohii's interpretation on Ghost in the Shell not Shirow's. Personally I wish they would have used Shirow's more lively take on Matoko. Funny how the only place you can really see that is in the old PS1 game.

https://youtu.be/iTkOvNDhO_Y.

You can tell the character designs for the cutscenes were done by Shirow himself.

 

[BadWolf]

The woodenness comes from Ohii's interpretation on Ghost in the Shell not Shirow's. Personally I wish they would have used Shirow's more lively take on Matoko. Funny how the only place you can really see that is in the old PS1 game.

https://youtu.be/iTkOvNDhO_Y.

You can tell the character designs for the cutscenes were done by Shirow himself.

We really, really need an anime movie/series based on this.

 

[admiraltaftbar]

We really, really need an anime movie/series based on this.

What do you like about it? Besides the good animation, I think those hyperactive scenes and characters are excruciating. I'm not against a less wooden Major but a TV show like those cutscenes would just have maximum anime style cheese.

 

[BadWolf]

What do you like about it? Besides the good animation, I think those hyperactive scenes and characters are excruciating. I'm not against a less wooden Major but a TV show like those cutscenes would just have maximum anime style cheese.

- Great visuals
- Characters look like in the manga
- Characters act like in the manga
- It was fun

 

[Spuck-uk]

Finally got round to watching it.

Mostly good visuals, apart from Batous eyes looking terrible.

Christ it was a badly paced mess of clunky exposition.

 

[EGM1966]

Finally got around to this and it wasn't as bad as I expected. In fact many aspects were good or at least decent in particular visual style and some of the performances (Binoche in particular acted way above script and role showing a real and interesting empathy).

That said while it's hardly a guenuine stinker - it's too solid overall for that - it does have some serious narrative and thematic flaws which drag it down.

First and foremost is the frankly dull and over-used tropes they settled on to give the major a specific character arc (something arguably missing in the original). Not only is it way too well worn to be engaging its badly handled narrative wise without enough focus and depth to make it work: it's half hearted in execution basically.

Second the main villain is poorly handled too: he lacks any real motivation other than replying on the "because he's the bad guy and guys like him always are" trope to carry it. This narrative thread isn't even half hearted it's anemic. The original had some similar issues too but why not fix them with hindsight?

Thirdly the twist with who's the bad guy/isn't and motivation lacks narrative focus as well. It's not well set up nor executed.

Fourthly they took the thematic around consciousness and made it simple exposition repeated multiple times in case you're really, really that dumb. Ghosts and Shells are mentioned repeatedly and in the most basic manner losing the sense of discovery for the viewer in forming their own views. The original had some issues here too but doesn't mean they couldn't be improved upon.

Fifth: it's late to the table now. What should be big moments are quickly shot over because it's all so familiar. Tough problem to solve but still, they chose to make this film you'd hope they had some guenuinely creative artistic thoughts on how to handle it other than just blasting through what are now common tropes: implants, connections in back of neck, hacking of individuals, implications of consciousness transplants.

In conclusion I'd say the big flaws were making core plot worse narratively than original while retaining some of its flaws to boot, lack of conviction in its themes and a resulting sense to of dislocation: it's hard to care much about anybody or anything happening; it's mostly a paint by numbers seen it all before vibe vs some momentary visual flourishes.

Shame as actors - including Johanssen - are solid to good and there's much promise still in the core characters concept. Ultimately though this is a shallow if pretty affair that muddles it's characters and plot to produce a very stilted and half hearted resolution.

 

[AgentOtaku]

Saw it a few days ago. Was even worse than I had imagined. I usually like Scarlett so I thought people were exaggerating but no, her acting is awful in this one.

Generic and forgettable music. Can't say how much that pissed me off.

The film looks like shit. While the city in both '99 GitS and SAC feel believable and realistic this one looks like a cross between a Kinkaid painting and Bladerunner fan art. The holograms alone is one of the worst art direction decision in all of Sci-fi movie making. Gaudy, tasteless, nonsensical and pandering.

Then there's the plot and story and how they butchered the original material, but others have written enough about that. I actually can't think of a single thing this movie does well.

Nailed it

 

[WhatNXt]

I watched this last night with my girlfriend.

Disappointed. If there's any crime a film can commit that's worse than being bad, it's being boring instead. This shouldn't have been a boring film but it was. I can appreciate someone finding plenty of merit in it, especially as a visual showcase, but as far as I'm concerned? - It's absolutely baffling how they managed to achieve something so bland and plodding in terms of story. It's definitely style over substance.

The bits that were good were basically only engaging because the visuals and design were pretty, or because the film was doing a shot-for-shot recreation of something from the original anime. But the visuals aren't consistent in being good either. It's one of those films where I can tell it's gonna age badly. There are times where it's absolutely beautiful, and times where it looks like a videogame cutscene. The opening was exciting, it matched with the original very closely, and with a new lifelike rendering - it also reminded me of the introduction to Westworld. So to begin with I was like - "okay, this is gonna be good!" Then, immediately after that strong visual and aural opening, the guy playing Cutter starts dropping some horrible on-the-nose dialog about her ghost being in a shell and the Major being a company owned weapon. My enthusiasm immediately began to wane. I quite liked the soundtrack, but there was something not quite right about the sound mix.

Kitano as the head of Section 9 was underused. Here's someone who has been a quiet, towering, twitching enigma in so many great films - and he's mainly used for awful radio chatter / mind-comms scenes. Both he and Scarlett Johansson come across as being deliberately directed to act in as wooden a way as possible. And I say that as someone who likes her too.

I liked Kuze. There were a couple of moments where they made him seem ominous, far reaching and dangerous. That really works in a story where you're going to make him more sympathetic later on, and they could have built on that a lot more. Having him take out the scientists and Hanka robotics engineers who worked on him was fine. The glitching memory aspect leading up to the memory reveal would have been okay if more capably executed. Ultimately though it just felt disjointed, flat and odd. The dialogue is awful, and as a screenplay it feels more like a cartoon than the original anime did! When they didn't have a creative cityscape to show us, or a gorgeously designed robot like the geishas, it looked like a TV show.

If you're brave enough to make some of the loud visual choices they made, you might as well be brave enough to play with the concepts at work and trust the viewers to be able to cope with much more dense material. It's not brave though. The Motoko reveal feels like a cop out compromise injected in to the film, like they were deathly afraid of the whitewashing accusation gaining traction.

At the end of the film, Major says:
"My mind is human. My body is manufactured. I am the first of my kind, but I won't be the last. We cling to memories as if they define us, but what we do defines us. My ghost survived to remind the next of us that humanity is our virtue. I know who I am, and what I'm here to do."

Unfortunately, the film didn't give me a real sense or understanding of what she felt she was here to do, and unfortunately, my memory of this experience is quite defining in a negative way.

The original anime isn't something I hold too close to my heart, I was willing to be quite forgiving, but it just feels like the people making it didn't care enough. The Wachowskis or somebody similarly invested would have (and could have) made a cinematic masterpiece out of this. It could have been a modern day Blade Runner. Instead it's forgettable, and I can't see myself ever watching it again. I hope Akira gets a better treatment.