GHOST IN THE SHELL – Review

Scarlett Johansson plays The Major in Ghost in the Shell from Paramount Pictures and DreamWorks Pictures in theaters March 31, 2017. © 2016 Paramount Pictures. All Rights Reserved.

If you are going to re-make a classic, fan favorite film, you might want to keep the original story. Oddly, the live action remake of the anime classic GHOST IN THE SHELL, based on the Japanese manga of the same name, recreates several scenes, sometimes shot-for-shot and keeps some of the same characters. But the American live-action version ditches the mystery, the atmospheric moodiness, and the philosophical aspects in favor of a standard, less-interesting action film story line. That is a lot of changes, without even getting into the controversy of a largely non-Asian lead cast in this manga-inspired story set in futuristic Japan.

Fans of the 1995 Japanese anime original GHOST IN THE SHELL will be disappointed with this hollowed-out, less-interesting live-action American remake. Those who never saw the Japanese original are likely to wonder what all the fuss was about over such a standard if violent film.

Sure, the visual effects look good – impressively good – as does star Scarlett Johansson. Johansson plays the Major, an anti-terrorist specialist who is also a human-cyborg hybrid. Set in a futurist Japanese city and in a time when the line between humans and machine is increasingly blurred, Major and teammate Batou (Danish actor Pilou Asbaek, A WAR, LUCY) work for the anti-terrorist division Section 9. They are tracking an elusive terrorist called Kuze (Michael Pitt), who is attacking the Hanka Corporation, a private company that provides cyborgs and technology-enhancements for humans for government use. Major’s and Batou’s boss is Aramaki (Beat Takeshi Kitano), a Japanese government official attached to Hanka Corporation.

Unlike the Japanese anime GHOST IN THE SHELL, the live-action one begins with an origin story for Major. Major is a herself a new step forward in human-cyborg combinations: an entirely artificial body or “shell” whose human component, called a “ghost,” is only her brain. Major’s brain was salvaged from her original body, which was too damaged to repair. Because of the extent of the damage, Major’s ghost, her human spirit, retains only vague memories of her former life. A scientist, Dr. Ouelet (Juliette Binoche), helps keep her cyborg body in top shape, and also serves as a kind of combination friend and mother figure for her.

Both the 1989 manga and the 1995 original Japanese anime film were hugely influential, winning fans around the world and sparking sequels, movies and TV shows. The film influenced a lot of filmmakers, notably the Wachowskis. The story in this live-action version combines elements of the Wachowskis’ THE MATRIX, along with THE BOURNE IDENTITY, TERMINATOR and other films thrown in. The story is gone but oddly, entire scenes, including some action sequences, are recreated in the new version, sometimes shot-for-shot. the film works hard to incorporate little elements from the original, like the trash truck, the diving scene and the spider-like tank. The live-action film does keep the high level of violence in the anime original.

The new film’s strong point is its breath-taking special effects, and Johansson’s action character performance. A lot of care has been put into re-creating the visual aspects of the anime film, right down to Johansson sporting the same haircut. Johansson wears a form-fitting, flesh-toned body suit to represent the nudity of the original animated character, who despite the film’s gender-role questioning, seems to spend a lot of time nearly bare. Of course, all that questioning is absent in this film, but viewers get a good look at a very fit, curvy Johansson.

The futuristic seaside city where the story takes place looks even grittier and grayer, and all those visual details are skillfully done. A dash of color and Japanese flavor appears in an early scene, where high-powered businessmen and government figures at a corporate function are served by lavishly dressed cybernetic geishas, a sequence that evolves into one of the film’s most violent and visually complex, as the cyborgs, hacked by a terrorist, attack the guests.

In the Japanese animated original, the terrorist that Major and Batou were hunting was a hacker known as the Puppet Master, a figure so shadowy that the authorities were unsure if “he” was male or female, or even human. In the live-action version, that mystery is gone. They know they are hunting a man, who is bent on destroying the Hanka Corporation and their cybernetic work.

Of course, one of the things that made GHOST IN THE SHELL so interesting was the philosophical questioning it raised. Not just its cautionary tale about technology, the commentary on growing corporate power and its intertwining with government power, but about gender identity and sexuality, larger philosophical matters, and even life itself. In the live-action film, all those intriguing elements had been eliminated, reduced to a little commentary on technology in the action movie plot, making for a far-less interesting film.

The visual effects and action in the new GHOST IN THE SHELL are well-done, and Johansson, Asbaek and Binoche try to squeeze what drama there is out of the standard action story. But it is not enough to maintain interest and audiences may be forgiven for nodding off, only to be jarred awake by the film’s outbursts of gunfire and mayhem.

The live-action GHOST IN THE SHELL is a disappointment for fans of the anime original. The flashy special effects alone may satisfy some film-goers but the standard action film plot unlikely to garner any new fans.

RATING: 3 out of 5 stars