Ghost in the Shell: Review

• This is a NON-Spoiler review for Ghost in the Shell. By the light of all that is good, if Transformers can get more movies please let this movie get at least one.

• Plot Summary: "In the future, Major (Scarlett Johansson) is the first of her kind: a human who is cyber-enhanced to be a perfect soldier devoted to stopping the world's most dangerous criminals. When terrorism reaches a new level that includes the ability to hack into people's minds and control them, Major is uniquely qualified to stop it. As she prepares to face a new enemy, Major discovers that she has been lied to, and her life was not saved. Instead, it was stolen."

• I know NOTHING of the Ghost in the Shell source material. I had zero attachment to anything about this story. So the casting of Scarlett Johansson didn't bother me at all going in. But after my first experience with this story, I thought this movie was awesome. The first thing you should know is that it's not a very good action movie. Those of you who aren't intrigued by action, I think you'll really like this. Those of you who want a bunch of action and explosions, I think you'll be underwhelmed. I see this more as a thriller/drama than an action movie. And I really really liked it.

• Let me start with my complaints. There were a couple of obvious jump scares. I thought the score was a bit boring and had a very cliche style. The violence felt very PG-13 at times with the camera cutting away from violent scenes. There were some scenes that the trailers ruined. I think the movie was a bit slow at times. The action I think could have been filmed a lot better. The sound effects of the punches and the gun shots were really boring and I didn't feel the hit at all. I saw this in standard so maybe the sound effects will be better in IMAX. There was some weird use of slow motion here and there. And the villain felt cliche, which I don't think was that big of a problem. And that's it.

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• Scarlett Johansson did a fantastic job in this movie. Her character didn't feel like she had to be Asian at least in this movie. It felt completely natural to me. People in Japan actually like the casting of Scarlett Johansson. So as far as I know, most of the controversy is coming from Americans. Scarlett Johansson's casting actually made a predictable plot twist unpredictable which I thought was really cool. Scarlett Johansson was actually really wooden at times in this movie which makes perfect sense. She plays a robotic being perfectly. I found her character to be very intriguing. I cared very much about her story. This movie is like Blade Runner + The Bourne Identity. Her character has a very similar past and motivation to Jason Bourne. And my favorite part of this movie was the world. The world building felt extremely like what I've seen of Blade Runner.

• The universe of Ghost in the Shell is really really cool. I actually don't see how this story could be as interesting in comic book form. It's visually awesome. I loved all the concepts with the line between human and robot is very blurred. The robotic acting on key. Whenever someone is acting like a mindless robot, they NAIL IT. It looked a little bit like they had been taken over by CGI in a good way. Even Scarlett Johansson's fight scenes looked like the perfect blend and human and robot. It has a bunch of very interesting futuristic technology all over the place. Such a cool world that I want more of IMMEDIATELY. This felt like a very elegant and sophisticated sci-fi film. The thing I loved most about the world building in Ghost in the Shell were the scenes that felt like our world. There's a scene on a fishing boat. Things like that are the anchor for this world and make it feel very grounded and relatable.

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• Overall, Ghost in the Shell was a great movie with a great character and a pretty good story and fantastic world with "meh" action. I thought it could have definitely gone farther in The Major's story and ended in a more interesting way. But overall it was pretty dang good. So I am going to ask you do to me a favor and to go see this movie. Please help this movie get more money so we'll get to see more of the world and the story. It really makes me sad that people's opinion on this movie is split. I very highly recommend Ghost in the Shell in IMAX this weekend. My grade for Ghost in the Shell is an A-