Ghost in the Shell (2017)

[Henke]

I watched the new Ghost In The Shell and I liked it GOD DAMMIT

 

I've seen the '95 anime probably 20 times. It was a big inspiration on a young Henke who wanted to grow up to be an action movie director. It of course influenced lots of people, including the Wachowskis who cited it as a big influence for The Matrix. But beyond it's fantastic action scenes, it wasn't a perfect movie or anything. The plot was often slow and parts of it felt like you had to have read the manga to keep up, also the ending was pretty limp. While the new movie is so generic it likely won't influence any future generations of filmmakers, it does at least improve on the pacing and storytelling of the original. ScarJo does a great job and I felt much more connected to the Major's story here. The actionscenes? So-so. Visuals? Great. Overall it's a solid sci-fi action movie. 

[clyde]

On 4/5/2017 at 8:09 AM, Henke said:

I watched the new Ghost In The Shell and I liked it GOD DAMMIT

 

I've seen the '95 anime probably 20 times. It was a big inspiration on a young Henke who wanted to grow up to be an action movie director. It of course influenced lots of people, including the Wachowskis who cited it as a big influence for The Matrix. But beyond it's fantastic action scenes, it wasn't a perfect movie or anything. The plot was often slow and parts of it felt like you had to have read the manga to keep up, also the ending was pretty limp. While the new movie is so generic it likely won't influence any future generations of filmmakers, it does at least improve on the pacing and storytelling of the original. ScarJo does a great job and I felt much more connected to the Major's story here. The actionscenes? So-so. Visuals? Great. Overall it's a solid sci-fi action movie. 

 

I thought it was great. I think it is horrible that they didn't look for an asian actress, but I thought it turned out really well otherwise. The comparison I keep thinking of is The Crow for some reason. 

I rewatched the anime and it was much less interesting than this movie imo. I thought the intrigue was well done and the cybernetic themes were explored in interesting ways.

[Nappi]

On 5.4.2017 at 3:09 PM, Henke said:

I watched the new Ghost In The Shell and I liked it GOD DAMMIT

 

I've seen the '95 anime probably 20 times. It was a big inspiration on a young Henke who wanted to grow up to be an action movie director. It of course influenced lots of people, including the Wachowskis who cited it as a big influence for The Matrix. But beyond it's fantastic action scenes, it wasn't a perfect movie or anything. The plot was often slow and parts of it felt like you had to have read the manga to keep up, also the ending was pretty limp. While the new movie is so generic it likely won't influence any future generations of filmmakers, it does at least improve on the pacing and storytelling of the original. ScarJo does a great job and I felt much more connected to the Major's story here. The actionscenes? So-so. Visuals? Great. Overall it's a solid sci-fi action movie. 

 

12 hours ago, clyde said:

 

I thought it was great. I think it is horrible that they didn't look for an asian actress, but I thought it turned out really well otherwise. The comparison I keep thinking of is The Crow for some reason. 

I rewatched the anime and it was much less interesting than this movie imo. I thought the intrigue was well done and the cybernetic themes were explored in interesting ways.

 

Interesting!

 

I have seen the original a couple of times, and I like it a lot. I decided to watch the new movie, mainly because I wanted to know how this kind of thing translates into a western action movie. I went to the theater with lowered expectations, but unfortunately was still quite disappointed. I think Scarlett Johansson did a good job, but the fact almost all main characters were non-Asian while many minor characters Asian was indeed really uncomfortable. The visuals were nice for the most parts, although I didn't much care for the voxel style in the holograms. I preferred The Puppet Master of the 1995 movie to Hideo Kuze. I disliked how they felt the need to spell out every plot point and its implications. I absolutely hated how the movie was filled with unnecessary action sequences, and how they fucked up some of the ones from the original. The spider tank fight of the original was absolutely beautiful in my opinion, with minimalistic environment, calculated and efficient action suitable to Major's character, and enemy that was really elegant in its stationary and intimidating form. The new movie did away with all of that, and replaced it with a totally forgettable standard Hollywood action scene in a super on-the-nose lame-ass setting. I really did want to like this movie, but that was the last straw for me, unfortunately.

 

 

[clyde]

9 hours ago, Nappi said:

 

 

Interesting!

 

I have seen the original a couple of times, and I like it a lot. I decided to watch the new movie, mainly because I wanted to know how this kind of thing translates into a western action movie. I went to the theater with lowered expectations, but unfortunately was still quite disappointed. I think Scarlett Johansson did a good job, but the fact almost all main characters were non-Asian while many minor characters Asian was indeed really uncomfortable. The visuals were nice for the most parts, although I didn't much care for the voxel style in the holograms. I preferred The Puppet Master of the 1995 movie to Hideo Kuze. I disliked how they felt the need to spell out every plot point and its implications. I absolutely hated how the movie was filled with unnecessary action sequences, and how they fucked up some of the ones from the original. The spider tank fight of the original was absolutely beautiful in my opinion, with minimalistic environment, calculated and efficient action suitable to Major's character, and enemy that was really elegant in its stationary and intimidating form. The new movie did away with all of that, and replaced it with a totally forgettable standard Hollywood action scene in a super on-the-nose lame-ass setting. I really did want to like this movie, but that was the last straw for me, unfortunately.

 

 

 

I feel like the Puppet Master from the original is only interesting in concept, not in expression. They seem to have moved the intrigue to Major in the new movie and I think she ends up being a much more interesting character than any character in the original largely because she and other characters give the state of her existence some thought.

Plus every line of dialogue from the first movie is just exposition. In this one there is frequent subtleties in how characters think about their circumstances and how they think about their relationships with others. This might just be harder to convey in animation.

 

Your comments about the action-sequences are interesting.