Ghost
in the Shell ** / *****
Directed
by: Rupert
Sanders.
Written
by: Jamie
Moss and William Wheeler based on the comic by Masamune Shirow.
Starring:
Scarlett
Johansson (Major), Pilou Asbæk (Batou), Takeshi Kitano (Aramaki), Juliette
Binoche (Dr. Ouelet), Michael Pitt (Kuze), Chin Han (Han), Danusia Samal (Ladriya),
Lasarus Ratuere (Ishikawa), Yutaka Izumihara (Saito), Tawanda Manyimo (Borma), Peter
Ferdinando (Cutter), Anamaria Marinca (Dr. Dahlin).
The trailers for this live action
remake of Ghost in the Shell were brilliant – colorful and full of eye-popping
imagery, it suggested a movie that would be visually stunning from beginning to
end, and the trailer had just enough dialogue to hint at something deeper than
typical sci-fi action movies. Now, having seen the movie, I still feel like
I’ve only seen a trailer for an interesting movie. This is a film that is all surface
flash, with nothing underneath. That isn’t always a bad thing, but it is here,
because even that surface flash becomes monotonous throughout the film’s
runtime.
The movie is based on the 1995
film anime film (itself based on a manga) of the same name, which was one of
the films that helped to bring anime to North America in larger numbers (as my
anime loving wife likes to say, when she started collecting, you had to work to
find anything – now it’s everywhere, so even if it remains a cult item, it’s
much larger now than it used to be). The story takes place in a futuristic
Japan, where almost every human as cyber enhancements – to help you see or hear
better, make you stronger, etc. The Major (Scarlett Johansson) is different –
she is essentially a human brain, input into a robot body. She is the first of
her kind, apparently getting the best of both the human and robot worlds.
Apparently, the thing to do with this one of a kind specimen, is to assign her
to some sort of anti-terrorism task force – where she is best at what she does.
But lately, she’s getting flickers in her mind – flickers of her past human
life, flickers that perhaps her superiors are lying to her. As her and her tram
search for the terrorist Kuze (Michael Pitt) – and she starts communicating
with him – she starts to see things in a different light. Perhaps she shouldn’t
fully trust the giant, multinational corporation that built her.
I was disappointed when I
recently re-watched the 1995 anime film for the first time in a long time
recently. That is a film full of ideas, but man, does it drag. The film stops,
often for minutes on end, to have long, drawn out conversation about
technology, humanity, etc. – often delivered in monologue. There is good stuff
in that film to be sure, but I wouldn’t call is the anime masterpiece most seem
to. I have a feeling that the filmmakers behind this live action remake agree
with me somewhat – because the film doesn’t take as much time to slow down and
explain itself. The problem now is that everything moves too quickly – the film
never slows down long enough for anything to truly sink in, to truly have an
impact.
As the major, Scarlett Johansson
is seemingly the perfect choice (except for the fact that she isn’t Japanese) –
as her role here easily fits into the work she’s been doing in recently years
in film like Her, Under the Skin and Lucy – characters who are more than human,
but struggle with that question of humanity. Unfortunately, this time, the film
basically asks her to be robotic for much of the performance – it’s interesting
to see Johansson physically in the role – the way she moves, especially her
walk, is different in an interesting way. But she plays the role too blankly
for it to have an impact. The other key role is played by Michael Pitt – but
he’s clearly bored by it. Perhaps Pitt doesn’t show up in movies more often not
because he isn’t talented – he is, extremely so – but because he has no ability
to hide his boredom with inferior material, which this clearly is. In key supporting
roles, Juliette Binoche does her best to add some humanity to her role as the
Major’s creator, and Takeshi Kitano is his badass self as her boss – although
his performance just reminded me of how long it’s been since he made a truly
good movie.
The film is directed by Rupert
Sanders, who to his credit, does give you some eye-popping moments throughout.
He’s better at the smaller stuff – strange characters, like the robot geisha,
or setting rather than the larger CGI laden cityscapes, which is basically just
CGI soup, and looks like every other cityscape created with CGI. As a
storyteller, he just isn’t very good – he’s too obsessed to get to the next set
piece, to spend time with what anything on screen actually means.
The film also is more than a little
unsettling in terms of its racial politics. The film has been controversial
since they cast Johansson, since she isn’t Japanese, and that criticism has
never really gone away. I think something interesting could have been done with
the movie, even with Johansson in the role, but the film chooses to completely
ignore her race – which makes scenes with her biological mother leave a bad
taste in your mouth. I don’t necessarily think a Japanese actress had to be
cast in this role – but I do think that if you don’t, the movie has to
something to justify that decision.
In short, Ghost in the Shell is
an occasionally visually stunning bore. There are moments that work, but not
many. I appreciate the effort the filmmakers too to try and make the film look
different from other blockbusters – but it didn’t really add up to very much in
the end.
