Ghost In The Shell 2017 Film Review

When people think of iconic anime films they usually think of anything by Studio Ghibli which is fair enough as they do produce alot of really good films. Yet there is one film that whilst it's not that well known to the main stream audience as is actually quite iconic in it's right that being Ghost In The Shell a film that was so good and so influential when it first came out that it really helped to inspire The Matrix and well not alot of people remember that that film earned itself a live action Hollywood remake and those don't really have the best track record and so then join me as I review the film that is almost as bad as Dragonball Evolution with the film in in question being called simply "Ghost In The Shell" enjoy.

The plot of this film is when a cyberterrorist hacks into robots and have them killing several key people it's up to the organization known as Section 9 to find out who it is and stop them once and for all. Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual plot that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual plot that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film was in all honesty not that bad with this films plot being the least offensive thing about the film it self as this is a plot that was straight up copied from the 1995 film with nothing all that new added to it in the first place therefor of course the films plot will be good as it's copying something that was done in  much more better movie with this films plot doing nothing all that new that fully justifies this film being made in the first place as the original film is a cult favorite and heck the original film did this plot better as that plot actually took the time that it needed to fully establish things instead of just throwing you in at the deep end wh8ch is something that this films plot does do outside of a brief opening text at the start of the film as nothing that's important to this films plot gets explained at the very least when it comes to the robotics aspect of the film as this film is alot more focused on giving us watered down versions of truly iconic scenes from the original film however this film fails to understand what it was that made those scenes so iconic in the first place as while yes granted this films plot is more then strong enough to support an entire movie it's lacking the heart and soul that made the original film work as well as did with the plot feeling heartless and soulless with the plot of this film not even being really rather entertaining and nor is it really rather engaging either in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.

Starring in this film is Scarlett Johansson as Major Motoko Kusanagi / Mira Killian and "Beat" Takeshi Kitano as Chief Daisuke Aramaki. Also starring in this film is Michael Pitt as Hideo Kuze / Puppet Master , Pilou Asbæk as Batou , Chin Han as Togusa , Lasarus Ratuere as Carlos Ishikawa , Juliette Binoche as Dr. Ouelet , Peter Ferdinando as Cutter , Kaori Momoi as Hairi , Anamaria Marinca as Dr. Dahlin , Yutaka Izumihara as Saito and Tawanda Manyimo as Borma.

Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film was in all honesty not that bad. As at best this films acting is nothing more the OK at best with all of the films actors being either horribly miscast or just straight up bad with the likes of Scarlett Johansson for example even tho she's a really good actor in her right isn't right for the role of Major Motoko Kusanagi and not just for the obvious reason either rather it's because of the fact that she just doesn't scream hardened bada*s this is despite the fact that she's more then capable during the films action and dramatic scenes with Pilou Asbæk again being miscast as Batou is meant to be this loner type of character and yet you take one look at him and you don't get that impression from him in this film again this is not a knock on Pilou Asbæk as an actor as he is a really good actor he's just not right for this character and with Michael Pitt he was just wooden in this film with him giving us no emotion at all in alot of his scenes with the film not even having a best actor as there's really no one that stood out and managed to make this films lack of a script work for them with it being made clear as day that this films director Rupert Sanders cared more about the visuals and the action then he did about quite literally anything else in the film with the acting that's in this film not really being helped by the fact that this films script is just so bad as it gives none of this films actors absolutely nothing to work with interms of what it is that there actual characters personalities are even meant to be in the first place which is something that really does help to hurt the overall quality of the acting that's in this very film.

Doing the CGI for this film is Moving Picture Company , Method Studios , Territory Studio , Technicolor Creative Services VFX , Blacksmith Pictures , Framestore , Lola Visual Effects , Day For Nite , AB VFX Studios and Mist VFX Studio. Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual CGI that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual CGI that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film was in all honesty not that bad with the makers of this film putting alot more effort into both this films CGI and action then anything else in the film as everything else about the film from the writing to the acting is just flat out bad whereas with the films CGI you can tell that the makers of this film did have alot of with the world that they were creating with them quite clearly having a love of Blade Runner and yet at the same time it oddly feels like that there's to much going on in the cities streets as the CGI doesn't stop moving even when you want it to just to allow a scene to happen in piece and it doesn't stop there either as the film does make allot of use of having a CGI camera just to do shots that couldn't be done for real which is fine at first as it gets you into the mood for the film but it keeps doing the exact same camera move which just makes the makers of this film seem lazy and makes the whole film feel more like a cartoon then a live action movie and while this films effects are indeed very pretty to look at due to the fact that this film came out eight years ago alot of them have started to show there age and yet if you look at the original animated film it looks timeless and while you couldn't do a film like this fully practical it would have been nice to see more practical effects in a film like this as it would make the world of this film feel alot more real and lived in.

This is something that really doesn't need to be said but out of the two films it's the original film that is the better of the two films. As that film got all of the characters from the manga down right whilst still telling the exact same story of this film and yet this film despite having all of the hard work already done for it butchered everything that made the original just that original with the makers of this film putting in quite alot of references to the first film but without understanding what it was that made them great in the first place and heck the film even recreated the original films truly iconic opening only without the haunting music that helped to make that scene so memorable in the first place with it being made clear as day that Hollywood has no interest in creating actually good live action anime films as while yes we did get the live action One Piece from Netflix that's a series and not a film as the makers of these live action films strip away everything that people loved about the original and make them as generic as they could have been when this is film that could have been really creative as the set up for the film alone demands that it be a really creative film but for one reason or another they don't do it and while granted this film does feature the film iconic opening theme song at the end of the film by that point it's far to little to late as the films opening is the only time that this live action Ghost In The Shell movie actually feels like Ghost In The Shell as alot of the time it felt like a badly done Die Hard movie as that's how far fetched that this movie gets alot of time with this being because of the fact that no one involved with the making of these live action anime films are quite really not fans of the original source material because if they were we wouldn't have ended up with trash like this film and like Dragonball Evolution.

Another one of the things that helped to make the original film as good as it was was the fact that all of the Section 9 characters stood out from a design point of view. As you could very easily tell which character was which in that film whereas here in this film outside of The Major , Batou and Aramaki none of the other Section 9 characters stand out with them all looking the exact same as each other which is something that does make it hard to point out just which character is meant to be doing what in any given moment with this being something that could have been fixed very easily either by giving the characters a more distinct look to them be it an afro hair style or clothes that make them standout or have them all played by well known Asian actors that are also fairly well known in America just something to help make it easier for us the audience to identify who is who as you don't don't have to cast a well known white American actor to play these characters you could have an Asian American play them and it still work out as long as they were fairly well known and yet by not doing that or any of those fixes there making sure that all of the films side characters fade away into the background as it is impossible to name just ONE thing that any of these side characters do in this film as that's how bland and forgettable that they are in this film with none of this being helped by the fact that the film isn't lit all that well with it being painfully hard to tell just what's going on alot of the time whereas if the film had more lighting and wasn't as focused on being as realistic as possible which is something that does seem to be the end goal in this film then it would have made the film at least more visually interesting to look at as this is a franchise where your not bound by realism with this being something that the makers of this film would have understood if they were actual fans of the franchise.

The films does get some credit not only for trying to make Kuze scary but also by giving him a backstory that does directly tie into the backstory of The Major herself. As this was something that was generally quite interesting and it was something that you could see working in the original anime film but for one reason or another the makers of this film don't go as far into detail with Kuze's backstory as they really should have done as whilst it could be argued that the less we know about him the more scarier that he becomes that is an argument that won't really work in this case as he's not meant to be the films main villain merely a red herring of sorts and therefor the makers of this film could have reveled more of his backstory whilst also keeping him both threatening and mysterious and also making sure that we know that Cutter is this films real villain however what does let down this version of Kuze is the fact that he doesn't have an end goal in mind with him causing all of this pain and destruction seemingly for no reason whatsoever which is something that does make him less interesting of a villain as all it does is make it look like that he's this evil person just for the sake of being evil whereas if he did have an end goal in mind then we could have seen him take the steps needed to reach that goal but as the makers of this film are alot more focused in recreating moments from the original film instead of giving us a well thought out character it does mean that Kuze just isn't that interesting of a character with the same thing even being true for Cutter who just wants Kuze dead which fair enough is a decent villain plan but it's also just so generic and boring that it could be the plan to any villain in any film and isn't something that only his character could come up with.

Now then this film has / had an exact grand total running time of exactly one hour and forty six minuets and fifty six seconds. Which t be fair to this film is a fairly solid running time for this film to have as this film does have more then enough plot there to really cover that amount of running time in the first place and yet even with this long running time the film still doesn't take the time that it really did have to develop it's plot this is despite the fact that the film is almost twice as long as the original film and yet it's the original film that takes it time in developing it's plot and yet this film despite having all of it's hard work already done for it and yet this films plot oddly feels alot less developed then what it really should have done with it being made clear to us that the makers of this film don't really care in giving us a well developed something that is made clear by the fact that the film has THREE credited writers and out of those three only two of them actually wrote the script with the film not even taking the time to fully develop alot of it's characters as really the only two characters that get any sort of character development in this film are Kuze and The Major and that's it and even then The Major's character development only comes in the form of us finding out she was once a Japanese woman before having her brain inserted into the body of Scarlett Johansson and with Kuze it's because of the fact that he was apart of the program that gave The Major her new body and that's really it with the rest of the films characters getting nothing interms of character development as we know just as much about them at the end of the film then we did coming into the film but I really will admit that this film really does have some really good pacing to it tho.

 

So now then as this is an action film that really does mean that I have to actually talk about the actual action that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual action that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film was in all honesty really good. As was mentioned it's clear as say that one of the things that the makers of this film out alot of effort into when it comes to this film was it's action with this being something that is made obvious right from the first action where we get to see just how fun that this film could be with us being able to see where the film was inspired by The Matrix as we get to see The Major running on walls alot of the time during the films opening action scene while this films action is really good there was one action scene that the film butchered that being the third act as they used alot of CGI in that action which was distracting with the film not really having an action scene that stands out as all of this films action scenes having something about them that holds them back from being as good as they could have been like with the films opening action which is a shootout between The Major and some random guards which on paper should be fun and to the films credit it is made to be as fun as it was ever going to be but the editing in that scene is so bad that it makes hard to tell what's going on alot of the time with the rest of the films action scenes being good but not great as alot of them are just poorly done versions of action scenes from the original film when it would have made the film all the more better if we could not only tell what was going on in the action but also if they had some original action as well as then it would have given the chance to see how good that this film could be when it's relying on the original film in my freaking opinions anyways / at least. 

Overall whilst this film is easily better then Dragonball Evolution this is still a really bad film as it doesn't get what made the original film so good in the first place as it trades in everything that made it what was which just leaves us with a film that's bland and generic in my freaking opinions anyways / at least. Now then i've talked about all of the good and as well as all of the bad things that are in this very film in this very review and as such that really does mean that this very film really does earn itself a grand old score of exactly a 5 out of 10 from me.

Now then as for where I personally got all of the images that I personally used in this very review well then boys and girls and as well as ladies and gentlemen I personally got all of the images that I personally used in this very review from IMP Awards . Com and Google Images. With my personally preferred website to use to get images really from this very film being the really great Google Images this is really because of the fact that really all of the images that I really indeed got and really used from Google Images are all really high quality really with all of the images that really are all and of course really currently up and on the really great and the really solid Google Images really are all being really fairly high in quality and as well as them all really being fairly high in definition.