2017 Movie Review - In "Ghost In The Shell", This Isn't The Droid's Story You'
SYNOPSIS:
In the near future, Major is the first of her kind: A human saved from a terrible crash, who is cyber-enhanced to be a perfect soldier devoted to stopping the world's most dangerous criminals.
Please note that the following review may contain some spoilers:
FIRST ACT (THE HOOK):
Right off the bet, I felt like watching the opening "synthetic-body-part-creation" montage of last year's Westworld TV show. Visual effects, then plays a significant part in introducing us to the rendition of neo-noir modern city in the wake of the classic Blade Runner's dystopian world.
As we learned how badass Scarlett Johansson's Major in the next subsequent scenes, I noticed how the action sequences offer glimpses of Matrix, Underworld or even Milla Jovovich's poor sci-fi flick, Ultraviolet. Once we learned the villain of the story, I found the plot progresses rather slowly from her going to the briefing room, hooking her brain to corrupted geisha, and ending in the nightclub. Other than visual achievements, I am questioning how the writers are not able to squeeze all these notable scenes to bring us to the most interesting element of the story: her origin.
Johansson's acting as an eerie android implanted with human brain does elevate the source material but other than Pilou Asbaek's Batou, none of the casts are unfortunately equipped with a well-developed script. I learned neither the history nor personality of the other member of Section 9. I also found it quite odd that Takeshi Kitano's Aramaki is the only character that speaks Japanese yet understood by everyone.
SECOND ACT (THE GLITCH / IDENTITY):
Ghost in The Shell raises up a philosophical question of how our past doesn't define us but spends the majority of second act figuring out how Major has been obsessed with how she became what she is. There's also a brief mention of her curiosity to be able to feel like a human but I eventually felt that the director chooses to brush away and ignore the intriguing identity topic.
Once our hero learns the true nature of her origin, the movie beats us with another plot of blurred lines between foe or villain. An oversimplification of its answers, however, made me feel like all the times I spent watching could have been better invested elsewhere. There was simply no new take on a much-used repetitive story of evil faceless corporation led by a moustache-twirling villain who wants to prey on innocent lives.
THIRD ACT (THE ENDING):
A good final act of the movie teases a final showdown between the main hero and the antagonist of the story. While Ghost in The Shell conjures up a CGI-saturated spectacle fight, I felt that it is a poor wrap-up sequences. An after-thought villain suddenly shows up to challenge our main character while the main-villain is in another location monitoring them. It's certainly one of my hectic eyebrow raising moments combined with utter disbelief after one other character simply shows up to kill the real villain.
THE VERDICT (NO SPOILER):
Having never watched / read the original source materials, I felt regret watching Ghost in The Shell as the filmmaker felt less innovative in recreating a far-more superior sci-fi android movie (i.e. Blade Runner, Ex Machina, etc). Slow overdrawn plot, choppy ending and the neglect of answering an interesting human / android concept brought this film down couple notches. The only saving grace that left me still sitting inside the theatre - Scarlett Johansson's "soulless yet invigorating" performance (which reminds me of her underrated indie flick - Under The Skin) and the visual effect details of its world building.
