'Ghost in the Shell' eliminates deep think in favor of deep action
'Ghost' stars Scarlett Johansson as Major, who is tasked with eliminating cyber terrorists. The movie's depiction of a futuristic world is easily its most impressive aspect, but saying this is a bit like praising a restaurant for its d茅cor.
'Ghost' stars Scarlett Johansson as Major, who is tasked with eliminating cyber terrorists. The movie's depiction of a futuristic world is easily its most impressive aspect, but saying this is a bit like praising a restaurant for its d茅cor.
When it was first announced two years ago that Scarlett Johansson had been cast as the killer cyborg in the live-action remake of Mamoru Oshii鈥檚 1995 Japanimation classic 鈥淕host in the Shell,鈥� the choice was loudly condemned by those who felt the role should have gone to an Asian actress. Now that we have the redo, directed by Rupert Sanders, it鈥檚 clear that her casting is the least of the movie鈥檚 problems.
As classic dystopian visions go, the Japanese "Ghost in the Shell" film is on a short list that includes 鈥淢etropolis,鈥� 鈥淏lade Runner,鈥� and 鈥淭he Matrix.鈥� Sanders鈥檚 version dispenses with most of the humans versus bots philosophical speculations that characterized its precursor and instead rapidly morphs into a CGI-heavy pulp-action splatterfest about Major (Johansson), who has a human brain and bot body and is tasked by Section 9 security with eliminating cyber terrorists from a world that looks like a super-steroidal, futuristic mashup of Hong Kong and Tokyo. The depiction of this world, at least in visual terms, is easily the movie鈥檚 most impressive aspect. But saying this is a bit like praising a restaurant for its d茅cor.
It鈥檚 unfortunate, if predictable, that Hollywood found it necessary to almost entirely eliminate deep think in favor of deep action. As for Johansson, I have no big problem with cross-racial casting, but she鈥檚 so glum and seemingly uncomfortable here that you wonder if maybe she didn鈥檛 harbor the same misgivings as her detractors. Grade: C (Rated PG-13 for intense sequences of sci-fi violence, suggestive content, and some disturbing images.) 聽