GHOST IN THE SHELL [DVD] [2017]

Now I've seen the anime adaptations and there is at least 3 I think different kinds of the story. This one feels fine. I personally liked major from SAC series. IMO her in an accident when younger and growing up with the cybernetics was much better. Than her the first of her kind. I also looked warm on the anime movie the first one. And I've not really seen enough of arise to give it a fair shakedown. That aside let's get into this movie.This movies visuals are amazing. The world they created was just great. And they did such a great job on the dolls and stuff they made. I believe not all of it, is CGI. And you wouldn't really notice it. It doesn't seem cartoony like a lot of CGI's out there. They did such amazing visual effects. I know they really did create some of these visual effects. This makes the movie look extremely amazing. I loved the look of the world. I much prefer this over the fake CGI look of Marvel and stuff. People also have weight to them compared to marvel.Now the story is good fairly simple to follow. Takes some stuff from the source and some they changed. I would have liked to have seen more of section 9. However, given the runtime sadly that probably wasn't possible. The move went quickly to forget how long it is. I feel they did a good job they made their own story with some fun stuff in there. I much preferred this than the original anime movie. It stayed true the consistent theme of Ghost in the shell.I'm glad they didn't just copy the old anime movie. Which I was worried about. Thankfully instead, it did its own thing giving us another original ghost in the shell story. Which am glad for as so many movies just copy what was in the source.

This was great!I had only watched the Stand Alone Complex series previously, which had most of the main characters, and really liked that.This story was very different in a lot of ways, but in the end the team survived.

A safe story that avoids difficult issues from the source material such as a society of augmentation "haves and have nots" and essentially delivers an art-house RoboCop that explores the theme of consent. It's a visually pleasing world with great (amazing) performance from Scarlett Johansson. Her technical performance is fascinating, every body movement appears considered and verges (deliberately) on awkward, like someone who doesn't yet have fine motor control over a powerful battle chassis. This is not your anime Major, this is a rookie operating a tank. Just watching her sit on a chair seems like deliberate task where you're not sure who would win. And this level of performance is why I have come back an re-watched this film several times; for example a scene where she is standing over someone sleeping, but she adopts such a basic mechanical pose, it's a pose an inverse kinematics algorithm would produce.The central theme seems to be dealing with the deliberate loss of humanity and control, what that means. Loosing a limb in an accident can be life changing, loosing your whole body takes it to a new level. Having your body and identity taken without consent is a level of personal invasion that's unimaginable, that's the tragedy of the Major. This is perhaps more interesting an exploration than anything else in the film.Batou is played by Game of Thrones character Euron Greyjoy ... I mean Danish actor Pilou Asbæk, equally great as he punches sets in frustration, torn between company line and personal loyalty. It's never clear which side would win if it came to the ultimate showdown. Wish there was more of him and the Major interacting.There are sections of the film that cross that uncanny valley where you'd be forgiven for thinking you're watching Kung Fury and wish this had a bigger budget. Togusa is perhaps my favourite character of the original stories because he's everyday guy, the most unaugmented of them all and he only got a few minutes of screen-time.Several stand-out moments from the anime are recreated in different contexts. If you haven't seen the source material you'll enjoy the spectacle without the distraction of recognition. Weta Workshop did some outstanding prop work on many of the intricate practical effects such as the robot Geishas and the Majors endoskeleton.Worth it for Johansson's performance alone, everything is either a bonus apart from some of the dialogue. About that, aside from clunky sections of dialog (not what you want from the first few lines in a movie), it's quite basic stuff. This is a mostly visual experience, shot composition, world building and audio make this a good film for re-watching, something I can't say for many action films.

Hmm... being very familiar with the Ghost in the shell canon of work, (3 Manga volumes, The original animated film, the second animated film (innocence), Anime of 52 episodes (Ghost in the shell & Ghost in the shell 2nd gig), 3 animated films based on the series (Laughing man, individual eleven and solid state society), 4 animated films in the Arise series, plus an additional film hanging off the end of the Arise series), I struggled with the plot as it seemed to bounce around the several different parts of the entire canon of work, which caused me some cognitive dissonance as the story did not develop as I expected based on existing works and the way that the title character is referred to a "major" as opposed to "THE major" drives me nuts.That being said, I would have given it 4 stars instead of five because the aforementioned cognitive dissonance, but it is a very good film and therefore I gave it five. If you are unfamiliar with the existing canon, then it is a good film in its own right and you will not be disappointed.If you want to dig deeper into the back story, start here and then progress to the rest of the works. Probably the best order is as follows:Ghost in the shell Arise parts 1,2,3,4 - How the team was originally put together.Ghost in the shell the movie - This is the animated movie hanging off the end of the Arise series.Ghost in the shell original movie - this is what the film is roughly based upon.Ghost in the shell anime season 1 - 26 episodesGhost in the shell 2: Innocence - This animated film sits nicely in the middle of the 2 animated seasons.Ghost in the shall Manga - 3 volumesGhost in the shell anime season 2 - 26 episodesAll in all, a good film that can stand alone separately from the rest of the work, but just scratches the surface on a collection of work that is probably one of the best anime series ever made, and therefore best approached with an open mind if you are already a fan of GITS.