I’ve been hearing rumblings of a Ghost in the Shell live action movie for what seems like years. And all of a sudden a very short teaser emerges, followed by an official Ghost in the Shell movie trailer last week.
Ghost in the Shell has long been one of my favorite anime series. Though I wasn’t that big a fan of the original movie, the Stand Alone Complex (SAC) adaptation remains one of my favorite series. My only trepidation is whether a Ghost in the Shell story can fit within the confines of a 1.5-2 hour movie comfortably. To this day, I still don’t entirely grasp the depth of what was going on in Solid State Society (SSS), mostly because it felt like they were trying to cram half a season’s worth of episodes into roughly 2 hours.
Things look good from what I’ve seen, as it looks like the movie will be drawing some elements from Stand Alone Complex and the original movie. The scene with the rogue geisha robots is a bit reminiscent of the opening scene to the first episode of Stand Alone Complex, and Hideo Kuze, from season 2 of SAC, appears slated to be the main antagonist. Of course, we still don’t have very many other details yet, aside from there will be cyborgs, government conspiracies, hacking, and gun fighting, so we should move on to the superficial stuff.
Versions of Motoko from left to right: Original Movie, Stand Alone Complex Series, Arise Series, Scarlet Johansen
Scarlet Johansen looks the part for the Major, otherwise known as Motoko Kusanagi, though it’s unclear whether she’s actually going to be referred to by that name. I’m not really a big fan of the clear white skin suit she’s going to combat with. It looks … weird.
Batou, mmm. I dunno. I always preferred the Steven Segal-ish look from Stand Alone Complex, but it’s close enough to other adaptations of him, and he looks as recklessly violent as he’s ever been.
Aramaki is probably the most off looking of the bunch. He looks more like a Yakuza crime lord rather than the leader of Section 9.
And finally we have Hideo Kuze. We don’t get a good look at him but it’s pretty clear he’s fully cyberized. Kuze was actually a pretty deep and interesting character through Stand Alone Complex, and I’m hopeful they don’t relegate him to generic “petty anarchistic terrorist who just wants to see the world burn”.
And finally we have some direct parallels to some scenes from the original movie:
Lifted straight from the original movie, the opening drop scene.
This is a rather memorable scene from the original movie with an invisible Motoko stalking a cyborg fugitive that seems to be recreated pretty faithfully.
Not as direct a parallel but pretty similar scene to the opening episode of Stand Alone Complex.
I’m looking forward to it … cautiously.
How did I miss this? Great take.
I clearly knew the movie was coming and was a little excited about it, but seeing the trailer for the first time for the Super Bowl was a shocker to me. And it was more than that initial, and well-played hit of, “Whoa, nudity!”
While the film-makers have clearly gone to great lengths to match the look-and-feel of the original animated works, some compromises would have to be made. The casting of Scarlett Johansen has overshadowed the project, I feel, and that’s a pity. I understand the whitewashing concerns, but they’re probably out of place here–unlike with the recent atrocity: The Great Wall.
My final take: the script writer is a Thomas Jefferson High School grad, which is something that is comforting, even if his previous work is largely uninspired. The music is by Clint Mansell. The art style is on-point. I’m confident in expecting a very pretty but ultimately unfulfilling story with amazing music throughout.
In short, I expect it to be very similar to the original animated movie.