So that Ghost in the Shell movie..

[Nero]

http://blogs.indiewire.com/theplaylist/first-look-scarlett-johansson-in-anime-adaptation-ghost-in-the-shell-20160414

 

Fellow weebs, join me now in this pre-emptive mercy killing.

 

This is going to outdo The Last Airbender.

 

The film, which is based on the famous Kodansha Comics manga series of the same name, written and illustrated by Masamune Shirow, is produced by Avi Arad (“THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN 1 & 2,” “IRON MAN”), Ari Arad (“GHOST RIDER: SPIRIT OF VENGEANCE”), and Steven Paul (“GHOST RIDER: SPIRIT OF VENGEANCE”). Michael Costigan (“PROMETHEUS”), Tetsu Fujimura (“TEKKEN”)....

 

Look at that legendary resume.

[Arrelaine]

...at least Iron Man was pretty ok?

[Askier]

Oh dear god no.

 

Just kill it. Kill it with fire. Now.

[Unnamed Mercenary]

A friend who doesn't play FFXIV or RP put it best. "It feels really white-washed. Why would an Asian woman pick a white-girl's body?"

 

I mostly agreed. While Scarlet Johannson is quite pretty, I just don't think she fits the role of what I would be looking for in a GitS movie. Nothing about says "mass-produced generic female" either, which is what GitS Stand Alone Complex would leads us to believe.

 

So....I've got low expectations. It can't possibly be as bad as say, the Dragon Ball movies, but I'm also not expecting it to raise the bar of anime -> live action movies made in the US.

[Dat Oni]

Nope. Not even gonna bother. Nope.

[Vali]

GOD.

DAMN.

IT.

[Unnamed Mercenary]

I'll still be tempted to watch it.

 

Perhaps it won't be good, but it will probably be ~pretty~. Special effects and stuff. If the writing isn't horrendous, it will probably break even and be forgotten. (but who knows. Maybe it'll be good and exceed expectations. I don't think the bar is very high...)

[Edda]

So this can't possibly turn out worse than The Last Airbender. Probably.

 

Has there ever actually been a good live action anime adaptation? Because I can't think of any. I'm sure most people know well enough to not get their expectations up. At the very least the action and special effects will be quite good. It will probably be mostly action... none of that... talking stuff they do in GitS. About politics and the military and the net and those other complicated things. It would simply be too much.

[Unnamed Mercenary]

So this can't possibly turn out worse than The Last Airbender. Probably.

 

Has there ever actually been a good live action anime adaptation? Because I can't think of any. I'm sure most people know well enough to not get their expectations up. At the very least the action and special effects will be quite good. It will probably be mostly action... none of that... talking thing they do in GitS. About politics and the military and the net and those other complicated things. It would simply be too much.

 

Japan had a few. I think. The ones I can recall were all slice of life or romance though. Action-y anime is....difficult.

 

America? None that I can recall or would want to remember. I only saw Last Airbender in theaters because it was at a dollar theater. ...$4 for "3D," which was already feeling quite expensive for the product.

[111]

So this can't possibly turn out worse than The Last Airbender. Probably.

 

Has there ever actually been a good live action anime adaptation? Because I can't think of any. I'm sure most people know well enough to not get their expectations up. At the very least the action and special effects will be quite good. It will probably be mostly action... none of that... talking stuff they do in GitS. About politics and the military and the net and those other complicated things. It would simply be too much.

 

The movie for Space Battleship Yamato was actually pretty cool.

 

 

 

Pew pew pew pew pew! It didn't follow the story, but it was a fun ride.

[111]

Oh, and I think the Great Teacher Onizuka and The Gokusen shows were better than the animated versions. 

 

 

 

 

Mostly because of cute actors don't judge me.

[Arrelaine]

A friend who doesn't play FFXIV or RP put it best. "It feels really white-washed. Why would an Asian woman pick a white-girl's body?"

 

I mostly agreed. While Scarlet Johannson is quite pretty, I just don't think she fits the role of what I would be looking for in a GitS movie. Nothing about says "mass-produced generic female" either, which is what GitS Stand Alone Complex would leads us to believe.

 

So....I've got low expectations. It can't possibly be as bad as say, the Dragon Ball movies, but I'm also not expecting it to raise the bar of anime -> live action movies made in the US.

Well as far as 'choosing', the original Ghost in the Shell story showed that Matoko's body is a mass-produced version, so it being 'Asian' would depend on the country it's being portrayed in. It also depends on if Scarlet is going to even be playing Matoko/Major. I expect them to change plot elements to make it appeal more to your traditional American audience, for instance, it won't be set in Japan, etc.

 

I feel like Ghost in the Shell is one of those types of anime that you can change the setting as far as culture and country goes (unlike anime such as Airbender). Something like that would be going on all over the world with cyborgs fighting crime and whatnot.

 

But for now all we really know is that Scarlet is going to be in it, and like other anime to live action adaptations it'll probably still suck.

[Edda]

Okay I'm sorry friends I should have said AMERICAN anime adaptations.

 

Japan handles them well enough. Even the video game ones. The Phoenix Wright live action film was perfect.

[Yssen]

So this can't possibly turn out worse than The Last Airbender. Probably.

 

Has there ever actually been a good live action anime adaptation? Because I can't think of any. I'm sure most people know well enough to not get their expectations up. At the very least the action and special effects will be quite good. It will probably be mostly action... none of that... talking stuff they do in GitS. About politics and the military and the net and those other complicated things. It would simply be too much.

 

Speed Racer. Campy, over the top, comical in many places, and with many flashy action/driving sequences. People say that it did not do the source material justice, I think they just hadn't watched the source material in a while and viewed it through rose colored glasses. When you compare Speed Racer source with Speed Racer movie it is a great adaptation and near love letter to the original. This does not necessarily make it a good movie, just a good adaptation.

 

Also. Japanese live action Attack on Titan. All Asian cast, despite the fact that this is not the case in the source material. Completely ruins one huge aspect of a main character. Japanese are not with out sin as far as live action adaptations go.

 

That said, unless this movie is set in the American Empire, I see zero narrative reason why The Major would look like ScarJo. Though to be fair, with all the transhuman themes in GiTS in the first place I dunno why she would not just look like whatever. She's been a man, an 8 year old girl, a blonde, and several other things.

[Heidrek]

GitS is my favorite animu ever.

 

Not gonna watch it.

 

Not even mad.

[Caspar]

The attitude evident in GitS would make any adaptation by Hollywood darkly amusing and wrongminded.

 

The usual beef about the whitewashed casting and the weakness of hollywood adaptations I won't go into, as it's pretty evident. Even the timing is wrong. GitS is in a slump and ARISE seems to have failed to recapture the earlier adaptations' audiences, neither the film nor SAC. I just wonder if the series is still so in demand, even among the slower fanbases outside of Japan in the west. Nostalgics already expect the worst and newer fans haven't read the manga or seen the anime; who is this for? 

 

Also, I never saw it myself and it's technically a light novel, but supposedly Edge of Tomorrow was a decent All You Need is Kill adaptation, and the creator liked it. 

 

Other than that all I can think of is Black Swan if you believe the perhaps credible theory it was basically just a ripoff of Perfect Blue. "Adaptation," in a sense...

[Mae]

Arad's involvement in this doesn't really worry me -that- much. Looking at his projects and scraping out and discarding all the sequels that were the result of the studios saying "Huh, people liked this. Produce more movies so we can keep the rights!", this is the guy who produced Blade, X-Men, Spider-Man, The Punisher, Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, and The Amazing Spider-Man; all of these did fairly well with the general movie-going public. Sure, he had a few turds -- Daredevil (which I personally don't think was -that- bad) Hulk, Fantastic Four (which is now a bright shiny gem when you compare it to the reboot), and Ghost Rider -- but the comic book movies are difficult to do anyways. He was also involved with several of the classic 90's Marvel cartoons. Which, regardless of what you might think now, if you saw these as a kid you can't deny that you loved them. They're like Power Rangers or Pokemon; you made fun of them in the light, but watched them religiously when no-one was around to catch you.

 

That being said, though... Ghost in the Shell is not Marvel. But I'll still trust this guy more than I'd trust M. Night Shyamalyan to do it.

 

I don't know about others here, but my initial experience with the original Ghost in the Shell movie was me walking away thinking "... What the HELL did I just waste my time on?", only to be hit with a weird urge a week or so later to steal the video cassette from my brother and watch it again. In the end, I think it took me five viewings before I could appreciate what I was watching, and then I was hooked. And for everyone I've introduced to GitS since, I tell them to watch the movie, walk away for a week, and then return to it. Rinse and repeat a few times -- when you're brand-new to the series, you need time to digest and process what's going on in the non-action scenes to appreciate it. But this is going to be a Hollywood movie, which means they have 90-120 minutes to get the general public to love the franchise or else they consider it a flop. Which means it's going to be flashy, action-oriented, and not as deep as those of us who are long-time fans of the source material want it to be.

 

On the plus side, it seems (and if this is correct) that the writer was an Oscar nominee for Best Writing for an Original Screenplay this past year. So, maybe there's some hope on the writing side.

 

Anyways.

 

I'm not too worried about Scarlett Johansson getting Motoko's part. She's been doing enough action movies that I think she'll be able to pull off that part well enough. At the -very- least, they could've chosen a whole lot worse for the role.

 

Who I AM worried about is the guy they casted for Batou. The only other movie that I've seen him in is "Lucy", and looking back at that I really don't think he's Batou material. At all. Appearance, voice... I'm super worried. Batou is my favorite, and a bad Batou is likely to kill any potential "GitS Cinematic Universe" appreciation I could have faster than bad writing/directing could.

[Unnamed Mercenary]

I do think that there's a lot of potential for good. ...it just gets mixed with all the potential for bad that the industry has shown to do a lot.

 

I'm really hoping it turns out good, since I'll probably be throwing $20 at a theater to go watch it. I'm a little miffed on some of the lack of diversity, but it's an American-made film and that's just sorta how they work.

[Kage]

Also, I never saw it myself and it's technically a light novel, but supposedly Edge of Tomorrow was a decent All You Need is Kill adaptation, and the creator liked it. 

It was actually a decent adaptation. Not bad at all. I did however enjoy the two separately.

 

My one response to this at the moment, is 'Sorry no thank you.'

 

I am still very bitter about Airbender.

 

Apparently this was a thing for this movie.

http://screencrush.com/ghost-in-the-shell-whitewashing-scarlett-johnasson-vfx/

[Zhavi]

Sounds like great potential for Mystery Science Theater 3000 style watching with friends and maybe a drinking game.

 

edit - to clarify, I'm watching it. Just not in the theater.

[Caspar]

Also, I never saw it myself and it's technically a light novel, but supposedly Edge of Tomorrow was a decent All You Need is Kill adaptation, and the creator liked it. 

It was actually a decent adaptation. Not bad at all. I did however enjoy the two separately.

 

My one response to this at the moment, is 'Sorry no thank you.'

 

I am still very bitter about Airbender.

 

Apparently this was a thing for this movie.

http://screencrush.com/ghost-in-the-shell-whitewashing-scarlett-johnasson-vfx/

So it's like a modern version of Connery in You Only Live Twice? Except real, and not part of the movie plot. I dunno, that makes me a little angry.

Come on now. Motoko is very stoic and confident. Surely there are plenty of more suitable performers. Her background is complex but her performance wouldn't be nearly as much so, IMO.

 

Airbender was so dead on arrival that the racebending was like another scoop of gravedirt. Albeit the foulest smelling one.

[Mae]

Sounds like great potential for Mystery Science Theater 3000 style watching with friends and maybe a drinking game.

 

Bad Movie Bingo.

 

If I go with a group to this in the theaters, I'm bringing sheets. Just in case.

[kamikrazy]

A great deal of GITS street cred is that it was what a lot of people consider to be the first animated movie that reached the level of visuals, narrative, and seriousness of a well executed live action film

 

Making an actual live action film of it is kind of oxymoron when you think about it

[Mae]

Okay.

 

So.

 

I saw it.

 

And... well, I walked out of the theater after the movie not regretting the price of tickets and popcorn. It wasn't amazing, I don't think I can say that it was a solid addition to the overall GitS name, but I didn't feel like I wasted time or money and I think I might've actually regretted it if I didn't see it on the big screen.

 

 

 

So, let's clear the things I found 'bad' about the movie first. Our protagonist is... "Major". She's got a full name, but it's said like twice and very quickly and I never fully caught it; it might have been "Marie", but everyone calls her Major. Major is the first full-body cyborg, the result of a "you see our products everywhere" corporation called Hanka experiment/project, thought to be by her creators to be the next step in human evolution, and she's on-loan to Section 9 as a trial. Major comes off as being a bit emotionally... frail, I suppose, and uncertain as she questions her supposed humanity, as she's aware that she was built as a weapon though she seems somewhat okay with this because her immigrant family was killed by terrorists as they were arriving in what I'm assuming is Japan.

 

Yep. Kusanagi got turned from the introspective, determined and capable badass to an often meek, borderline emo little slip. My husband compared it to what Fox did to Scott Summers/Cyclops in the first three X-Men movies. Scarlett Johansson is a decent actor, so this has to be more of a writing/directing issue than her performance. 

 

The whitewashing debacle left it's mark as well. That program/filter that was reportedly used after to make the non-Asian actors look more Asian... I want to blame that on the weirdness that goes on with eyes in close-ups. It was distracting. It also may have spawned a plot-point that I found distracting: Major's family seemed to have been immigrating to Neo-Japan, their boat was attacked by terrorists, and that Major was the only survivor in the sense that she was the only one who wasn't brain-dead after the attack. Which... turns out to not be the case towards the end of the movie. Maybe parts of this WAS part of the original script, but there's something so heavy-handed about it that I wouldn't be surprised if this was one of the parts that was re-written/re-shot because 'whitewashing'.

 

Alright, so, that's what I thought was truly bad about the movie -- and most of it revolves around this new "Major". So let's move on to the 'myeh...' portion.

 

The 'villain' and... 'misguided doctor trope of some flavor'. Hanka's... CEO, I guess, is our ultimate villain. He's just your typical corporate bad-guy trope, out to make a profit at any cost and by virtue of his project being loaned to Section 9, feels he can control Section 9; nothing deep about him. Our misguided doctor is one of his employees, who lead the project that created Major. Insert trope where doctor/scientist initially ignores ethics and rights to create something, becomes motherly towards her creation, and ultimately either has deathbed confession/repentance or rebels to save her creation and dies in the process. They serve their purpose, but that's about all they're there for.

 

So, the good stuff?

 

Batou. Oh good gods, he was actually -good-, and he was the one I worried about the most. The accent was a little weird, but that 'went away' when they were speaking via "mind link", which I thought was a great touch. In the stills and trailers his eyes often looked like googly eyes, but with full editing and in motion they look amazing. His personality was closer to what I remember from the manga (1995/Innocence, Batou was more serious while SAC he's more... playful but prone to moody), and while how he got his prosthetic eyes isn't true to the source material, I didn't have a problem with it -- it made sense in the setting we get in this movie.

 

The rest of the Section 9 cast... when you see them. Even in the changes that were made to some of them, when you see them they look good. I was a little annoyed that the few lines that Ishikawa got revolved mostly around him getting a prosthetic liver so he can drink more, but even with his casting choice he looked good. Togusa got matured up quite a bit; he wasn't Section 9's newbie, he was closer to his Solid State Society version. You don't see a lot of them, which is a shame.

 

So, Aramaki. Initially, I wasn't happy with him. He came off as not having a lot of control over Section 9 -- Major disobeys his orders blithely and Hanka's CEO seems to be dictating to him a lot. More of a doormat than "he's planning for long-term", like Aaramaki typically is. And then we got a scene with a very strong vibe of "... they're going to kill him off at some point...", and then a few moments later we see him get into a car, alone, and another car full of guys in suits pulls up and Aramaki randomly orders everyone to turn on their "mind links"... and then my dread started to sink in. And then the car got shot up. I won't go much further in spoiling it, but he didn't die, got a badass moment, and started being more like the Aramaki we all know and expect.

One last small nitpick about Aramaki: when he "mind links", he still speaks in Japanese. This makes little sense considering that everyone else loses their accents when they're speaking over the "mind link".

 

Kuze. He was a mix of 2nd GiG's Kuze, Puppetmaster, Laughing Man, and Puppeteer, with some Frankenstein's Monster thrown in. It could be argued that this Kuze wasn't a good character because he's so obviously based on the others, but that's actually what I LIKED about him. This was, in its own way, bits and pieces of random data that assembled itself into its own consciousness -- everything that it's predecessors had been and/or aspired to.  I enjoyed dissecting him and figuring out which part came from which source.

 

Which sort of segue's into the next thing I enjoyed. 75% of the movie is pulled in one way or another from the previous movies or series -- there are whole scenes that are either copied almost identically or very heavily inspired by the predecessors. There are characters who are like this new Kuze -- conglomerates of other characters rolled all up into one. There's so much that you can sit back and say "... Yeah, I remember this from this movie or that episode". And I enjoyed recognizing/placing those scenes, because on their own this movie did the scenes very well. Which... yes, I suppose could be argued that this was lazy writing. I'll agree that the overall story was fairly weak and where they did go original, it sucked. But the scenes they recreated/re-imagined, on their own, are impressive.

 

 

So... if you get dragged by someone else to see the movie or give in to the morbid curiosity... this isn't a -horrible- movie. There's totally worse out there. Don't go in with the mindset of looking it as a single, whole piece. Leave any views about whitewashing at the door. Try to enjoy each scene as it's own thing, appreciate how they tried (and in most cases succeeded) to recreate iconic scenes. If you can do that, I don't think you'll walk out of the theater regretting the money spent either.

[Aya]

Sweet an old thread!

 

I am not a major Ghost in the Shell Fan. I like to watch it, but I have never gone out of my way to.

 

I enjoyed the movie, that simple. My expectations were low and it exceeded them easily. Some parts made me pretty giddy, some parts were pretty weak, but no weaker than your usual super hero adaptation (which I realize this isn't, really).

 

It did not come out at the right moment, the themes and ideas having been floating around in Hollywood for a couple of decades now. But, viewed as an homage rather than a trend setter, I think it accomplishes what it sets out to do.

 

I have to agree with Batou being the best part of the movie. Absolutely. Villains are the sore spot. Oh well, they were weak in the original anime film as well.

 

Edit: Oh yeah, and like an hour and a half of Scarlett Johansson in a partly animated body suit? I don't see anything in that to complain about ^^