Ghost in the Shell - Live Action

[Yubel-Lover]

So... I just came back home after watching the live action for GitS.
First thing first, I'm a huge fan of the franchise and I watched everything about it. Judging from the trailers, my expectations were below zero, I knew it wasn't going to be the movie I wanted it to be.
After watching it, a few things came to my mind.

(SPOILER)Despite having done a mix between the two films made by Oshii and SAC 2nd Gig, I thought that the overall plot wasn't so bad. I appreciated the tributes to Oshii's movies here and there, they were done very well in general. Also Scarlett Johansson did a fine job as the Mayor. I mean, I think people were expecting a bit too much considering how hard is to portray a character like that. Just to clarify, I'm a not a SJo fan in general.
The visuals were stunning. The movie looked very beautiful and the production values were really high.

As for the negatives, the worst aspect of the movie to me were the dialogues. They were banal and not so interesting, miles away from how they should have been. One thing I really didn't like was how, in the first few minutes of the movie, some characters kept repeating that the Mayor does indeed have a ghost/soul, thus nullifying her search for her own identity, which was relegated to regain her past/memories. This over-simplified the philosophical core of GitS leading to a bit of a letdown. But then again, I was expecting something similar so I'm not going to rant too much about it.
Now, the music: I mean, c'mon ffs, why they didn't use the score from the movies?? It would have been a lot better that way.

Overall it wasn't so bad, but it could have been a lot better.

[Sephiroth]

I absolutely loved the movie and was glad it was not that philosophical. So many stories nowadays are pseudo-psychological, -philosophical and -moral while in reality there are truly correct answers to many of them. Such as the existence as an individual being. It is a psychological fact that the ego is what we are, the instance to perceive reality - basically the evolution of the consciousness. So whatever is said, consciousness or ego, that is what we are. And I am glad that they said from the very beginning "you soul, your consciousness, your ghost". With this they touched the topic "by the way its you and not a clone based on the old one" and that was enough. When it comes to "being human" they also slightly touched it and it was enough. Instead they focused a bit more on what kind of person she was and that was also good.

And Scarlett Johannson was by far not mischosen as actress.

[sharkythesharkdogg]

Because I like the manga and the original movie I will probably check this out.






Once it's on Netflix.

[Yubel-Lover]

I absolutely loved the movie and was glad it was not that philosophical. So many stories nowadays are pseudo-psychological, -philosophical and -moral while in reality there are truly correct answers to many of them. Such as the existence as an individual being. It is a psychological fact that the ego is what we are, the instance to perceive reality - basically the evolution of the consciousness. So whatever is said, consciousness or ego, that is what we are. And I am glad that they said from the very beginning "you soul, your consciousness, your ghost". With this they touched the topic "by the way its you and not a clone based on the old one" and that was enough. When it comes to "being human" they also slightly touched it and it was enough. Instead they focused a bit more on what kind of person she was and that was also good.

And Scarlett Johannson was by far not mischosen as actress.

I can agree with your point, I just didn't like that they toned down that aspect so much. Touching the subject without going too deep was fine, I think they were a bit too blunt about it. A more implicit approach, leaving some of the reflections to the Mayor, would have been better, imo.

[LunarWeaver]

It wasn't awful or great for me. I enjoyed it but don't want to see it again. The bar is pretty low for adaptions of games and anime into big live action extravaganzas though. So by that standard it was pretty smurfing fantastic.

[Yubel-Lover]

If we consider other adaptations then yes, this one was awesome. Honestly, it was a step in the right direction.

[krissy]

this might be a hot take or whatever

but i dont think we should be going in that direction at all tbh

[Yubel-Lover]

What I meant is that looking at previous adaptations from anime/manga you can see that in this one they put a lot more work and care in general. Even though the final product might not have been what I hoped for. It's a step in the right direction in terms of attitude I want to see from future adaptations.

[krissy]

maybe that's good if we're settled into allowing adaptations. happy 4 u that you guys enjoyed it for what it was.

but maybe hollywood should just stop adapting anime and video games and just come up with more original stuff.

i know someone can say to me, well, ok, most stories come from other media, like books, etc.

but that's a) not really true and b) i'd extend into saying that yes, they should stop doing that as well. i want more movies that were originally supposed to be movies.

with anime, tasteful casting obviously being a problem forever (the only good anime adaptation casting is probably willem defoe as shinigami #1 from nflx), the fact is you can't explore ideas in a 2 hour movie that you can in a series that lasts about 12 hours. thematically it's difficult to fit all that in.

if you're doing an homage, cool. if you're doing an adaptation, why? for the fans? maybe i'm weird but i didn't exactly want another ff7 recently either. make me something new. cover the same thematic elements.

it could be im just eternally unhappy with whatever media makers do as media makers, being a consumer who's been incredibly well taken care of from many shores. but i don't enjoy the idea of anime being re-purposed into live action. that's what i meant with not going in that direction at all. i'd rather it stayed as the anime.

before anyone asks, yeah, i'm tired of comic book movies too. and i looove carol danvers and whatever, but she should have had a movie four stages ago, because now it's going to get lost in a sea of formulaic adventure stories.

whenever this happens it reminds me of another spider-man reboot, if that makes any sense.

i get that it's always good for the authors to get the money from more and more adaptations of a work, but also eventually their vision is diluted into someone elses. and i'm the kind of nerd that gets annoyed if someone goes to see the netflix death note movie and hasn't watched the original anime. the kind of nerd you wouldn't invite because i'd complain the whole time. i'll complain the whole time at the fullmetal alchemist live action movie too. i won't even get near the attack on titan live action.

anyway that's my 2c rant, i'd probably be more ok w it if major was japanese.

[Yubel-Lover]

but maybe hollywood should just stop adapting anime and video games and just come up with more original stuff.

This would be the ideal situation, but unfortunately we all know it's not going to happen. Hollywood will probably keep exploiting this trend as much as they can. I think in this situation the best we can do is to hope that what they come up with isn't downright awful but at least watchable.