Ghost in The Shell

Very cool looking movie.

Does it make anime come alive more than The Matrix?

I don’t think so, but the visual effects were amazing. straight out of the manga (and Anime) it was based on.

Give it credit, anime is a hard genre to adapt into live action, and they did a better job visually than in it’s narration.

So there is a bit of controversy about Scarlett Johansson as the lead. Me personally, I just don’t click with Johansson as a movie star. Would think that a hot chick would make me run to the movie theater, but she does not do it for me.

Anyway, at first the beginning of the movie was too Japanese to justify this American adaption enough to have a white woman play the lead but as the movie went along I can see the American adaption they are telling is justified (Story wise at least). If you look hard enough, I’m sure you can make a strong case of how Ghost in the Shell reflects American society which makes a white woman in the lead a perfect casting choice.

With that said it’s a step up form a movie like Avatar which like Ghost in the Shell had visuals that were mind blowing but a so so story. The Manga was not the greatest story to comprehend and this adaption does a lackluster job of trying to fix that. You can blame Johansson for that as it was important to focus on the movie star therefore expanding the lead characters background story beyond that of the comic book, and adding the stuff that explains why a white girl is playing a Asian charter.

So not that impressive of a movie, but definitely not bad too watch, literally. I can’t think of another live-action anime adaption that was done better.