Just got back from watching Ghost in the Shell movie today. I love the original manga by Masamune Shirow and think that Mamori Oshii's anime version was good but quite a different beast. Basically, Oshii chose the latter chapters from the manga series and used them as a platform for his existential psycho-babble about the nature of memories, identity and soul (ghost) in a world where the line between humans and machines blur.
Similarly, Rupert Sander's version is a also different beast although it pays tribute to a lot of sequences from the anime version including story arcs and characters from the Stand Alone Complex anime series.
I find Sander's movie to be lacking depth, and both the screenplay and characterisation were poorly executed. All in all I think he missed a big chance to bring the GITS world into a cinematic live-action experience. I am unsure why he introduced four new female characters who took away much of the screen times from other Section 9 members: two of them were generic scientists with lackluster personalities and another character felt out of place from the rest of Section 9 team. The only one with any meaningful existence is the mother character.
I feel that the addition of these four new characters didn't add much layers to the storyline, and in doing so, Sanders sacrificed opportunities for other Section 9's members to interact and develop their relationship with Major. I wonder if Sanders wanted to have a play with gender politics in this movie, otherwise I thought the action, VFX and production design were really good.
It's also a shame Kenji Kawai's eerie and spiritual music were only used sparingly and the Tachikoma's design was rather too angular and coloured in industrial grey. Both my wife and I almost felt asleep a couple of times throughout the movie, and that is due to Sander's inconsistent direction and weak screenplay.
Most of my scores go to Weta Workshop for their excellent works, and ScarJo's acting was actually decent although I feel she was playing a different incarnation of the character that I knew from the original materials. No doubt that she was always pleasant to look at, but nowhere near the mysterious and tough-as-metal Major Kusanagi from the anime nor manga.
Similarly, Rupert Sander's version is a also different beast although it pays tribute to a lot of sequences from the anime version including story arcs and characters from the Stand Alone Complex anime series.
I find Sander's movie to be lacking depth, and both the screenplay and characterisation were poorly executed. All in all I think he missed a big chance to bring the GITS world into a cinematic live-action experience. I am unsure why he introduced four new female characters who took away much of the screen times from other Section 9 members: two of them were generic scientists with lackluster personalities and another character felt out of place from the rest of Section 9 team. The only one with any meaningful existence is the mother character.
I feel that the addition of these four new characters didn't add much layers to the storyline, and in doing so, Sanders sacrificed opportunities for other Section 9's members to interact and develop their relationship with Major. I wonder if Sanders wanted to have a play with gender politics in this movie, otherwise I thought the action, VFX and production design were really good.
It's also a shame Kenji Kawai's eerie and spiritual music were only used sparingly and the Tachikoma's design was rather too angular and coloured in industrial grey. Both my wife and I almost felt asleep a couple of times throughout the movie, and that is due to Sander's inconsistent direction and weak screenplay.
Most of my scores go to Weta Workshop for their excellent works, and ScarJo's acting was actually decent although I feel she was playing a different incarnation of the character that I knew from the original materials. No doubt that she was always pleasant to look at, but nowhere near the mysterious and tough-as-metal Major Kusanagi from the anime nor manga.