Ghost In the Shell
With all that said, I really liked this movie. It felt like a modern Blade Runner, and I love Blade Runner. The entire movie was very well assembled, it never fell into the same holes that so many Anime to movie films do, no overacting, no weird things just for weird's sake, and No bad CGI.
Ok, Let's start with the acting. I wasn't one of the people loudly exclaiming from the hills that this movie is racist. I thought Scarlett Johansson did a pretty decent job as Major. in the context of the movie her character didn't need to be Japanese. As the plot progresses her skin color is actually justified, but enough about that, Johansson did a good job. She felt robotic through it all, as if she was actually inside a shell, which fit the character perfectly, but made for some very awkward scenes that felt a little too odd and almost like an error at times.
The supporting cast did alright. The partner was fine, nothing notable except for the cool, but kind of funny looking, eye cameras. The boss was a bit of a double edged sword. he was boring for the first half, then later he became a gunslinger? For some reason? I liked the scene but looking back it didn't make a wh0le lot of sense.
The Villains were....interesting. I liked Kuze, except for his voice. He looked cool and except for a couple of awkward animations here and there he worked. His voice was hard to understand sometimes and completely clear at other points. I enjoyed his backstory when they eventually revealed it, adding a surprising amount of depth to what I thought was a one note villain early on.
Cutter was just a stereotypical bad guy. Had no real motive and other than just being the villain he played no role in the overall story. Next to Kuze he was a pretty bland and monologuing villain. (did the Spidertank run out of bullets? why use the random 'grab face' arm?)
Moving away from the characters, Cinematography! Holy hell I loved the cinematography on this film. The whole film felt crafted and thought out, from the sweeping shots of the city to the small intimate moments between Major and Ouelet. The shots were perfectly chosen. Which helped compliment the huge amount of visual effects.
Speaking of which, Visuals. The visual effects are by far the most impressive thing about this movie. The constant barrage of Holograms and advertisements in the city felt realistic instead of tacky, similar to Blade runner but to the next level. The word's technology felt believable and possible. even if the Spidertank and various robots int he movie felt almost a bit dated as far as Sci-fi tropes are concerned. They felt like designs from a 1980's movie instead of from one in 2017. but they still worked well in the overall course of the movie.
Overall I enjoyed the movie. It was a rather fun cyberpunk flick with enough visual candy to get past some rather slow scenes and some plodding narrative. The acting was pretty good and the visuals were gorgeous. And for the first time in years the 3D actually added dimensionality to the feel of the movie.
Final Verdict: 81 out of 100
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