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Ghost in the Shell |OT| I was born in the sea of information

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O

Oddduck

Member
On Rottentomatoes, if Ghost in the Shell can remain in the 60-69% range, then that's not too shabby.

I expected worse. I mean, Beauty & the Beast is 70% on RT.
 
T

TasTokyo

Member
Saw it earlier. It's okay. I guess it kind of matches the original well to me. It's visually cool, with a good idea, but with poor characters and the story not feeling filled out. Haven't seen the original in maybe 12 years, but that's my memory of it.

I will say it feels too short. It needed to slow down a bit and have some bits that let you focus more on the characters. As is most scenes felt only about moving on to the next plot point.

I think it will struggle at the box office. It certainly isn't a crowd pleaser. There is no wow moment, no character to really get attached to etc.

I guess on major spoilers:
The fact the major is actually Japanese but put into an American woman's body feels poorly handled. There is basically nothing done with it besides being justification for using Scarjo in the movie. It doesn't even really give a reason for the change and feels off.
 
S

Shadow-Link

Banned
I got to see the movie yesterday, I have only seen parts of the animated one, so I can't comment on that but the movie is fun.

I really enjoyed it, the visuals are great.

The acting is good and I liked the relationship between Major and Batou, she can be a bit stiff sometimes but they have good chemistry and I really cared for both of them.

I liked the action scenes and the pacing is good, although I feel it gets a bit slow in the middle but not to much.

I give it a 8.5/10
 
formasymphonic

formasymphonic

Member
Xater said:
I have a feeling this will be a decent flick, but from the spoilers I just read the whitewashing discussion will only get worse.

If you also need to know (imho mild spoilers, because no actual plot discussed): https://twitter.com/i/moments/846753296073342977
Click to expand...

I want to be happy that I called this... But I just can't find any satisfaction in the fact that they were dumb enough to think this was a good idea.

Like I said, someone somewhere really must have been patting the self of the back for coming up with this shit and being completely and utterly oblivious to the insane meta-commentary they are creating.
 
K

Kin5290

Member
So I guess they basically World War Z'ed Ghost in the Shell? Like GiTS, the film World War Z was visually stunning, critically well received, and managed to scutter all of the political and social depth of the original material, leaving only a soulless Hollywood action husk in its place.
 
N

NetMapel

Guilty White Male Mods Gave Me This Tag
As a new comer to Ghost in the Shell universe, I take it I should also watch for original 1995 movie first, then Stand Alone Complex and Arise after? Or should I watch it in different orders? What's the recommended way to watch this series?
 
U

UnemployedVillain

Member
NetMapel said:
As a new comer to Ghost in the Shell universe, I take it I should also watch for original 1995 movie first, then Stand Alone Complex and Arise after? Or should I watch it in different orders? What's the recommended way to watch this series?
Click to expand...

I'd actually recommend SAC first. It'll help some of the technobabble in the original movie and world building terms make more sense. I wanted movie > SAC > movie again, and some things made a lot more sense.

Arise can be skipped entirely
 
B

Busty

Banned
mantidor said:
Lucy was terrible I don't blame you.

But I still will see this movie, I'm intrigued.
Click to expand...

This is where I am.

Lucy was so awful I could barely believe that it had been made by actual professionals.

But I will go to the cinema and check out GITS regardless.
 
N

NipplesAndToes23

Member
K

kewlmyc

Member
Wow, that's a lot of questionable decisions made by the studio. The ending spoilers and the random cutting out of footage already seen in press previews and trailers by what I assume are the producers.
 
A

antovolk

Member
Kin5290 said:
So I guess they basically World War Z'ed Ghost in the Shell? Like GiTS, the film World War Z was visually stunning, critically well received, and managed to scutter all of the political and social depth of the original material, leaving only a soulless Hollywood action husk in its place.
Click to expand...

This.
 
M

mantidor

Member
Busty said:
This is where I am.

Lucy was so awful I could barely believe that it had been made by actual professionals.

But I will go to the cinema and check out GITS regardless.
Click to expand...

Some action sequences were cool but that plot urgh. At least with GiTS I have the hunch the "philosophical" tones will be much, much better.

Even though I do think the original's approach to "philosophy" is vastly overrated, it proposes a couple of interesting questions about identity and technology, and the live action movie will do something similar. I'm ok with it, I don't expect to have an existential "black mirror-esque" experience, the original didn't do that either.
 
I

Inceptional

Member
Man, Paramount is like the old 20th Century Fox, just cutting the shit out of movies until they get the most dumbed down version imaginable. So fucking sad.
 
J

jett

D-Member
World War Z toed the line between entirely forgettable and merely unremarkable. A nothing movie. I think Brad Pitt single-handedly carried that movie to success.
 
formasymphonic

formasymphonic

Member
NetMapel said:
As a new comer to Ghost in the Shell universe, I take it I should also watch for original 1995 movie first, then Stand Alone Complex and Arise after? Or should I watch it in different orders? What's the recommended way to watch this series?
Click to expand...

Answer I gave someone else in another thread:

formasymphonic said:
NeoCTN said:
So which GitS thing should i start with on Hulu?

Haven't seen anything
Click to expand...

If you have the time, Stand Alone Complex 1st + 2nd Gig.

If you don't and you just want to watch some GitS before watching the live action film, then the 1995 movie.

In an ideal world though, you would watch it all — just remember that:

a) Ghost in the Shell (movie), Innocence (movie)
b) Stand Alone Complex (series 26 eps), SAC: 2nd Gig (series 26 eps), SAC: Solid State Society (movie)
c) ARISE (4ep OVA) or (10 ep series - OVAs split into half for TV broadcast + 2 extra eps), Ghost in the Shell: The New Movie (which, ironically, is not actually the 2017 live action movie btw)

...are all separate continuities, so will have differences between them (their timelines won't match up, etc).

EDIT: Completely forgot that ARISE has a movie as well because I haven't got around to watching it yet.
Yes, they literally called it "The New Movie"
Click to expand...
 
M

MugiwaraCole

Member
Hoping this bombs, especially with the reveal about whitewashing being an actual plot point. It legit sounds like something out of Get Out.
 
K

kmax

Member
I'm actually glad that it doens't seem to be a total failure as I welcome more adaptions. Hopefully, Hollywood can put their act together and stay faithful to the source material, and not let it turn into total and utter shit. With this one, you have Rupert Sanders directing, a director I genuinely couldn't care less about. I wasn't expecting greatness, but I was hoping that it wouldn't be a total flop á la Dragon Ball Z neither.

Of course, I haven't seen the film yet (I will be doing that on Friday) so I'm holding out that it's at least a visually pleasing film, which seems to be the case going by the trailers. All in all though, a different director, a great wrtier, and Rinko Kikuchi (or an Asian lead) as Motoko with Ron Perlman as Battou would of been the dream scenario for me.

I'll write a thorough summary after I've seen it.
 
T

TWrecks310

Banned
I just saw a promo for this where they use a bunch of review quotes during the trailer and they were all from the same Deadline review, never seen a movie do that before lol.

Probably not the greatest sign but I feel like this movie will almost certainly end up being mediocre.
 
B

Blader

Member
This may be a minority opinion, but I thought SAC was way way better than the '95 film. Far more interesting and better written imo.

Also, I think Innocence was terrible and a waste of time.
 
Z

Zero315

Banned
MugiwaraCole said:
Hoping this bombs, especially with the reveal about whitewashing being an actual plot point. It legit sounds like something out of Get Out.
Click to expand...

I actually had the same thought about the Get Out comparison last night. I'm kinda upset that more reviewers aren't calling out this racist trash for what it is. Hell, Variety actually called it clever:

“We cling to memories as if they define us, but they don’t. What we do is what defines us.” This line, from a script efficient enough to belie its multi-handed development, is repeated in the film as a guiding mantra for The Major, the hybrid human-android cyberterrorism fighter here incarnated as a suitably otherworldly Scarlett Johansson. But the line seems a wily nod on the writers’ part to the fan pushback an American remake of the Japanese source material was inevitably going to receive when first announced, even before the controversy generated by Johansson’s casting in a role perceived by many as Asian-specific. (In a significant departure from the source, the issue of the character’s cultural appropriation is given a tacit script workaround here that is both rather clever and unlikely to quell debate.)
Click to expand...

I'd also forgotten that the original plan was to digitally alter Scarlett Johansson to make her look "more Asian". Ugh... fuck this movie.
 
7

7DollarHagane

Banned
I don't doubt that this film has issues but I also think there's a little bit of an axe to grind on some peoples part about the "whitewashing" of the film.

I don't see why it's such a big deal if her body is an Android anyway what race the main character is. I only got through half the first movie on Hulu last night but it didn't seem like the character's race was vital to the plot or scenario. Do robots even have a race?
 
U

UnemployedVillain

Member
7DollarHagane said:
I don't doubt that this film has issues but I also think there's a little bit of an axe to grind on some peoples part about the "whitewashing" of the film.

I don't see why it's such a big deal if her body is an Android anyway what race the main character is. I only got through half the first movie on Hulu last night but it didn't seem like the character's race was vital to the plot or scenario. Do robots even have a race?
Click to expand...

Well apparently white, even (movie spoilers)
when the original person is Asian, and yes, they had an Asian actress in the movie play her pre cyberization
 
M

MugiwaraCole

Member
7DollarHagane said:
I don't doubt that this film has issues but I also think there's a little bit of an axe to grind on some peoples part about the "whitewashing" of the film.

I don't see why it's such a big deal if her body is an Android anyway what race the main character is. I only got through half the first movie on Hulu last night but it didn't seem like the character's race was vital to the plot or scenario. Do robots even have a race?
Click to expand...

You've gotta be kidding me. She's a Japanese character. Her race doesn't need to be more vital to the plot beyond that. At all. This "well, I can see if them being another race is important to the plot" logic concerning whitewashing and the erasure of people of color is frustrating. We have to defend our rights to exist beyond the background or suffer a white person being the center of attention in our stories, without fail.

That's false, anyways. She's a Japanese android because she's working in Japan. Around Japanese people. And they made her a white woman anyways. Seriously, what the fuck? Enough is enough.
 
R

robertsan21

Member
one thing people seem to forget here is that the studio backing this film maybe needed a star in this film so the movie would make more money. if it had been with a random not known asian woman maybe they thought it would have made less money?

then again, many "big star" movies have tanked at the box office... so obviously its not a given that the film would make more with a star in it...

I am oki with Major being played by a white person. Its a robot and her body is just a shell and besides, Major doesnt look typical asian in the original GITS movie anyway.
 
C

CryptiK

Member
MugiwaraCole said:
In what universe is this great news? Foh.



And then they fucking lied about it when people asked about the leaked image. Fuck everyone involved in the making of this movie. Seriously.
Click to expand...
Because it paves the path for more Anime based adaptions. Just because you don't agree with the casting doesn't make it bad news.
 
7

7DollarHagane

Banned
MugiwaraCole said:
You've gotta be kidding me. She's a Japanese character. Her race doesn't need to be more vital to the plot beyond that. At all. This "well, I can see if them being another race is important to the plot" logic concerning whitewashing and the erasure of people of color is frustrating. We have to defend our rights to exist beyond the background or suffer a white person being the center of attention in our stories, without fail.

That's false, anyways. She's a Japanese android because she's working in Japan. Around Japanese people. And they made her a white woman anyways. Seriously, what the fuck? Enough is enough.
Click to expand...

My point is that the character wasn't made Japanese in the original source for any obvious reason than it was created by and primarily marketed to Japanese people. This movie was created in and primarily marketed to Americans, which isn't a race, but Scarlett Johansson is a popular American actress. There isn't some bad intent here with the casting.

Any major big budget film will want to seek out popular and we'll regarded talent for a lead role. That's about financial success and name recognition ition, not whitewashing. She wasn't picked because she's white. Her race has nothing to do with it.
 
R

radios shipping overview

Member
tomtom94 said:
People wanted Ghostbusters to succeed because the controversy was bullshit, and a lot of people want this film to fail because the controversy is not bullshit.

Thus far both films seem to have come to "they're alright but not as good as the original so why bother remaking them anyway".
Click to expand...

The answer is always $$$$$

I've really become jaded about adaptations and remakes in general. I don't see much reason to patronize them when they just happen as a way to reuse an existing script or IP for a new potboiler action or comedy flick.

CryptiK said:
Because it paves the path for more Anime based adaptions. Just because you don't agree with the casting doesn't make it bad news.
Click to expand...

Why would more anime adaptations be an inherently good thing, though? What's the rush? Hollywood studios always meddle.
 
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