Director Rupert Sanders
Staring Scarlett Johansson, Pilou Asbæk, Takeshi Kitano
Rated M
Score 4/6

In the near future, Major is the first of her kind: A human saved from a terrible crash, who is cyber-enhanced to be a perfect soldier devoted to stopping the world’s most dangerous criminals.

For the record yes am vaguely familiar with the Ghost in the Shell animated movie franchise, though no I did not do any homework in the lead up to watching this live action adaption. For those of you who might not be aware Ghost in the Shell is based on the Japanese manga of the same name by Masamune Shirow.

Ghost in the Shell is a bit of a change of pace for director Rupert Sanders considering that the only other feature film that he has directed is Snow White and the Huntsman which was released in 2012. Even though this could easily be considered a ‘super hero’ movie Ghost in the Shell does not neatly fall into the genre hole as unlike other movies in the genre Major’s origins are not fully fleshed out in the movie’s opening act as you might expect from something in the MCU. I also got the impression that Sanders’ overall visual style for the movie partly appeared to be influenced by Ridley Scott’s iconic 1982 movie Blade Runner, though Sanders did not have the chance to have his world to be as gritty as Scott did.

Scarlett Johansson gave a solid performance considering that she has had previous experience in the genre before, I also enjoyed the performances of Michael Pitt and Takeshi Kitano. It should Johansson’s casting was met with a degree controversy with accusations of whitewashing. In the spirit of conversation, I fill compelled to ask the people who made those accusations this, Name an Asian actress with the same mainstream box office appeal as Scarlett Johansson who could have filled the role?