Titan Network
Community => Comics and Other Media => Topic started by: Dev7on on November 13, 2016, 06:35:55 PM
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bTaLafAFrmE
I'm a huge fan of Ghost in the Shell. I've been watching that anime since middle school. I know the film is controversial because of the whitewashing casting and in my opinion I don't mind having Scarlett Johansson playing as The Major. I'm just hoping she does good job playing that role. The Major is complex character because she's a cyborg. After watching the trailer the visuals is all CGI including the fighting scenes......but, I'm still going to see this movie. Any Ghost in the Shell fans in the City of Heroes community?
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This trailer doesn't allay my concerns. There's the Major, there's Batoh. Where's the rest?
I was concerned by casting Scarlett Johansson, that sure, the rest of the characters aren't as rounded as Motoko in the anime or manga, but in this movie, anything other than Motoko would just be... flat. I hope I'm wrong. (And I know it's a feature length film. Only so much time for backstory.)
Ghost in the Shell to me is an ensemble show. It works for me because Ishikawa is a wiseguy. Because Togusa is perpetually wet behing the ears. And Aramaki is too cunning for even the leaders of Japan to figure out. And this isn't giving that kind of a feel.
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Ghost in the Shell to me is an ensemble show.
While I agree, I don't think that's what they're going for with this movie. Some of the what I see in the trailer looks like an attempt to recreate the original movie almost shot for shot. When I watched the movie, I honestly didn't get a feel for any of the characters except the major. They were barely there. The series was more ensemble, but the original feature was almost entirely centered on Major Kusanagi (at least, from what I can recall).
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At least until Innocence, when she left. :D
But yeah, I won't lie. I was groaning when Johanssen was cast. The mise en scene looks like the director cares to do the movie justice with some blow-for-blow recreations of the anime movie (Thermoptic Camouflage scenes seem to be on point, along with the building dive), so I'm beginning to reconsider.
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What's the point of a shot-for-shot recreation of an anime? Why not do something new and interesting?
It's going to be hard to have an ensemble cast in a movie length product, but even the original anime had scenes where they were shown being a team and characters got to have a moment where you saw their personality or technical specializations.
What I really liked about the anime movie was the theme of "what is it to be human?". They seem to have dropped that for a standard Hollywood tropes of "You have a hole in your mind" and "You're the only one of your kind". I was hoping for something new and original, but like the casting of Scarlet Johannson, you shouldn't expect anything risky from a big budget movie.
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The original voice artists for the Ghost In The Shell anime will be voicing over the live action movie for the Japan release.
(Source (http://www.theverge.com/2017/3/10/14886840/ghost-in-the-shell-original-cast-dubbing-scarlett-johansson))
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It's worse than that, from what I've seen in trailers. This is a remaking of the original GITS movie, except with the American "action movie" formula applied. That means a lot of the subtle subtext will likely be missing, and the huge subtext at the end might be completely lost, which would make the Major's battle with a tank completely pointless (hint: she felt if she couldn't beat the tank she was no better than it).
Then again, they might be keeping back the best part until the release, and it might be surprising. Either way, the movie is worth watching at least once (not necessarily in theaters) just because of the visuals, and because Weta is involved.