This was never going to work. Even if the movie had been as good as the original (spoiler alert: it’s not), it still wouldn’t have gotten away unscathed. Remakes have gotten a bad rep — perhaps, at least in part, unfairly — for being a black hole of creativity: an indictment of Hollywood’s unwillingness, or perhaps inability, to put forward original stories. Throw in a white woman playing a traditionally Japanese role, and nobody was ever going to give it the benefit of the doubt.
Don’t mistake me, Ghost in the Shell is not that good of a movie. It’s not that bad of a movie either, but it offers us nothing that we haven’t already seen put to screen before, and better too. In the twenty-odd years since the original came out, its revolutionary story and setting has been picked over by the American film industry until there is virtually nothing left that is distinct to it.
Between The Matrix, Ex Machina, I Robot and the films of Neill Blomkamp, the once revolutionary idea of Transhumanism — the idea that technology can transform us into something more than Human — is now old hat. The visuals — once noted for their remarkable vision — now just come off as another Blade Runner imitator. And the action — previously a landmark of what the medium was capable of — didn’t take to the inherent limitations of live action, let alone those of a PG-13 rating.
That’s not to say that there’s nothing worthwhile in the new movie. Scarlett Johansson is exactly as good in the lead role as you would expect. While there’s nothing particularly unique about the world of Ghost in the Shell, it is an incredibly well-polished vision of the future. Michael Pitt is genuinely riveting as Kuze (this movie’s version of the Puppet Master). And then there’s the ending.
Variously called insensitive, ill-considered and the only inventive thing about the movie, the climactic twist in the story is that distinctly Caucasian Scarlett Johansson’s character, Major Kusanagi, was actually born Japanese. After being killed by the evil corporation she works for, her consciousness is transferred into her current, White, robotic body.
While this seems to be sticking in the craw of most people who see the movie, I thought that it was its best feature. Yes, it is incredibly problematic to literally whitewash one of the few high-profile Asian characters in an all too monochromatic film industry. And yes, it would have been better for everybody if somebody like Rinko Kikuchi (who gained notoriety as Mako Mori in 2013’s Pacific Rim) would have played the Major instead.
These issues aside, however, it is a fascinating extension of the transhumanist themes that the film and its surrounding media franchise has built itself on. It’s eerily similar to the original idea for the character of Switch in The Matrix, who was originally conceived as alternative between male and female depending on where (s)he was plugged into or outside of the Matrix. At the very least, it had potential, even if the movie played the transition between Japanese run-away and Caucasian Robocop too much at face value to explore anything deeper than “Well, she’s white now.”
Had it been made a decade earlier, it would have been dismissed as par for the course. Had it cast a non-white woman in the lead, it would have been praised for its fidelity. As it stands, it’s an ill-considered half-measure that feels well out of step with what is acceptable in movies today.
As a film, it’s fine: not as good as I had hoped, not as bad as I had feared. It’s a well-enough take on the source material, competently filmed by a group of otherwise talented individuals that are clearly just here for the paycheck. While it’s not worth trekking all the way to a theater to see, it’s more than worth the price of a rental for those who can get passed the whitewashing.
Rating: 3/5
Buy on BluRay: Buy the anime instead.
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