GHOST IN THE SHELL

In an unnamed, neon flecked future city, the Major (Scarlett Johannson) heads up a counter-terrorist squad called Section 9. Following her parents’ death and severe personal injury in a terrorist attack, the Major’s brain is loaded into a cybernetic body. In a world dominated by robotic appendages and cybernetic enhancements, the Major represents the first complete merger of human and artificial intelligence. Her consciousness within the metal frame personifying the ‘Ghost in the Shell.’ Torn between her desire to remember more of her former life, and dedication to duty, the Major and her team must track down the illusive cyber terrorist Kuze, as he wreaks murderous havoc upon the executives of the Hanka Robotics company.

Drawing on elements from Masamune Shirow’s revered manga, the TV series and Mamoru Oshii’s iconic 1995 animated feature, Ghost in the Shell is a lustrous piece of cyberpunk tech noir, which impresses on a visual scale, but struggles to make a connection elsewhere.

Scarlett Johansson gives an oddly subdued performance as the Major. Disturbed by glitches and memories of her former life, she comes across Robopcop-Lite, but remains perpetually aloof. Where Verhoeven’s android copper drew us in, Ghost in the Shell keeps us firmly at arms length, so we’re never fully on board with what she’s trying to do. The movie’s heart has been replaced with cold circuitry.

Juliette Binoche has more success as Dr Ouelet, scientist and surrogate parental unit in charge of the Major’s general wellbeing. She brings much needed emotion to the sterile proceedings. Takashi Kitano also fares better, on reliably good form as the enigmatic head of Section 9, muttering in Japanese yet being fully understood by his English speaking subordinates. Most of the other characters fail to leave much of an impression. The villains are uncharismatic, and the Section 9 team have no real motivation beyond catching bad guys and patting dogs.

Structurally, the set up is unclear. At some points Section 9 are beholden to the whims of Hanka Robitics, and at others they adhere to orders from the (unseen) Prime Minister. It feels underdeveloped, as if the filmmakers didn’t quite make their minds up about how this universe operates before they started filming.

Ghost In The Shell’s problem is not style over substance, because there is substance here – the meaning of existence, personal identity, simultaneously conflicted and sympathetic protagonists – it’s just never satisfactorily explored. And whether or not it’s bringing anything new to these themes rolled over from the original, is a question for the fans to debate.

The fans will also likely be pleased to see scenes lifted directly from the source material, and the tightly packed, hologram enhanced cityscape makes for a perfect Tokyo/Blade Runner mash up. There’s an extensive array of stylish tech and robots on display, intricately designed and perfectly realised, that nail the ‘high tech, low life’ aesthetic.

What makes Ghost in the Shell disappointing is the hints that it was nearly a great film.  It’s better paced than the slow burn anime, and credit is due to any sci-fi in the modern era, that doesn’t feel compelled to over explain or over contextualise its universe. But it’s too loosely drawn, and we never really understand the importance of the stakes involved. The ultimate irony is we have a movie that centres on what it means to be human in an artificial world, yet it comes across so impersonally.

IMDB: Ghost In The Shell