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!@#$%! · 01.15.2018, 01:46 PM

ghost in the shell, live action version

first: let’s get the whitewashing business out of the way: no. everyone is from everywhere in this movie— there’s a romanian, there’s juliette binoche, there are chinese (the cricket minister from marco polo) and japanese actors, there are incomprehensible british accents, and the production seems mostly chinese judging by the credits. good job. sjws are missing the point i think.

second: i like some of the characterizations. #1 beat takeshi as aramaki— hell yeah. he’s the best. hilarious/tough/great. #2 scarlett as kusanagi is great. not saying this just because i like her (who doesn’t) but because she makes great kusanagi faces. guess she learned it playing the alien in scotland? she really can act— it’s the little gestures and twitches.

third: the atmospherics were great. sure you can transplant them from here to blade runner to any number of science fictions fron animation to black and white, and in that they weren’t original *at all* (i guess there’s some vast consensus on what the urban future will be like) but it creates an appropriate mood for the thing and it felt good to be submerged in it. i would have liked to see this in a big screen. yeah.

what i didn’t really like was the writing. and by that i mean the plot. the story, sure, is more or less the same as the original (but i confuse & conflate with so much in the series)— but the way that everything is on the nose here ruins ,things for me. ok it’s not the same story— it’s a worse story too.

particularly the beginning and the end.

at the beginning, instead of starting directly with the raid on that dining hall as i recall the anime began, we get the major’s 6-million-dollar-woman credit “we will rebuild her” (or something) for the dumb public. it was much better to drop into the middle of things and then let things be revealed as i recalled. there was no trying to figure out what’s going on— everything is pre-chewed.

so, same about the hollywood ending. annoying.

but i guess blockbusters have to play it safe. also missing where the characterizations of other members of section 9– but those maybe i got more from the series. hard to recall what’s what— it’s a confusing universe. but anyway, this is not about having to be the same, it’s about not being as good writing, not nearly, no. it’s about writing that is meh.

it was the same thing with aeon flux as i recall— i did like the charlize theron movie some, but to see all that ambiguity and nihilism and s/m reduced to a neatly tied up package with a moral message was annoying in retrospect.

so, anyway, to summarize— nice to look at, but plotwise was like eating baby food where the original was philosphical fugu.

01.15.2018, 01:46 PM	#22009
!@#$%! invito al cielo Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: mars attacks Posts: 42,731	ghost in the shell, live action version first: let’s get the whitewashing business out of the way: no. everyone is from everywhere in this movie— there’s a romanian, there’s juliette binoche, there are chinese (the cricket minister from marco polo) and japanese actors, there are incomprehensible british accents, and the production seems mostly chinese judging by the credits. good job. sjws are missing the point i think. second: i like some of the characterizations. #1 beat takeshi as aramaki— hell yeah. he’s the best. hilarious/tough/great. #2 scarlett as kusanagi is great. not saying this just because i like her (who doesn’t) but because she makes great kusanagi faces. guess she learned it playing the alien in scotland? she really can act— it’s the little gestures and twitches. third: the atmospherics were great. sure you can transplant them from here to blade runner to any number of science fictions fron animation to black and white, and in that they weren’t original at all (i guess there’s some vast consensus on what the urban future will be like) but it creates an appropriate mood for the thing and it felt good to be submerged in it. i would have liked to see this in a big screen. yeah. what i didn’t really like was the writing. and by that i mean the plot. the story, sure, is more or less the same as the original (but i confuse & conflate with so much in the series)— but the way that everything is on the nose here ruins ,things for me. ok it’s not the same story— it’s a worse story too. particularly the beginning and the end. at the beginning, instead of starting directly with the raid on that dining hall as i recall the anime began, we get the major’s 6-million-dollar-woman credit “we will rebuild her” (or something) for the dumb public. it was much better to drop into the middle of things and then let things be revealed as i recalled. there was no trying to figure out what’s going on— everything is pre-chewed. so, same about the hollywood ending. annoying. but i guess blockbusters have to play it safe. also missing where the characterizations of other members of section 9– but those maybe i got more from the series. hard to recall what’s what— it’s a confusing universe. but anyway, this is not about having to be the same, it’s about not being as good writing, not nearly, no. it’s about writing that is meh. it was the same thing with aeon flux as i recall— i did like the charlize theron movie some, but to see all that ambiguity and nihilism and s/m reduced to a neatly tied up package with a moral message was annoying in retrospect. so, anyway, to summarize— nice to look at, but plotwise was like eating baby food where the original was philosphical fugu.
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