Powerful

One of my all time favorites.

A Masterpiece!

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

I saw the original anime in my teens and have to say that wasn't utterly impressed back then. The plot was confusing and dragged a bit as far as I remember, propably should see it again sometime. As for this new live version I was blown away going into it with no high expectations. This was very streamlined stylish and thought provoking movie. Everything was just right; from set pieces to fashion forward costume design, music, acting and cinematography, all performing at top level. I enjoyed this movie tremendously and have to wonder if there is some foul play at the rating of this future classic here on IMDB...

It is the future. In an unnamed far East city, a young woman's brain is transplanted into an artificial body by Hanka, a company specialising in cybernetic enhancements. A year later, now dubbed Major, she is an operative for Section 9, a semi-official law enforcement body combating cyber-crime. But fragmented memories of her earlier life lead her to try to find out who she was and what happened to her.This American adaptation of Masamune Shirow's manga is an interesting mixture of success and failure. It looks absolutely spectacular. It captures the manga-style look of a stylised Japanese-flavoured future incredibly well. The DVD/Blu-ray will reward re-watching in slow motion for the many tiny details, like the word "Police" on high-viz jackets cycling between red and blue. The film is packed with visual invention.The action sequences are also excellent. They blend fluent martial arts with smart camerawork, greenscreen, and physical sets, and do so seamlessly. I have one criticism: much as I like Scarlet Johansson's *rse, rear views of her running don't do her any favours.We know the story, unfortunately - it's the same story as Robocop. The origin is dealt with in an efficient prologue, and doesn't interfere with narrative flow. But although the trimmings are fresh, the story holds no real surprises.The performances are all fine, although I don't think the film will feature in next year's acting Oscars. Juliet Binoche plays an important, but underwritten, character and is completely wasted.But is ScarJo right? I don't think so. She has done enthusiastic PR for the film, but that's not enough. She's there to generate box office results, of course. It's seen as a role like Black Widow, and she will surely put bums on seats internationally. But I don't think this should have been colour blind casting. Although an artificial body can be any race, I think the film would have looked right with an Asian actress.Through much of the film, Miss Johansson wears a skintight bodysuit. Perhaps this is a CGI motion-capture suit. In either case, it makes her look strangely completely naked and not naked at all. At the same time.The part of the story which is intended to make you care is Major's search for her past. But, if I'm honest, the film didn't make me care very much. For a story which is about a soul - the Ghost - in an artificial body - the Shell - the film ironically has very little soul of its own.If you are a geek - let's face it, if you are reading this then you probably are - then of course you should see it. If nothing else, you will geek out over the visuals. If you like something a bit deeper - well, maybe you'll get more out of it than I did. And a review is only one person's opinion, so go and make up your own mind!

The story was boring and was barely saved by the impressive and colourful graphics. To be frank, Scarlet Johansson is not much of an actress so she cannot raise the level of the whole thing either. I think the movie studios should look in the mirror and agree that they cannot continue with these remakes.

For someone who is not familiar with the Anime I must admit that I was quite entertained by the film which I know will be an unpopular opinion. 'Ghost in the shell' is about a human enhanced to be a cyborg supersoldier 'Major' played by gorgeous Scarlett Johansson and her self doubts of the reality induced in her mind and along the way of discovering her reality comes upon a lot of unsavoury secrets which results in the minimal number of plot twists observed in the film. The biggest issue with the film can be observed to be the inconsistency of the plot and sub plot points and sequences which lack momentum which can almost put you to sleep with boredom. But on a positive light the film is benefited by a couple of good performances. Specially Scarlett Johansson and Juliette Binoche who plays Dr.Ouelet manages to induce a bit of emotion to the storytelling and uplifts the quality of the flow. The other downside of the film are some action sequences which were not executed well. Specially some stunts performed by Scarlett were painful to watch because of how badly they have been executed. Visual effects had their own flaws too. Ultimately, this film managed to entertain me that I really could look over its poor script, predictability and lousy visuals because the film managed to gain back the lost momentum leading up to the climax and gives a satisfactory ending to its own flawed story.