Movie · 2017 · Science Fiction, Drama, Action · 1h 47m · PG-13 · English
Curator score: 1.1/10 (453K ratings)
There's nothing sadder than a puppet without a ghost.
Overview
In the near future, Major is the first of her kind: a human saved from a terrible crash, then cyber-enhanced to be a perfect soldier devoted to stopping the world's most dangerous criminals.
Ratings
Curator score: 1.1/10
IMDb: 6.3/10
Letterboxd: 2.62/5
Rotten Tomatoes: 43%
Metacritic: 52
TMDB: 6.1/10
Director
Rupert Sanders
Production
Weying Galaxy Entertainment, Paramount Pictures, Shanghai Film Group, Reliance Entertainment, Grosvenor Park Productions, Steven Paul Production
Cast
Scarlett Johansson, Takeshi Kitano, Pilou Asbæk, Michael Pitt, Chin Han, Juliette Binoche, Peter Ferdinando, Rila Fukushima, Daniel Henshall, Yutaka Izumihara, Anamaria Marinca, Kaori Momoi, Lasarus Ratuere, Danusia Samal, Tawanda Manyimo, Mana Hira Davis, Erroll Anderson, Kai Fung Rieck, Andrew Stehlin, Matthias Luafutu
Curator Review
Verdict
A visually polished but emotionally chilly cyberpunk remake that has enough atmosphere, production design, and action craft to intrigue genre fans, even if its identity politics and adaptation choices are hard to ignore. It’s worth watching if you’re curious about the look and ideas more than the execution.
Best for
cyberpunk and near-future sci-fi fans
viewers interested in sleek production design and world-building
fans of philosophical action films
people who want to compare it with the anime source material
Skip if
you want a fully coherent screenplay
whitewashing concerns will ruin the experience for you
you prefer energetic, character-driven action
you expect the film to match the depth of the original anime
Overview
Ghost in the Shell is a glossy, sometimes eerily beautiful piece of studio cyberpunk that never quite finds the soul inside its machinery. The film has a strong sense of texture: neon cityscapes, rain-slick surfaces, and a melancholy digital future that can be genuinely absorbing when it stops explaining itself and just lets the imagery breathe.
Worth noting
Its biggest problem is that it feels assembled from familiar sci-fi parts without fully committing to the philosophical or emotional questions it raises. The adaptation choices are impossible to separate from the viewing experience, and they hang over the film even when the action is working. Still, there’s a certain cold elegance to the whole thing, and the production design does a lot of heavy lifting.
Bottom line
As a standalone genre object, it’s more interesting than its reputation suggests, but also less satisfying than it wants to be. If you come for atmosphere, cybernetic identity, and polished spectacle, there’s enough here to justify a look. If you want a sharp, resonant remake, it’s a harder sell.
Top Letterboxd reviews
davidehrlich (2.5★) · 1432 likes
well… those were definitely some choices.
SilentDawn (0.5★) · 994 likes
5
Leaving the theater last night, having just sat through the excruciating experience of Ghost in the Shelll, I was furious. I wasn't merely furious at the misconstrued world-building, all imitation and no flair, all dazzling 1990s sci-fi dress-up and no semblance of imagination. I wasn't simply furious at the tattered remnants of a screenplay and its constant tendency of oversimplification in regards to its existentialism and its gender ambiguity. I wasn’t *only* furious at the incoherent action, cut together… more
Matt Singer · 824 likes
Just after the first action sequence, a voice called out from behind me in the darkened theater:
"Damn, that is a bad bitch."
will (0.5★) · 628 likes
so are we just going to ignore the fact that a japanese woman was kidnapped and turned into a caucasian robot?
this might be the most sinister film i've ever seen in my life.
Chris 🍉 (0.5★) · 518 likes
"yeah this movie is whitewashed but it's also a criticism of whitewashing so its revolutionary... handled so well" (basically what i gathered skimming reviews)
why don't y'all just shut the fuck up and cast rinko kikuchi instead of this boring ass white lmfaoooo