An average movie

I already saw this movie but since I just bought an awesome brand new TV, I thought I might as well check it out again. Well, even though this movie was a critical and commercial flop when it was released, to be honest, I don’t think it was so bad after all. Indeed, the whole thing looked amazing, the action scenes were badass and they managed to nail the mood of the original Japanese animated feature. However, even if the story was decent enough, unfortunately, they did make some mistakes though. Of course, there was the whole controversy about casting Scarlett Johansson in the lead role and I think she was indeed miscast but not because she is not Asian. I mean, since Johansson is one of the only bankable actresses in the world, it completey made sense that the producers chose her so the whole white-washing controversy was rather ridiculous and even Mamoru Oshii, the director of 'Kokaku Kidotai', gave his blessing. What bother me with her was the fact she was just too small to play the Major (1,60 meters), she wasn’t physically threatening enough and I never had the feeling that she was actually a lethal killing machine. Furthermore, even though she is usually a decent actress, I thought she gave a rather weak performance which was rather surprising since she complained nailed it a couple of years ago with a similar character in ‘Under the Skin’. On the other hand, she wasn’t helped by the fact that they pretty much ruined her character. Indeed, one of the major trademarks of ‘Ghost in Shell’ is the fact that the Major is a cold, mysterious and ambiguous character. The fact that she might be struggling with her identity was always only implied and never really stated but, in this US version, it became a major focus which completely changed this character and, in the process, she became just too weak and emotional. Anyway, to conclude, in spite of its flaws, I still think that it could have been so much worse and I believe it is actually worth a look, especially if you like the genre.