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#Post#: 40784--------------------------------------------------
Ghost in the Shell (2017)
By: Chiprocks1 Date: September 30, 2017, 8:20 pm
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[center]Ghost in the Shell (2017)
Trailer
HTML https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G4VmJcZR0Yg
[/center]
Ghost in the Shell is not a good movie. It's bad. It ranks up
there as the worst of 2017. Granted, I haven't seen every movie
released this year. But I'm gonna go out on a ledge and say it's
the worst. I thought the the biggest problem I would have with
this one is the casting of Scarlett Johansson in the lead role.
No matter how hard I tried, I just couldn't get pass this. This
was wrong in every way imaginable. And yes, I'm a fan of
her's...but even I knew this was not the way to go when news
first broke that she was signed to this. Ironically enough, this
was the least objectionable aspect of the film. This is devoid
of any personality. Boring for a lot of reasons. Bad writing,
bad direction, bad dialogue, bad pacing, bad.....everything. A
turd in spite of the "visual" eye candy, which isn't saying
much. This too was meh. Skip. 1 Star out of 5.
#Post#: 40945--------------------------------------------------
Re: Ghost in the Shell (2017)
By: Neumatic Date: December 11, 2017, 12:22 am
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Halfway through, it's not really making me think of Ghost In The
Shell, you know what it's reminding me of?
Back To The Future 2. The shot of that first day (side though,
isn't it weird that so much of this movie takes place during the
DAY?) where ScoJo is walking down the street and there's that
giant fish sologram swimming about? That totally reminded me of
the holographic Jaws from BTTF 2. Plus there's that goofy car
that passes in the background, and on top of that, Batou's car
looks like the freakin' Deloreon, doesn't it? I'm waiting for
the wheels to flip and for it to take off into the air.
Oh, side thought on Batou:
HTML https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DQvH1imV4AAtI6M.jpg
Until he lost his eyes, my mind kept switching between thinking
he was Keifer Sutherland or Jack Black. Either of which would
be entertaining, I have no idea who he is, I THINK he's Dutch, I
also always thought the eyes in the animation was a stylistic
choice and not weird little lenses.
The other movie that this is making me think of is Robocop,
since it's her human brain in a metal shell now (rather like how
they changed the Fugitoid in Ninja Turtles, now that I think
about it). I was really thinking it when we went to the
corporate HQ and there were those sentries and that tank thing
that was SO ED-209 that it wasn't even funny.
It feels like this weird halfway point between Robocop and what
the original Ghost In The Shell was, that anime had cybernetics
way more advanced, they had brain downloads and shit, you got
the feeling there were other bots like the Major out there and
that the human body was becoming this weird expendable
appendage... it was the end of the biological age of mankind.
This movie felt more like the beginning of that phase. It's
like a prequel to itself.
And one thought, you know I'm sick unto death of holograms, I
think it's a lazy way to add "Flash" to the future without
actually DOING anything, i didn't like the solograms from the
first time I saw them in the previews because they kept messing
with my sense of scale, but holy cow, that fish one I mentioned
earlier, just SWIMMING across the street? That's just stupid
and dangerous. And unless you're really far away, you can't see
much of the solograms on the sides of buildings so what good are
they? And imagine if you lived in one of those buildings or had
an office, how much would it suck to look out and see a fat sumo
wrestler's *ss or something like that?
#Post#: 40948--------------------------------------------------
Re: Ghost in the Shell (2017)
By: Chiprocks1 Date: December 13, 2017, 7:56 am
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This movie still irks me. It really left a bad taste in my mouth
that I'm still having to use mouthwash to get it out.
#Post#: 41011--------------------------------------------------
Re: Ghost in the Shell (2017)
By: Neumatic Date: December 29, 2017, 12:05 am
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I can't believe it took me this long to finish the flick. So
many thoughts. The stuff about Back To The Fuiture and Robocop
still hold true... would like to make a supercut of all of
that... I need to get some video editing software.
Anyway, here are some bullet points of thoughts I had regarding
the movie:
Sco Jo
So I totally understand the reality of Hollywood where you need
a name star to sell a movie, and on paper Sco Jo makes a big
amount of sense. Her, Under The Skin, Lost In Translation, The
Avengers... she's got the prereqs to do a character and movie
like this. And heck, someone in China I think it was MADE a
Scarlett Johannson robot, so yeah, that's what a robot there is
going to look like.
The issue is that she should be the ONLY American in the movie,
that should be the tell. The robots look western, everyone else
(namely everyone else in the cast) should be Asian. It's the
reverse Othello principle. And you'd have this whole reinforced
disassociation every time you see her, she doesn't look like she
belongs, she feels separated from everyone else, she can't help
but be aware of her body, etc...
I think a big issue with her being Asian is that they throw that
on you at the end like a surprise, and it's so insulting. if
they implied it at the front, that this is a new body and it's
not her etc MAYBE that could have landed better, I dunno.
The thing is, if this was ten-fifteen years ago or a B-movie...
or if the movie was made in China or something, I could see
Maggie Q or Shu Qi or Zhang Ziyi in the role and been happy.
Rinko Kinkuchi
Yeah, a lot of people wanted Rinko Kinkuchi (from Pacific Rim)
to be the Major and there was NO way that was going to happen.
Having said that, demand was so high that I could picture her
being added into the movie (a la "I've HAD it with these
mothers*cking snakes on this mother*cking plane!") as one of
Section 9. Maybe replacing mullet guy, because who gives a sh*t
about mullet guy?
I think I mentioned how I always thought of Batou as being the
older mentor figure, kind of the most luddite of the group, well
Rinko would be the one to contrast against that, she'd be the
newest member on the team and the audience surrogate, if
anything futuristic needs to be explained, they'd explain it to
her. And you should have that feeling at the end that she's
going to be the last generation of pre-singularity humans that
are going to be there.
Dumbing Down Vs Keeping Things Simple
Here's the plot of the original Ghost In The Shell: an
incredible, intelligent new life form born from pure information
is unintentionally wreaking havoc on the world, seeking out a
wise human to bond with in order to ascend to a higher form of
life, something wondrous that we've never seen before. I think
American audiences can wrap their heads around that. You know
why? Because it was the plot of the FIRST STAR TREK MOVIE IN
1979! And that movie PLAYED IN THEATERS FOR A YEAR! People can
absolutely wrap their heads around the plot of Ghost In The
Shell. If you want to streamline it, I have no problem with it,
but don't graft on a stupid replacement plot because you don't
have respect for your audience.
Is This Society Actually Working?
So something about the ending combined with the fact they took
down one corporate guy made me think "...is this a dystopia?"
"Was everything working fine, or at least acceptable, except for
that one rich a**hole sticking his d*ck in the works?" "What do
the people in this world THINK of their world?" "Is this a good
world to live in or not?" I have no idea. I never thought of
that in the original because it felt like everything was going
on, everything just was.
Is this stylized? Is this like Pushing Daisies or Gotham or
something?
So there's this bit where... Cutter, I want to say his name was,
he's in Beat Takeshi's office and it made me think of Gotham
(and I kept calling him 'Oswald" for the rest of the movie).
And when you combine that with all the bowl-shaped holograms on
the desks, all the Americans in Japan (or "...JAPAN?" as I keep
calling it), everyone wearing 80s clothing and driving 80s cars,
the solograms everywhere, I just kept thinking "is this supposed
to be reality or is it just a weird stylized thing? Is it like
Pushing Daisies?
#Post#: 41012--------------------------------------------------
Re: Ghost in the Shell (2017)
By: Chiprocks1 Date: December 29, 2017, 7:27 am
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Great read. You brought up some stuff that I didn't even think
of. Well said.
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