Ghost in the Shell 2017 by SHINYGOODGUY

CINEMA

Ghost in the Shell 2017

POSTED BY: SHINYGOODGUY
UPDATED: Thursday, April 6, 2017 19:38
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VIEWED: 3202
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Wednesday, April 5, 2017 4:41 AM

I was so hyped to see this movie, but please, be forewarned:

GITS (Ghost in the Shell)...I'm not going to take time to give it a decent full review except to say - wait for the DVD/Digital release. It felt somewhat out of sync/disjointed, ScarJo looked as if she was searching to find the character's purpose, the action sequences were great, but it was a lot of style over substance. Visually busy and somewhat distracting, it was a cross between bright neon lights and low grade music videos; followed by beautifully choreographed fight scenes; the Matrix meets a Blade Runner knock-off.

Even the usually beautiful (I say usually because she looked somewhat haggard in this film) Juliet Binoche couldn't save this dull movie. Yes, dull. The pacing and rhythm were off-kilter, the script and dialogue felt heavy and plodding. The best actor in the cast was Takeshi Kitano, who played Daisuke Aramaki the man in charge who leads the elite task force Section 9, and Major's boss.

SPOILER ALERT

The best scenes were used in the trailers. It was as though they didn't know what to do to move the story along. It was like the director was ordering take out while the actors were reading their lines. I felt like I was watching a bad movie; I kept thinking "how long is this movie again?" Rupert Sanders got out his 'dark and foreboding' kit, same one he used for Snow White and the Huntsman in June 2012, (we all know how that turned out) and applied liberally in his attempt to give it that 'Blade Runner' look everyone desperately tries to copy.

But the action, oh the action, although good, it is negatively undermined by the "slow-footed, dim-witted" and deliberate pace of the movie. I could almost hear Sanders directing the actors to pause for effect. It wasn't painful to watch, it just felt like time was going backwards.

I give this movie 2.5 stars out of 5. (For production value and some awesome action sequences).

The disappointed SGG

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Wednesday, April 5, 2017 10:40 AM

WISHIMAY

Yeah, we were looking forward to it and then I read the reviews, which basically said the same thing. All flash and no substance. Had nothing else to do this past weekend, blahhh...

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Wednesday, April 5, 2017 12:17 PM

ZEEK

I didn't have my hopes up for this one. I don't know anything about the series to begin with. The trailer looked like a standard action movie. Sounds like that's what they aimed for. Lame.

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Wednesday, April 5, 2017 7:19 PM

THGRRI

They are trying to say it's doing poorly because a white person was used instead of an Asian.

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Wednesday, April 5, 2017 8:40 PM

JEWELSTAITEFAN

I have oft heard about excessive narration being the mark of a poor director.

Perhaps that was my biggest regret of Bladerunner.

But is it possible that so much sci-fi is complicated enough that narration is required to tell the story, the director is not capable, or the audience will not have the patience or attention span? I loved that narration was effectively absent from BDS and BDM.

GiTS seemed to rely heavily upon narration. I was not aware of the story prior to the film, but I had hoped for more. Maybe they thought that ScarJo with the worst haircut/style in the world would DO well. Hearty har har.

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Thursday, April 6, 2017 5:25 AM

SHINYGOODGUY

That was just part of the hype. I read an article talking about that very thing and it seemed to say that the producers kind of wanted the controversy, to generate buzz.

For me, two things come to mind:

1- All fingers should point to the director, he's the captain of the ship.
Put Denis Villeneuve (Arrival) at the helm, then you would see something.

2- If you gotta rely on controversy to promote your film, well, let's just say you've got problems.

Like I said in my review, even ScarJo was kind of "lost" in the film. It doesn't matter if an Asian would have played this part (ScarJo is a box office draw, especially in action genre), the script sucked big time:

The article describes the many hands that contributed to this total fuck-up.

http://leisuretravelaid.com/2017/04/ghost-in-the-shell-has-to-face-whi
tewashing-criticism-at/

Thank you Steven Spielberg and company. You own this!

SGG

Quote:
Originally posted by THGRRI:
They are trying to say it's doing poorly because a white person was used instead of an Asian.

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Thursday, April 6, 2017 5:39 AM

SHINYGOODGUY

The story was muddled and disjointed, the direction was non-existent. The article I attached to Thgrri's response described a merry group of interlopers (12 producers & 2 writers) that "handled" the script. "Too many cooks..." comes to mind. It was a lot more than the lame narration that caused this script to reek.

In an interview, ScarJo admitted to having trouble portraying the lead character. That's poor direction, but there was so much more. No, this had "suit meddling" written all over it.

SGG

Quote:
Originally posted by JEWELSTAITEFAN:
I have oft heard about excessive narration being the mark of a poor director.

Perhaps that was my biggest regret of Bladerunner.

But is it possible that so much sci-fi is complicated enough that narration is required to tell the story, the director is not capable, or the audience will not have the patience or attention span? I loved that narration was effectively absent from BDS and BDM.

GiTS seemed to rely heavily upon narration. I was not aware of the story prior to the film, but I had hoped for more. Maybe they thought that ScarJo with the worst haircut/style in the world would DO well. Hearty har har.

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Thursday, April 6, 2017 7:38 PM

JEWELSTAITEFAN

Quote:
Originally posted by SHINYGOODGUY:
Quote:
Originally posted by JEWELSTAITEFAN:
I have oft heard about excessive narration being the mark of a poor director.

Perhaps that was my biggest regret of Bladerunner.

But is it possible that so much sci-fi is complicated enough that narration is required to tell the story, the director is not capable, or the audience will not have the patience or attention span? I loved that narration was effectively absent from BDS and BDM.

GiTS seemed to rely heavily upon narration. I was not aware of the story prior to the film, but I had hoped for more. Maybe they thought that ScarJo with the worst haircut/style in the world would DO well. Hearty har har.

The story was muddled and disjointed, the direction was non-existent. The article I attached to Thgrri's response described a merry group of interlopers (12 producers & 2 writers) that "handled" the script. "Too many cooks..." comes to mind. It was a lot more than the lame narration that caused this script to reek.

In an interview, ScarJo admitted to having trouble portraying the lead character. That's poor direction, but there was so much more. No, this had "suit meddling" written all over it.

SGG

After thinking about this, I realized that the story seemed third-rate, derivative, like something that should be on Japan TV - maybe a made-for-TV level of story.

Regarding her character, I wonder how much she drew upon her experience of The Island - about the same character process, perhaps. Or else it's a ripoff of Ex-Machina. And Alicia blows the doors off of ScarJo.

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