Ghost in the Shell 2017: What Could Have Been (ANIME ABANDON)
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- čas přidán 25. 08. 2024
- Few things are as frustrating as seeing a good movie inside a terrible one.
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What kills me about beating up the guy in the water while invisible is that in this movie, it's just a CG fest that we've come to be used to. In the original anime movie, it was an impressive piece of animation because you know that someone had to draw and animate someone being beat up by apparently nothing. In the CG version, you can even still see the "invisible" person, anyway.
Clearly bad CGI, though not all CGI is bad, nor is it necessarily easy, especially when it comes to passing it off as something other than CGI.
I hope you realize that this was a budget decision. NOT drawing something is much cheaper in animation. Hell, you even see that the "invisibility" wasn't suppose to be 100% in the anime, she's clearly visible multiple times.
But I guess it popular to make fun of this movie.
While I think the anime is superior in the story-telling department and general philosophy-point. In the visual department, it's still a much better representation than let's say "Battle Angel Alita".
I was watching the original anime just the other day, and something I noticed in that scene is that you can see her shadow. I thought that was a nice little detail. However the camoflage works, it doesn't really make you invisible so the light goes through you. You still cast a shadow.
I agree the anime was good enough. No need to give it live action touch up. Even though having seen it way back in my teens I was completely confused but so deeply invested in the world the animation and story. Yes it's dialogue is as philosophical as you would fear but I knew where it was going; I was a kid at the time so Obviously I wouldn't know exactly how to explain it. Now seeing Bennett's Review helped made the anime much clearer to understand ... Now as for Arise ...
@@Deckaio Water is insanely hard to animate, and it is even harder to animate around an invisible person. If they wanted to save budget they could just cut out the wide angle shots. That's the part that drew me to the original anime film in the first place. They used the background environment to convincingly portray a fully choreographed multi-stage fight.
And that's the reason this film gets so much hate over this scene, because rather than do something equally complex, they just partially obscured the actors and added CG water for effect which itself is a much cheaper version of the same scene.
When I heard them say "Hayn-ka" instead of "Hahn-ka" my mind went "Hanka Hill. I sell cyborgs and cyborg accessories."
Kuze. That boy ain't right
But it's a live action movie. So it's gotta be Hank Hill *as portrayed by* Tom Hanks. The ultimate Hankening.
Pensive Scarlet God damn I want a live action King of the Hill movie!
@@PFiction24 Got dang it man I see them crazy ass picture people be all comin' round bein' all paper pushin' Y'know man be all like dang 'ol scribble scrabble sign on the dotted line and piles of cash like woo, yeah right man buncha suits know nothing 'bout country livin' man...
what about Junichiro ? hank hill's japanese half brother ? he builds robots and robots accessories!
Edge of Tomorrow was a *light novel adaptation* ("All You Need Is Kill") that changed a LOT about the source material (up to and including "whitewashing" the protagonist), but remained true to the spirit and was actually very GOOD. Despite the badass premise and Tom Cruise and Emily Blunt's star power, it BOMBED at the box office because the marketing department totally dropped the ball.
"We Can Remember It for You Wholesale" was just a childish 15-page story.
Somehow it managed to become 2 movies: most awesome and lamest there are.
It seams creativity does not stop with the source material.
Also modern audience is a bitch. I am a retro-gaming enthusiast, and somehow I feel modern media just lacks... lust for new experience. Somehow I find more "new" in 50-60s movies and 80-90s games. Games - are partly tinted by my nostalgia (though many were before my time). But why movies are stale?
@@volo870 if you want that old school feel in modern games you need to go indie.
Try Disco Elysium, or at least look into it👍🏾
Good script, good action, superb acting.
Rather ironic that a remake/adaptation of a film and franchise, where one of the main themes is the importance of identity, has no real identity of its own.
What do you think about the city skyline thing? It always looked like they tried too hard to do this mega cyberpunk thing, but it just looks flat and edgy. Even Akira's Neo Tokyo looks more menacing and belivable. You don't even need to have a night scene in the movie, as Akira and GITS showned; you just need very big, desumanizing buldings, making the character look like nothing. Innocence did it perfectly in my opinion.
I expected nothing from this film, and was still let down.
It failed on practically every level including levels I wasn't aware it could even fail at. I remember when I finally actually watched it long after it left theaters I just thought I know this is going to make me feel dead inside and it's so did. Pure Hollywood cynical cash grab right there. Such a waste, such a complete waste.
I ecpected nothing from this yt video got hot diapers
And now I want to see the version of the movie Bennett talked about. It would be amazing in the right hands.
Alas, Hindsight sucks, and there's no way they'll attempt to make that film now.
Sadly, with all the riots happening in the US right now, even if Covid magically disappeared and Hollywood was re-open again, there's still no way it would ever get made, because people would deem anything talking about race right now to be "poison" because of controvery -- at a time when, inversely, conversations about things like this are EXACTLY what we need to be having.
InsideJoke Plus its not in Holy Wood’s interest to create art that challenges the status quo when that status quo makes a small but powerful group of wealthy individuals a crap ton of money.
I wouldn’t call this the worst anime to live action adaptation. That honour still goes to Dragon Ball Evolution.
Debattable. You can still watch Dragon Ball Evolution to laugh at it so there's some enjoyment to be found
Yeah this review reminded me just how much wasted potential there was. Good actors pretty good effects and money (I mean they used WETA for goodness sake) this had the potential to be great if only the script had been way way better.
Honestly the minute I found out it was a PG-13 rating I was like this is going to suck out loud. It did not disappoint in that regard but it was the only place it didn't disappoint.
Speaking of executive interference, Netflix got rid of a director who wanted to do a faithful adaptation of Resident Evil by way of a multi season series, and rehired the guy who filmed the Milla Jovovich Resident Evil movies cause the Netflix execs wanted something to draw in general audiences.
So more of the Paul W S Anderson action schlock!?
I thought he was working on the Monster Hunter film?
But anyway... GAWDFUGGINDAMMIT!
Great, more characters people actually know and like from the games being rendered into incompetent shills for a Mary Sue whose literally only reason to exist is because she's the director's wife. And what's more, that idiot's now on the road to ruin another Capcom property with Monster Hunter and guess who's the star? Go on, guess. I'm sure you'll be very surprised and what character they picked for said star to play.
@@battlion507 Surprisingly Monster Hunter sounds best for someone like Anderson
@@ZeldaEd123 It pissed me off to how Jill, Ada, and Claire were made second fiddles to whatever-her name-was and Rodriguez. I knew for a fact that Jill could've been the perfect face of the movie verse if they wanted a female lead so damn badly.
@@kpopfan246 If there was ever a time for Capcom to get involved and shut it down like they did with Malibu's Street Fighter, I'd say now would be it.
On scarlet johansson's casting, You also have to remember that Hollywood doesn't doesn't consider anime adaptations profitable. Ghost in the shell was made for the Asian market (China is the fastest-growing movie going audience in the world, #2 after the us) because they are more likely to recognise the property. If you want to see a Japanese specific reaction to the casting Japanese man yuta has a great video on it.
I think Scarlett Johansson was more because the Chinese producers thought she could get seats in the theaters. For example: the reason why matt damen was in the great wall was because the Chinese producers demanded it because he's famous worldwide.
At the end of the day, the audience who are more likely to watch the movie don't understand the American context. They live in very asian countries, so they don't mind seeing white actors in asian roles because they already get that normally.
Mind that Hollywood always learns the wrong lessons.
When Cutthroat Island flopped hard, the lesson was that people didn't want to see Pirate Movies anymore.
Pirates of the Caribbean was doubly seen as a high risk movie because the other movies based on a Disney theme park ride flopped and of course... People didn't want to see Pirate Movies.
When it became a box office hit? It was a fluke.
When the sequels made money? It was because of Johnny Depp.
Have we seen any other Pirate Movie since then? No, because people don't want to see Pirate Movies.
The same goes for Gladiator Movies, Computer Game Movies and among others, Anime Adaptions.
Each half-assed try that flops, cements this notion. Any success is a fluke and doesn't count.
None of them come to the conclusion that maybe that they were simply bad movies and/or bad adaptations.
And remember, after the first success, all Pirates of the Caribbean movies had to have something supernatural.
And there was my biggest disappointment with At World's End. No big naval battle, no two fleets dukeing it out, no clever maneuvering and so on. Just the unprotected flagship blown up without returning fire and the fleet runs. Cool shot, but stupid.
@@grayscribe1342 Black Sails, a series sure, but still pirates, and between 2014-2017.
@@grayscribe1342 They never come to the conclusion that movies are bad because of bad adaptation, scripts, or directors because if they did the asshole who pitched for the movie to be greenlit would lose his job. Instead when the project they lobbied for flops like a turd in the punchbowl they obfuscate and rationalize to avoid getting fired. "We had the graphs and the data showing this IP had pop-culture marketability and that Scarlett Johansson had name recognition and star power. This movie should've been a slam-dunk, but it wasn't. I sure as hell don't know why. Maybe anime adaptations truly just aren't profitable?" "Guess you're right. Well, lesson learned. Let's do the Spider-Man reboot to make the money back!" You have to remember that Hollywood as an industry is inundated with money and incompetence.
@@KageRyuu6 Hollywood tends to ignore shows or even disregards them. Anything to cement their narrative. I wouldn't even be surprised to hear that they actively sabotage a movie just to cement their opinion in this regard.
I read from a screenwriter who was writing for TV for a while and returned to Hollywood that when he applied, they ignored everything he wrote for TV. They were only interested in his movie screenwriting and as he hasn't written any movie screenplays his reuturn was difficult. His earlier movie accomplishments were ignored.
Consider the current trend that many in Hollywood seem to think that they don't have to entertain us anymore, that they are owned out money just because they made a movie. Calling anyone who hasn't watched it names?
They believe something, therefore it is, no matter the proof to the contrary.
@@Anomaly188 Let's not forget the Nostalgia Critic's running gag: "But the charts say..."
"We never gave a flying s%#& about this project!"
That pretty much sums up the movie.
Obviously
Let hope he tries cyperpunk2077
The whole speech about what the film could be basically was just describing 'Get Out'. So ya your not wrong, that sort of movie CAN be really effective, but this film did every step of it wrong.
@Ray Caster To say nothing of the gender-swapped hacker wife towards the end of season 1.
"what was influential has become passe". That is probably the best and most powerful description of this movie. Couldn't have said it better myself.
I feel that as a standalone Cyberpunk movie, it wouldn't have been a bad movie. I'm brave enough to say that given that stipulation, it's better than decent.
But it completely dropped the ball as a GitS adaptation.
That's a fair assessment.
I don't get how exactly it's a bad GITS adaptation when every adaption makes shit tons of changes from the manga.
Ghost in the Shell is hard to nail on any media honestly. Videos games aren’t that great, even some of the new GITS anime’s in the 2010s aren’t that great.
No way man even as a Film on its own its Crap the Writing is Bad the Acting is Poor the action is nothing great & Worst its Boring as Hell :S if anything it makes me think of all the awful Cyberpunk movies that where made in the early to mid 90's that tried too cash in on the popularity of Blade Runner Director's Cut when it 1st came out.
@@koichidignitythief7429 Well you aren't wrong! And all of the animated versions make some pretty big changes from one another sometimes. In fact, that thing that annoyed him about making Motoko the first fullbodied cyborg? That's in there! (I believe it's in GiTS S.A.C. 2nd GIG). The animated movies and series are not consistent, even with each other - and they are WAY off from the manga.
Honestly, I didn't really care about the "Whitewashing" part since in this future anyone can pretty much look anyway they wanted, and Scarlett Johansson actually looked like the major from the anime. (and like Sage mentioned, you can actually go somewhere with a plot of dissociating yourself from your racial identity in this world)
What ACTUALLY bothered me was the whole her being "The Special" plotline (basically, as far away from the original story as you can possibly get) and it actually stopped me from going to watch this movie.
Meanwhile in a parallel Battle Angel Alita makes the main character special in the the fact she's one of the last of her kind( in fact as her history is explored more she's not special by even the people she was a part of). The only thing else that makes her special is how she was brought up 200 years after her wake up in the junkheap.
"The Special" plot line kneecapped the entire idea of your first sentence. She's special because she's the first full-body prosthetic cyborg. There aren't other people who are brains that can just switch entire bodies if they want to change it up a bit.
@@SomeRandomJackAss What makes her "The Special" is that there's a giant conspiracy behind it and everyone treating her like she's going to change the world because of what she is.
In contrast, in the original movie/series, while she is contemplative about her condition, to the general world it seems like a natural progression of where things are going and no one puts her on a pedestal over it.
See, that's a good criticism. The "Special One" trope I didn't mind so much as I'm just used to that trope so much, but it also did make me realize it has been done to death.
And Blade Runner 2049 came out at roughly the same time (Oof). That movie is getting fondly remembered (while the live-action GitS has been forgotten about only a couple of years later).
And you can see, even in broad daylight, Blade Runner 2049 had far more sharp contrast and bleak atmosphere in the landscapes.
What do you mean fondly remembered? It bombed the same way Ghost in the shell did. Sure, it made more money, but it was also more expensive and almost an hour longer.
Also one of the core-theme of Bladerunner was pollution, this is why it looked so dirty and bleak, even in daylight ... because there was barely even twilight.
The difference, where Bladerunner is clearly superior, is that it's a original story and a continuation of the previous story. And not an adaptation.
@@Deckaio Blade Runner 2049 didn't catch the world on fire in the cinema, but it certainly gained more popularity through DVD/Bluray/streaming (while live-action GitS is already semi-obscure).
We need to talk about the elephant in the room regarding why this movie felt hollow and devoid of care. We need to talk about China.
Pazu was supposed to be in this movie, he was to be played by Tricky. He was reimagined as a monk, who would operate as a spiritual guide for Motoko in her journey of self-discovery. Half an hour of soul-searching and philosophizing was dedicated to scenes that all involved Pazu. But Pazu was a Tibetan monk in the movie, so all the money that came from Chinese companies to make this film was threatened to be pulled if reference to Tibetan culture in a positive light wasn’t removed.
This movie could have been a lot more than what we got, and it had many problems in the way of that, but I wholeheartedly believe this is the one that killed the movie. The rest could have been forgiven or ignored if this one hadn’t happened, and we would have a good movie on our hands.
The whole "outrage as publicity" thing didn't even work that well: most people I know (myself included) forget that this movie exists until someone talks about it on CZcams or in a podcast.
My reaction to ScarJo being cast as Matoko was to say "Well, that's gonna be a dumpster fire" and not see the film. Looks like I made the right choice...
The long and short of it is that in the manga, and arguably in the 1995 anime too, losing your identity to the cybernetic assimilation and the internet is a GOOD THING! For all intents and purposes, it really is a shortcut to Nirvana, the whole intuition thing Motoko has is because her ghost is not as connected to her synthetic body as it would be to a flesh and blood one, and that allows her to "channel" other ghosts. Motoko surpasses the self to attain enlightenment, as a Buddhist monk would. And in the movie we get the "individuality is the best!" american take on life. Doesn't work in this story.
Sonic The Hedgehog proved that fan outrage can equal a Box Office success cuz make no mistake if they had stuck with Sonic's original design that Movie would have BOMBED.
Some say this Sonic design's thing was orchestrated, a marketing operation. if that was really the case, then no lessons were learned. or/and even worse: they've learned that this kind of maneuver works, and we will be played as fiddles more and more. sad lol!
@Akimbo Madman I thought that too, but them we have "Cats."
You are a better man than me Sage. I lasted only as long as it took them to say, the major was the first for me to turn it off. I still haven’t seen more of it and still don’t intend to. And after your analysis of the movie, I feel even more justified in my decision. Thank you.
For the sake of transparency, this now edited comment was used to advertise the original sponsor of this video, which has also since been edited to remove said sponsorship integration, as the intended period of time for it's inclusion has ended.
You could be advertising bail money for protesters, but whatevs man :/ late stage capitalism crushes people of all races
Why not raise the bar by expressing the true meaning of love and respect with *Manscaped?*
The biggest problem with this movie, aside from the whitewashing. It’s Bland and forgettable, I think Aronofsky, Villaneuve, or Inaritu (Sorry about spelling) could have done justice to GITS not the guy who did Snow White and the huntsman. Anyway stay safe Sage. Even Altered Carbon did this better.
I really enjoyed the movie, it made me watch the original film and giving me a opening or interest in watching more Ghost In The Shell stuff!
We want to watch The Misfit of Demon King Academy for next month, okay?
14:48 “We live in a post-Aloha world.”
As someone who never saw Aloha, what made Aloha stand out enough for the world to be divided into pre- and post- worlds involving it?
To be fair, Sage? If I've learned anything working in retail. LOTS of people will just tell your their life stories at the drop of a hat.
Honestly when a movie uses a controversy( directly or not) to make people talk about it seems so desperate to me. Just saying.
I think you are quite right. It shows that the film makers had no faith in the film itself.
please review Alita Battle Angel.
Second that
Third
Fourth
All in say “Aye”?
AYE
Takashi basically plays the same role as he did in Johnny Mnemonic.
This movie was so bad, I even forgot some scenes from it.
Also, Oi! Mentioning Streets of Fire. Hurrah!
You pretty much summed up the casting problem very well. I'm also surprised you didn't mention Avi Arad was a producer on this movie too, and considering his hit and miss track record, that doesn't surprise me.
Also great review. Wasn't expecting this to be 2 parts 😊
And Black Lagoon fans want a Live action movie. I always tell them that Hollywood would find some way to fuck it up.
Outrage Coda was really good. So was Ryuzo and the Seven Henchmen, I always look forward to a Takeshi Kitano film.
Anyone remember that scene in "Angel Cop" when Mira says that Kuze kills innocent people?
Pepperidge Farm remembers.
FUCK AND PISS!!!!!
Joel and the Bots: They Just didn’t care
Next Time: Back to our scheduled program
0:59 - "Military-grade" = "produced by lowest bidder, at the minimum quality the government found acceptable"
That and Blade Runner is a noir story hence the reason why it was mostly taking place at night
I absolutely love "My guitar want to kill your mama T-Shirt Sage is wearing". It was amazing
I already didn't give a damn about the Ghost in the Shell film before it was revealed that Scarlett Johansson would be the lead & outright HATED it afterwards. I decided I would NOT go see it after hearing it because I wouldn't be caught dead paying even a single penny to see this film. Hollywood needs to learn to show proper respect whenever they try to make a movie adaptation of an existing franchise. If you're just doing it for name brand recognition AND NOTHING ELSE, then don't even bother in the 1st place.
My favorite pants-on-head moment for the movie had to be the end of the interrogation scene, where the garbageman... *** searches for CZcams-friendly way of saying this *** unalives himself using the world's worst restraint system.
I mean if Shiroi Masamune was known for any two things, it was pretty girls and mechanical design. Yet somehow this wrongful-death-lawsuit-made-corporeal got created just for this movie.
Everything about this scene makes no sense from an architectural or engineering perspective. Why would a lie detector even need internet access? Why is the ceiling vaulted? To intimidate the suspect? But they're in a little mirrored room inside the vaulted one, they can't even _see_ the vaulted ceiling to be intimidated.
I like the live action GitS. And I don't apologize for it. This movie did a lot wrong: its world could have been more realistically visualized (I wish Neill Blomkamp or Paul Verhoeven had directed this movie), the social commentary, political intrigue and introspection into the human condition could have had a tighter focus as opposed to middle-of-the-road action (once again, I wish Neill Blomkamp or Paul Verhoeven had directed this movie), fewer fan service recreations of seminal scenes simply for the sake of having them in the film would have been appreciated (but to be honest, almost EVERY iteration of GitS has had a rendition of the tank fight, the Major ripping her own arms off under physical stress and the roof jump just to turn invisible, so it's unfair to say it's solely a problem of this film) and not having the original soundtrack playing during the "making of a cyborg" opening was...blasphemous. However, on the other hand, it did a lot right. The re-contextualization and design of Kuze was phenomenal, the visual interpretation of diving into someone else's cyber brain was better than every iteration of the animated versions, the idea of the Major being a stolen child who was brainwashed into cyberization and Section 9 as opposed to being a willing participant to both was an inspired choice and the live action Aramaki is a thing of beauty. (To his character's defense, mostly all he did in the original films and series was stand/sit and talk/direct the team. And occasionally he'd pow-wow with powerful officials to pull strings. That was his JOB. He wasn't a field agent or Soldier at this point in his life.)
But I can also COMPLETELY understand why so many GitS faithful hate it. My biggest issue with the film; the one thing you can't overlook and the one thing that you went in depth with is the casting of Scarlet Johanson. I honestly believe that if Hollywood had simply done the right thing and cast a solid Asian actress as Motoko Kusanagi, this movie would have gone over FAR BETTER with audiences that it did. It also didn't help that neither ScarJo or the dirsctor had apparently ever seen or attempted to watch any of the GitS franchise as they failed to even understand the basics of how the Major acted, her cadence of speech, how she thought or how she emoted. (Once again, and for the last time, I REALLY wish Neill Blomkamp or Paul Verhoeven had directed this movie.) And I don't know if it was a directorial choice or an acting choice, but the fact that she moves and carries herself like a stiff, knife handed robot is INFURIATING to me. The Major was built to seem as if she were more human-than-human. Her bodies were more often than not considered bleeding edge even in the universe that she inhabited...so why in the hell doesn't she MOVE LIKE A REAL WOMAN?
Also: An R rating would have suited this film better to accentuate the grittiness of the violence; since they decided to double down on the Japanese-woman-in-a-white-woman's-body idea, it would have been nice for the Major to actually OWN her former stolen identity when she "approved" of the big bad's assassination by saying her real name instead of her given one and; I could have done with seeing at least one Tachikoma.
Like I said, I failed to hate this movie. And if we're being honest, it's far better than more than 90% of the live action films that Japan makes of its own properties from a conceptual, visual, tonal and technical perspective. It's also better written and acted (overall) than Asian productions. I just personally think that it's ok to like a thing while still recognizing its faults. And I also think that there are more people out there who like this movie but don't like to admit that they do because it's so en vogue to hate it...
Lastly, the pronunciation of Hanka Robotics could EASILY be chalked up to a tomato/tomahto situation between different characters. Not every one pronounces things the same; even common things.
I kind of enjoyed it, too. I like that they went for a multicultural thing in the setting, and some of the visuals were pretty good, as well as visually adapting certain elements pitch perfect. GitS is a little too talk-heavy for most people, so dumbing down a lot of the heavier themes seems like it was done in service of making their money back. I do agree that an R would have served this movie a bit better, but again, gotta make that fetta.
And let's be honest, in a world where Netflix's Fullmetal Alchemist, Netflix's Death Note, and fucking Dragonball Evolution exist, THIS is the worst anime adaptation? I know hyperbole is the name of the game in these types of reviews, but come on.
one thing the film shows well: how little human life is worth in this world
I agree for the most part, but an Asian actress would not have helped. It was the half hour of philosophical scenes involving a Tibetan monk named Pazu that were ripped from the movie on demand of Chinese funders that killed it.
You found 5cm Per Second boring? Most people I came across (and myself included) didn't find it that way. Looking forward to your review of it so I can get an understanding.
I get why you were reminded of "the special" but I feel like there are more differences than similarities. The contrast between being significant to everyone else and insignificant to oneself is framed so differently. In this film it's not about who she is, just what she is. I actually thought that was one okay attempt at trying to present the identity aspects that are presented so much better in the source material, like what you touched on regarding the original character's "frame" being a "common product".
Sup Bennett. Thank you for this. Stay Safe. ✌💪
Coming from someone that saw this version before the original, I can get why people didn't like this 'adaptation' of the story. But in my honest opinion, while it was boring, it did give me the curiosity to look up the original film and to truly enjoy it. Would I watch the movie again? Maybe once in a blue moon. Would I watch the original movie when it's on TV? I would grab it every time it's on and watching nearly to the point of annoying my parents.
Imagine if they had managed to get the rights to mention "Lost in Translation" and just added in how said body type had become popular do to that movie that is was it sold like hot cakes/was also mass-produced. They could of then cast a young asian teen/child as the real Motoko while having the movie based around the idea of identity.
What really sucks about American Movies though is they tend to rely so much on action scenes. While yes, these animes can have good actions scenes, it's the characters and how they react to the situations they are put in that make anime engaging. Yet everytime what always seems to be on the mind of movie producers is how can they make things go big boom action bam fun destruction! Just look at Ghostbusters 2016, the whole tempo is just ruined by the excessive need to one up the original scenes and make them more action, the fact the original was more grounded and the action played off more dramatic than action packed is what made it engaging.
2017 was a rough year for Paramount... and if this movie is any indication... I think I know why...
I mean I wasn't fully against Scarlet being Makoto since if memory serves me correct Masamune Shirow mentioned that Makoto was never fully Asian. Given on her body build and appearance in the original movie/manga.
However I still laugh when people were saying Alita was being whitewashed also, even though a good section of cast were Hispanic. Which is best described in that movie, how Iron City was in South America (Peru, if I recall) because James Cameron believe a space elevator would be best located near the equator.
I also wasn't against ScarJo playing the Major. Motoko Kusanagi isn't the kind of person who'd care what her body's ethnicity was, she's a consummate professional. What they did to Togusa, Saito, Pazu and Boma though grinds my gears.
Masamune Shirow explicitly never revealed Makoto's original identity in the story (I do not know if he has since commented on it outside the story). It has been a long-time since I watched/read any of the GiTS stuff, but if I remember correctly, the one time it was really addressed, they did not touch on the race issue at all, but did highlight that her body being female was simply because they thought it would help her be better at her job. Again, correct me if I am wrong, but I think the implication was that she did not even know if she was originally female. That is probably pretty telling for her other protected characteristics.
In the Manga Alita was build out of different female body parts and the place is basically the survived rest of mankind clashing all kinds of cultures together. it is basically the most multicultural movie you can make but then for "those" people "multicultural" means non-white and so they were mad.
Meanwhile, Daisuke Ido in Alita becomes Dyson Ido because he’s played by a white guy, but Christoph Waltz doesn’t have an existing hate train like Scarlet Johansen does
I was half expecting this to be a 3 part review with Sage having a 5 o' clock shadow and a bottle of whiskey explaining why the scene versus the tank isn't just a shadow imitation of the original, but totally soul less in it's execution over all. But I really do need to know, if they kidnapped the 2 at the same time, how long was it between Kouze and Myra's creations?
Getting the vowel in Hanka wrong is something that would absolutely happen in real life, so I wouldn't ding for that.
The Misfit of Demon King Academy is coming out on July 4th, 2020, and it's on Adult Swim's Toonami and it's streaming on Hulu and Funimation.com near you!
It makes sense to me that Ishikawa, Section 9's resident super-hacker, found evidence of Hanka's misdeeds in their servers, under layers of encryption.
Bennett, we love you.
"worst anime adaptation i have ever seen"
Thats a heavy claim for someone who saw Dragonball Evolution.
My boyfriend and I watched this over the summer and we didn't like it, but gosh darn the ending with motoko and her mom hugging got to me real deep. It added an aspect to motoko's characters i never thought'd i'd want... her having a mom just added this bit of humanity that hasn't been utilized in such a way. It'll always stick out to me, and that's surprising.
We also watched the animated one before hand, and while it has it's respect from me for sure, it's just "ehhh" to me now.
"but gosh darn the ending with motoko and her mom hugging got to me real deep"
Uhhh... what?? How is a ridiculous moment of a white woman hugging a Japanese woman and saying that it's her mother in the context of them defending white supremacist casting somehow touching? Are you by any chance a fan of far right wing scumbags like Sargon of Akkad and Mister Metokur? I already came across one person in this comment section defending this racist trash who turned out to be a follower of horrible people like that which would be consistent with liking this piece of racist whitewashed trash.
I remember watching it with my friends and going out of the cinema absolutely furious. It's a soulless, completely pointless rip off hodgepodge of a movie, the creators not understanding the point of the original, just going "ooooh flashy pictures naked women yes this will sell". And to top it off they had the audacity to play that U2 song at the end, and I almost shouted "F**K YOU!" at the screen. You know what that Hollywood GITS should've been? Blade Runner 2049.
they got beat takashi and wasted him? how was this possible?? they had to be trying to do that.
Point about complaining and the counter gag about Aramaki just standing/sitting around...he did that the entire first movie and a lot of the series. That was pretty accurate.
I think that the casting choice for the Major might have been...tolerable?...if they had just committed. Nobody complains that Fist Of The North Star features a white man and nobody complains about Batou either, unless I missed something. Take for example the two Guyver movies. They replaced Sho with Sean, but the movie was now set in America, despite keeping the Japanese love interest (for the first movie anyway). GITS Live however is so covered in Japanese...not so much culture as visual cues and aesthetics of what Americans think is Japanese, possibly in an attempt to evoke Blade Runner, that the decision to cast a white woman stands out all the more. And when we learn the Major is supposed to be Japanese and the movie doesn't do anything with that (as Bennett noted) it makes the move even worked. They could have save the decision and made it work in the story by committing to setting it in America or some alternate land but they just didn't care.
Before watching this movie I knew that she was not good enough to play the major, a feeling as if I knew this was going to happen, and tbh has made me close down my interest towards Hollywood remakes altogether. Thank you for agreeing.
This movie really proves Hollywood either doesn't get it or just doesn't care. (it's most likely both) This was the laziest most neutered,boring and safe adaption they could have possibly made based on one of the most recognizable and iconic animes of all time. Then again dragon Ball evolution, so yeah we knew this was coming.
As soon as I got wind the movie was largely inspired by the 90's animated movie, I stopped expecting much, that movie had no humor, a sense of humor was always important to Ghost in the Sheel, most Section 9 members have a clear sense of humor in the source comic, and Stand Alone Complex at least included comic relief characters instead. Basing the movie on the only humorless version was bound to lead to something dreary, tedious and most likely self important (I mean they did take inspiration from Stand Alone Complex as well, but no humor of any kind).
I'd love to see you review Alita battle angel next pls
I think I'll just go watch Battle Angel again...
I think the only real reason I saw this movie, was because of danish actor Pilou Asbæk as Batou (he was Euron Greyjoy in GoT). Other then that, this movie is pretty bland.
this film absolutely had to be seen at big screen in 3-D.. definitely good to look at and interesting enough.
The counting gag returns
Even though i knew this was going to be bad (i couldn't even sit through the first 10 min) I still wanted this to be the one that broke the trend of Hollywood giving us shit adaptations of fan favorite IP's rather it be video games, anime, manga, comicbooks etc. At least we still have the source material. The only silver lining to be found.
Speaking of Battle Angel, are you going to do that adaptation one day?
saying "remember aloha?" would've been a better joke than
"Remember the robocop/ghost in the shell remake?"
The counting gag is awesome
Wait, I'm pretty sure in flash backs throughout GitS:SAC they reveal that Motoko was the first child full body cyborg, though not because she was particularly unique as far as I remember.
She was, or at least implied to be the first. In season 2, it's revealed her parents died in a plane crash and she was turned into a cyborg because she was so badly injured. The movie takes stuff from all over Ghost in a Shell different adaptations.
Ironically, the only person it had any meaning to is Kuze, meaning which almost eroded in time when they meet again… and, maybe, the doctor who spearheaded the development of such procedures.
Comrade Penguinski She was an early adopter of a full-cyborg body, but she wasn’t the first.
@@JohnEusebioToronto In SAC she was. Unless we all missed something. Care to elaborate ?
Okroshka It’s been a while but I don’t remember her being the first full-cyborg in either season. Season 2 shows her as one of the earliest full-cyborgs, but I don’t remember them saying she was the first.
Honestly I 100% believe that they were completely oblivious to the social outrage, and just chose Scarlett for the initial reason stated. She puts asses in seats. Given how they completely missed the point story wise over and over again. I think it’s just Hollywood, Hollywooding. That said, thinking about it. I’m not sure I know any Asian badass action women, besides maybe some of the new Chinese actresses we’ve been seeing.
Yeah this movie was absolute garbage and did a huge disservice to the original masterpiece. This was just a blatant cash grab by Hollywood and wolf in sheep's clothing, if your a true fan of Cyberpunk anime and cyberpunk in general stay away from this garbage movie.
Let me tell you, watching this film and Get Out on the same weekend back to back was such a weird experience
If they had cast an Asian actress it would have been harder to sell. There are several high caliber actresses with far Eastern genes, but they get coralled into niche roles too often. Also, the better ones may be considered too old by the casting department (I'm thinking Ming Na and Michelle Yeoh).
Yeah the movie had some issues, but I honestly think it's the best Hollywood adaptation yet. Alita's CG anime girl eyes throw me off and I have yet to watch it. I can suspend belief that Motoko Kusanagi is portrayed as Caucasian because she's a cyborg. She could have switched or upgraded to a new body at any time.
Thank you for clarifying why my hatred of this film is justified 100 million percent (And I’m not even a Ghost in the Shell fan)
As far as I am concerned, this movie does not exist. And yes I've tried to watch it. I actually walked out of the theater, it was/is that bad.
Were you able to get your money back?
I'm not much of a fan of Scarlett Johansson in this movie, her face is almost always a variant of "dull surprise" or dull confusion, mouth slightly open with eyes starring in the empty void while trying to convince you the person's looking at something but is totally failing to bring that sentiment out.
I wouldn't mind getting a shot for shot remake of the original movie in live action, at least it would be competent and good, things like the city wouldn't look silly and kind of stupid, I recall almost choking on my drink when they showed the city from above the first time with the holograms the size of the goddamn buildings. There's also the fact it's in day light every time like Bennett said.
The movie often feels like no one that was making decisions saw the original movie or any of the other ones and read a resume of them that someone wrote 10-15 years after seeing them, would explain why the scenes that are taken from the movies have the same basic idea but doesn't look or feel like them most of the time, the part with the garbage truck is probably the most obvious as an example.
It is meant to Hanka (with a short vowel 'a'). Some British English speakers turn the 'a' in Japanese words into a long vowel 'a' by adding an intrusive 'r' sound as one would do with some words in English. Think of a British person saying 'half'.
Many Americans just go right off the deep end and turn any 'a' in a Japanese word into a weird 'o/u' sound, which is the result of hpyerforeignisation. Think of when people say monga (like the mon in Pokemon) instead of manga (like the word 'man').
What I really hate is that this film could have been so much better I just wish it could have been.
I'll give the movie this... The theme of "consent" in a movie where your body (or mind) quite literally isn't your own is a good idea.
Ah, return of the counting gag. Never change Sage.
I've been looking forward to this
I'm gonna get flagged or torched but I'm gonna say it. "I DON'T CARE THAT SCARLETT JOHANSSON PLAYS MOTOKO KUSANAGI". Look at a picture of both the characters, they look EXACTLY THE SAME. It's not like they posted some Redhead or Blonde haired girl with blue eyes. They got Scarlett, made her pale or maybe she's always that pale, and put a black wig on her, or died and cut her hair. Motoko has black hair, pale skin, and does not look particularly Asian. If you're going to hate the movie, hate the product, not the color of a castmember's skin.
Interesting you mention blue eyes as a problem.
Motoko also has blue eyes in the movie. She was designed to have a deliberately vague race to highlight the transhumanist themes.
Which actually makes the whole "she should be Japanese" point shockingly racist and rather miss the entire point.
Though hanging a hat on it with the plot is such a shockingly clumsy and tonedeaf way is absolutely terrible.
Perfectly stated. Well worded.
Any true fan of Ghost in the Shell would know Ghost in the Shell already whitewashed itself. Even in the first film you can say with a straight face Motoko Kusanagi possesses an Asian face? The mangas explain this without explaining fully which is a missed opportunity for this film in terms of transhumanism and existentialism. There is a mixed population in Newport City. What? do people think Batou looks Asian hahaha! There was Russian and Belgian occupation in the geopolitical climate of parts of Japan in the Manga. Realistically leading to a mixed populous. Motoko is mixed at best.
Thank God I have never seen him.
This just makes me wanna watch the live-action version of "Alita: Battle Angel." And I actually loved that movie. I love the manga, and I think that movie did a decent job. :)
When i first saw the trailer, with the the trash-man fight and all, i was hyped. I knew the producers would imitate some of the original scenes from the anime movie, but with Scarlet Johansson, i was expecting a very powerful and original action movie. I had not much of a hope about the philosophical content of GITS, but i thought the producer would make a coherent adaptation, paying its due to the source material. But well.... at the end it was just trash made with a very good group of actors. That Pilou Asbæk as Batou was an excellent choice, in my opinion.
This felt like I was watching old school Sage in action... minus the gratuitous swearing and graphic imagery. Curse CZcams and it's kid-friendly agenda.
Eh. IDK why people are so raving about Beat Takeshi, he neither looks nor acts much like Aramaki.
I remember actually liking this when I first watched it with my Uncle two years ago.... now.... what the hell was I thinking? Oh, right. ScarJo looked damn fine in that body suit!
Hey.... At least in Allita they did have the big-ass hammer.
The real question is, why did they cast scarlett johansson, but then CGI her butt for the entire movie?
Hmmm, you know Sage your rant on what we could have gotten in the live action Ghost in the Shell instead of what we did get has now got me interested in writing a story with that kind of narrative; now got my noggin joggin.
So does this mean a future review of Alita Battle Angel any time? Because honestly while I was fine with the live action Ghost in the Shell; hell I saw it in theaters and even have it in my blu-ray collection of movies; and yes it really doesn’t come close to the brilliance of the original anime masterpiece; which also happens to be one of my favorite movies of all time; the difference between a movie that feels like it doesn’t give a shit to a movie that had been in the works for more than 20 years is quite amazing. Just a thought
Detective Pikachu and Battle Angel Alita was good
yeah I saw this in theaters and enjoyed it just fine but it has been three years and I have had no desire to see it again where as I'm pretty sure I've seen the original 3 times since then cause it is timeless and good to watch whenever heck you can watch it for free on youtube both versions in fact so I just might watch it again just cause it is so good
This movie is about as much of a chore to watch, much less review, as a Uwe Boll film.
Look at Sage's face, tell me he didn't try to avoid this...thing...like Civvie tries to avoid TNT Evilution.
Post-Aloha world? I never heard of it.
Hate to see what would happen if they turn genocyber into a live action movie.
Remember when they made good movies? Like The Graduate?
Hey, Alita was damn good port over to live action ;-)