Live-action Ghost in the Shell remake feels like a blast from recent past
The casting of Scarlett Johansson in lead role as The Major has been derided, but this Hollywood version of Mamoru Oshii’s classic 1995 anime film also looks dated after a long lag in production
In movies, as in life, timing isn’t everything. It’s the only thing.
Consider the strange fate of Ghost in the Shell, the long-awaited live-action adaptation of the 1995 anime film by Mamoru Oshii. When Steven Spielberg announced in 2008 that DreamWorks had acquired the property, it looked like a stroke of genius: Ghost in the Shell had attained near-legendary status in the decade after its release, worshipped by fans for its artistry, its ineffable blend of fantasy and realism, and its noirish undertones of tech-savvy paranoia.
But the film took longer than expected to be developed and produced and what once looked prescient and even revolutionary feels as if it’s been dramatically outpaced both by movies and off-screen life.
In a way, the 2017 version of Ghost in the Shell, which has been directed with respect and lavish visual style by Rupert Sanders, is the victim of its antecedent’s success.
Among the most ardent admirers of Oshii’s visionary movie – about a female robot with a human soul who fights cyberterrorism in a 21st-century city resembling Hong Kong – were the Wachowski siblings, who artfully borrowed and sometimes outright stole elements of Ghost in the Shell for their own revolutionary sci-fi thriller, The Matrix. Viewers can see similar influences in everything from Steven Spielberg’s A.I. and Minority Report to Christopher Nolan’s Inception and the 2014 fem-bot drama Ex Machina.