That Hollywood live-action Ghost in the Shell filum.

[kidsick5000]

I don't know if the film-makers backed away from it, or just scuffed the moment, but there is a very clear point in the film where the casting could have proved pivotal to the plot.

I suspect it's the latter because Everything happened within a year according to the first subtitle.
And according to the Japanese woman in the apartment with the tea. Her daughter went missing one year ago. Thems maths just don't add.

Anyway, the pivotal moment comes

Spoiler alert

when they realise who they really were before they were put into their shells. It should be a horrific revelation: not only is their death a lie, they aren't an approximation of who they thought they are.

[close]

It could have been a real body horror moment.

[greenman]

I don't know if the film-makers backed away from it, or just scuffed the moment, but there is a very clear point in the film where the casting could have proved pivotal to the plot.

I suspect it's the latter because Everything happened within a year according to the first subtitle.
And according to the Japanese woman in the apartment with the tea. Her daughter went missing one year ago. Thems maths just don't add.

Anyway, the pivotal moment comes

Spoiler alert

when they realise who they really were before they were put into their shells. It should be a horrific revelation: not only is their death a lie, they aren't an approximation of who they thought they are.

[close]

It could have been a real body horror moment.

Spoiler alert

Ironically given all of the white washing talk I actually felt that the origin aspect of the film was the most successful showing more of a subtle hand dramatically. There is of course only so far you can take the switch in ethnicity dramatically, it is obviously played up when she meets her mother the first time but when you get the final reveal in the shrine you can't really play "they tricked me into thinking I was Caucasian" as more horrific than "they kidnapped me and my boyfriend, transplanted our brains into robots and wiped out our memories"

[close]

Generally I felt that the main plot(minus the villain anyway) was handled pretty well, it tended to be the other aspects that felt a bit underdeveloped and clunky at points to me. For a double dose of irony it actually reminded me rather of several feature length anime adaptations(not Oshii's film though) of manga/TV series that have tried to cram a bit too much of an extended mythos in.

I wouldn't say it was a classic case of Hollywood unthinkingly funnelling an existing property into the typical US blockbuster formula. Maybe some of that but there was also a decent level of respect for the source material and a bit more edge than I expected as well although I spose that did make the ways in which it did come up against the boundaries of said blockbusters a bit more obvious.

[popcorn]

Spoiler alert

you can't really play "they tricked me into thinking I was Caucasian" as more horrific than "they kidnapped me and my boyfriend, transplanted our brains into robots and wiped out our memories"

[close]

Mate, that contains sponglers for a film I actually give a shit about. (Assuming it's the film I reckon it is.) :(

[Blumf]

Well, that was a drag.

It's not a bad film, the SFX work was (mostly[nb]There's a bit where the Major is running up some collapsing bridge that looked stupid, for one bad example[/nb]) very good, liked the soundtrack, but a naff script and ScarJo hampered it.

I think Johansson was trying for rigid poses, being a full body cyborg n that, but ends up being more like 50's B-movie clunking robot with odd posture.

As for the script... ppppfffffffffffft <shrug>, what was the point? They had nothing interesting to say, and it felt like they spent a long time not saying it. I get the feeling the team liked the original films a lot, genuinely wanted to be respectful, but just, nothing, no ideas. So you end up with generic movie tropes, including the evil businessman, in his suit and tie.

What a waste.

[Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth]

The nicest thing for me was that I felt justified in my earlier suspicion that they'd totally dumbed down the whole identity crisis element of the plot.

Overall I can't say I particularly disliked it, but I didn't particularly like it either. I'd much rather watch Robocop, or Blade Runner. Hell, I'd rather watch Chappie.

[Head Gardener]

[Small Man Big Horse]

This is now available, but with korean subtitles yet again. Wish I hadn't bothered either, I thought it was a fucking awful movie. Pretty much all of the characters are painfully underwritten and I didn't care for any bar Johansson, and even then it took over half the movie for her to become even vaguely sympathetic. Despite this I thought she was the best thing about it (well, her and Juliette Binoche) but the script is such a torrent of flesh and blood addled diarrhoea that I don't think any actor could have dealt with it any better. I thought the cgi was lacklustre in places as well, most of the big fight scenes took place at night and were darkly lit and boring, and when you create something like a Spider Tank yet make it so bland you really shouldn't be allowed to work in the film industry again. Probably the worst film I've seen this year thinking about it.