By Emilio Frenk.
Director: Rupert Sanders
Cast: Scarlett Johansson, Pilou Asbaek, Takeshi Kitano, Michael Pitt, Michael Wincott, Chin Han, Lasarus Ratuere, Peter Ferdinando and Juliette Binoche.
Rating: Very Good.
Rupert Sanders, director of “Snow White and The Huntsman” brings “Ghost in the Shell”, his second feature film and compared to his first one the results of are interesting.
Based in the comic of the same name by Masamune Shirow, the movie takes place in the near future and tells the story of Major (Scarlett Johansson) a human saved who is enhanced in a cyborg and created to be the perfect soldier.
But now she is facing a new issue where terrorism at the peak of it´s level and hacks the minds of people and controls them. Major is assigned for this investigation.
During the assignment she will make the discovery that she has been lied and her life was not saved. It was stolen.
Now she is in the pursuit of the company who created her and she will try to stop it before it continues to hurt more innocent people.
“Ghost in the Shell” I would define it as an entertaining science fiction and action film. I noticed the film has a lot of influence of film like “Blade Runner”, “ The Terminator” and “The Matrix” due to the look and the theme of the film that takes place in the future.
Both Jamie Moss and William Wheeler wrote an interesting screenplay and I see the film as a full and frontal criticism towards big corporations around the world. It also criticize the greed on how CEO`S can abuse of their power in the decision making.
The directing by Rupert Sanders was good; he was very wise on making good technical decisions and the camera work of the film is interesting.
The only problem I saw was the directing of the characters that was cartoonish and by moments laughable.
Scarlett Johansson again kicks ass like she did in the 2014 “Lucy”. This time her character is way different and we can see more her internal conflicts and how desperate she is on seeking the truth about her past and this is what really makes the movie interesting.
The Cinematography by Jess Hall, which credits include “The Spectacular Now”, “The Switch” and “Hot Fuzz” was interesting and he did a very good job on creating a world like if you were in a comic book. I like the color palette that he used for both day and night scenes and the use of camera angles in the action sequences were very well executed.
The score by Clint Mansell, who has done the Scores for movies like “Requiem for a Dream”, “Black Swan” and “The Wrestler” was again superb and this time he teamed up with Lorne Belle, which credits include “The Lego Batman Movie” and a member of the Music Department on movies like “Inception” and “The Dark Knight”.
They both combined very good elements and for most of the sequences the use of the music really works, specially for the climax of the film.
Overall I did enjoy “Ghost in the Shell” and is an entertaining film but the film is a little slow by moments and before you watch it I encourage you to be patient with it since it takes time to get on to it.
With that being said “Ghost in the Shell” is an entertaining film and I give a huge recommendation for the screenplay, directing by Rupert Sanders and the look of the film which are completely futuristic.