No teasing or setting the mood here. This new Ghost in the Shell movie clip is a straight-up trailer, with 2:09 of guns firing and Beat Takeshi looking concerned.
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38 responses to “Ghost In The Shell Movie Gets A Proper Trailer”
*reads YouTube comments*
*instant regret*
A lot of the negative comments seem pretty accurate to me. They’ve Hollywood-ized the story from the looks of it and changed its focus.
I’m going to pass on this, just like I passed on the modern Transformers films. I don’t need my memories polluted.
Not gonna lie, thats looking damn good.
There was a lot of heat for not having a Japanese cast but the trailer hints that it is not under the same “restrictions” as the Western Norms.
If I remember right though, was it you that said the major’s mind is its own character thus it didn’t matter if they cast a fridge as Kusanagi?
Think that was someone else (honestly couldn’t remember, been sick as a dog for 3 days now), but the director and I THINK one of the writers, stated that Ghost in the Shell was never Japanese-actor centric anyhow, as it’s meant to show the world under a Japanese influence culturally. Even the main characters were drawn in a less asian way in the original anime when you watch it.
Sounds like a job for Gaijin Goombah, 😛
If you haven’t heard of him, he’s worth the watch. He’s a man who’s lived and worked in Japan at one point and now runs a YouTube channel where he culturally analyses and unearths cultural reference in various media, mostly games.
But I think you may have heard of him; he does the Culture Shock segment on MatPat’s Game Theory.
I think that’s just the director being an apologist and trying to re-cast the original work in a different light for the benefit of the current monstrosity. The casting of Johanssen as the Major is a travesty and would be funny but for the fact that it ruins what could have been a good film.
I’ll wait to see it before jumping on the pre-judgement hyperbole wagon.
But why is it a travesty? Scarlett Johanssen is a perfectly good actress who has done these types of roles well in the past. Yes she’s not Japanese, but at the same time, she’s not a bad choice either. When she was originally announced, I was actually happy because I enjoy her performances in a lot of her movies, and I think she fits in well here.
At the end of the day, to get off the ground, this film needed a big name actress to actually put some bums on seats. Putting a no name Japanese actress, who might play the greatest major in the history of the world is not going to do that. I’m all for diversity in movies, and it’s great when people from other countries get their shot and do it well. But realistically, the way these people get exposure is not through this sort of film. Rogue One was an excellent vehicle to promote new acting talent from other countries, because it has the giant funding background from Disney/Lucas, so if it failed, they would be able to take the hit. It may not be the case with this movie, and they are trying to sure up their bottom line with an established actress.
I’m with @weresmurf here in saying, lets give Scarlett a chance. I’m certainly not expecting it to hit the heights of other GITS material, but if its an enjoyable watch, who cares?
Mate I respect your opinion, but I think she’s a pretty ordinary actress and unsuited for the role. This is Hollywood being Hollywood. I’m not naive enough to think it would have turned out differently without being more of an indie (or Japanese) production. It’s an American film, written by Americans, produced by Americans, (directed by an Englishman), for American audiences. It’s basically a Marvel film (see Avi Arad). I don’t expect anything more than a Marvel film from it. I don’t particularly care for Marvel films, but that’s just my personal taste.
Fair enough, I can see where you’re coming from too, and hey, I’m not ruling out the possibility that it will be rubbish either. Just feel like too many people are automatically dismissing the movie just because she’s not Japanese, which seems unfair. But hey, to each their own.
Edit: rewording my point
I’ll say it again. You’re completely missing the premise of GITS. The show explores the meaning of identity where there is no preconceived notions of age, sex, ethnicity, religion. The Major has had a full cyber body since childhood, so physically she can choose whatever cyber body she likes. There’s examples of this in stand alone complex when Batou asks the major why she didn’t choose a male model cyber body. So whether you like it or not the casting actually fits with the GITS universe. If they were to cast a Japanese actor this would only represent the the country the story originated in, contradicting the point of the Majors character.
I’m betting there maybe more context around this decision that will come to light in the movie.
Maybe, but I think you are giving the writers too much credit 🙂
That filter on the thumbnail creates the illusion of a very defined nipple.
Ghost in the Shell: The only franchise where even nipples can’t distract from the deep plot.
By proper trailer you mean the whole movie plot spoiled in 2 minutes?
But even with another trailer that shows everything, I’m still excited to see this. Even if it isn’t great it still looks like an enjoyable watch.
you must have better imagination then me since I don’t think it spoiled anything haha
that said it does look like they’ll take inspiration from Arise in terms Major’s origins so eh I have mixed feelings
I hear the “trailers spoil the movie” criticism about most films and I yet I don’t recall a single instance where I felt like that was actually true. Spoiled moments yes, but never the whole movie.
Watch the Batman vs Superman trailer and there is no need to watch the actual movie.
Looking forward to this, but I’ll most likely wait for the 4K or 2K BluRay (depends if the 4K is true and not upscaled) to come out.
I like films as much as the next person, but in my area it seems all theatres have decided that the best way to offer $10 tickets is to fire the cleaning crew.
Seriously, I feel I will contract a infection given how dirty the carpet looks.
Not sure about where you are, but near me they’ve just upgraded the cinema a shitload, so it’s all nice and new which is cool. Having said that, it’s still crazy expensive, and I’m usually pretty picky on what I see there.
They have just upgraded my local cinema to new comfy reclining seats which are awesome.
And tickets are still like $12.
So I’m counting myself pretty lucky.
Although the screen is one of the new fancy ones. 🙂
And everytime I have been recently they seem to forger to dim the light when the movie starts until someone goes and reminds them.
That’s a bit frustrating!
After watching the trailer I went back and watched the final battle in Ghost in the Shell, against the tank. The mood, the stillness, the music, the patience… its excellent.
Im dreading that Hollywood will make it a fast paced, noisy explosion fest. All I can picture is Johansen sprinting towards the camera with the spider tank charging after her, smashing through concrete pillars. Much like in The Avengers when Black Widow was running from The Hulk. And a shitty hard rock soundtrack blaring out. Then a few slow-motion ‘dodged just in time’ moments.
Nothing needs to be changed from the Anime. Thats where Hollywood always, ALWAYS fucks up. Changing things that dont need to be changed. Changing the very things that make originals great!
This, plus there is no doubt they will be dumbing this movie down for the great unwashed and guaranteed that the philosophy in regards to the ghost or consciousness is glossed over.
So if nothing needs to be changed how do you make a film of it interesting without slavishly copying the anime? Just recreating something else shot-for-shot is pointless and banal, why not take advantage of the medium (live action film) and explore it in a different way?
Bare in mind also that the anime and manga differ wildly in tone and pace. So you could say that the anime is not faithful to the manga at all and more of a interpretation based on Oshii’s interpretation of the themes and characters. So which one is ‘correct’?
True. However tone is the one thing I want replicated. It’s not in this trailer.
I love the original Ghost In The Shell manga and Oshii’s anime adaptation (and most of the other series) and I think this looks awesome.
A lot of references to the source material, which is nice, and it looks like there’s a slightly updated story, that makes a lot of sense to me. I wouldn’t want to see the EXACT same thing that played out in the anime/manga just with live actors, that would be pointless and look crude. The only time that has ever worked is Sin City 1, and only because it was VERY stylistically challenging.
This is a Hollywood movie made for the west based on Japanese source material, I totally understand why it has a varied range of ethnicities (just like the original team) in the cast. Johansson is a box office draw card, and has played similar roles well (Black Widow).
I wonder if all these people who complain about the ‘white washing’ of this film also complain that Bollywood movies having an all Indiancast, or Chinese made films having Chinese actors? Hmmmm.
This is what I dont understand. I just looked through the cast list, and there arent actually that many Americans cast as the main characters. Not to mention that we have a female lead in an action/thriller which doesn’t happen as often as it probably should either. If the movie is good, then who cares who plays the lead role? Its also not like Johansson is a bad actress. She’s damn good at what she does, and to me she seems like a good fit.
The fact that it’s specifically called “white washing” kinda answers your question.
No it doesn’t.
The question was:
I wonder if all these people who complain about the ‘white washing’ of this film also complain that Bollywood movies having an all Indian cast, or Chinese made films having Chinese actors?
So no it doesn’t answer my question as to whether the same people who complain about supposed white washing complain about other films made in other countries for other audiences.
Try harder mate.
I was agreeing with you lol. The fact that it’s called white washing means only white people can do it. Only white people can be racist apparently.
ha ok, totally read that in a different way.
They’re dammed if they do, dammed if they don’t. If they cast a Japanese actress in the main role, no one* would watch it. Expected return would be lower and hence it would be made with a reduced budget. Considering GITS hinges on a realistic rendered, but totally alien world this would correlate directly to a poorer product.
Similar logic applies to the tone of the film. The average movie-goer hasn’t seen the anime so they wouldn’t be prepared for a faithfully adapted film (contemplative philosophical journey). No one* would want to see that either. So for GITS fans we can either get a slightly watered-down version, with lots of concessions to the “Michael Bay fans” or we can get no version at all.
*Hyperbole
I’d prefer no version at all. I understand a need to adapt to the audience, but IMO these stories need to be kept faithful to the concept or else it’s just an pig with lipstick on. Heck if this actually turns out to be a cyberpunk philosophical journey then this trailer is then disingenuous to the casual movie-goers too.
Visually it looks spectacular, and I hope they do deviate from the original plot because I hate remakes/live action adaptations that do nothing new with the source material. I’m more furious that they are remaking the terrific French film The Intouchables & have cast fuckin’ Kevin Hart as one of the leads than by anything I’ve seen here.
It looks *angle change* amazing *jump cut* live action *perspective change* film. Think the *slow motion* pacing will be *angle change* broken.
….um ok?
Ew. I was upset when I first saw Scarlet Johansson, but then please when the first teasers came out. This trailer is just a gross uninspired hollywood trope mess. I sincerely hope that the films feel isn’t like this trailer.