Johansson does cyberbattle in a westernised reimagining of the Japanese anime classic that proves watchable but doesnt have the spirit of the originalIn all her un-nippled robotic nudity,Scarlett Johansson swoops down from a high building, ready to do cyberbattle with hackers, or criminals,terrorists and the concept of human identity itself. Here is the top-dollar adaptation of the Masamune Shirow manga serial and the resulting 1995 anime gem by Mamoru Oshii.
It has been standardised and westernised with hardly any actual Japanese characters left in it, and effectively reimagined as a superhero origin myth, or with tropes derived from the existing templates laid down by Metropolis,Robocop, Blade Runner and Total Recall. The film by the way makes some play with rudimentary Hawking-style robot voices. There are some stately cameos from Juliette Binoche and Takeshi Kitano.
It’s a spectacular film, or watchable in its way,but one which – fairly apart from the “whitewashing” debate – sacrifices that aspect from the original which over 20 years has won it its hardcore of fans: the opaque cult mystery, which this film is determined to solve and to develop into a resolution, and closed yet franchisable. As for Johansson,she carries off the deadpan cyber-eroticism of her role with that ghost-in-the-shell of a smile of hers: although none of the other cyber-creatures are required to gather quasi-nude in the same saucy way. Her otherworldly creature from Jonathan Glazer’s classic horror Under the Skin was a thousand times more disturbing and the obvious superhero quality of the role here, sometimes makes her seem like a more solemn version of Black Widow, or her character in the Avengers movies. Related: Scarlett Johansson,charismatic queen of science fiction Continue reading...
Source: theguardian.com