That Damn Ghost in the Shell Trailer

As of now, the most popular entry on the blog is where I talk about the trailer for the upcoming Power Rangers movie. Because my ego demands more blog views, I thought I'd boost my view count by discussing another trailer for a movie whose existence confuses the fuck out of me, Ghost In The Shell.

Ghost in the Shell has been a bona fide phenomenon among American anime fandom since the first Mamoru Oshii film was released in 1995. This is, to me, a completely bizarre fact. Granted, anime fandom in the mid '90s was still largely comprised of uber-nerdy, twenty and thirty something computer science majors - this would be beneficial for Ghost in the Shell's success. But Oshii's film is, even for that audience, seemingly inaccessible. It's an art film, pure and simple - a philosophical treatise that occasionally masquerades as an action thriller. There's no rhyme or reason why this movie should have been as popular as it was, and, in many respects, still is. I'm not complaining about this by any means - it's a great movie that deserves its accolades. But so many people seem to categorize Ghost in the Shell as this epoch-defining work of '90s anime - I can't help seeing it as a very, very lucky fluke.

Moving into the 21st Century, the Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex TV series was another massive hit when it debuted on Adult Swim in 2004. This I can understand a bit more - it retained some of the philosophizing of the Oshii movie, but balanced it out with generous portions of procedural drama, political intrigue, and a lot more action. It achieved the rare balance of being both cerebral and accessible, and is hailed, as it should be, as one of the greatest anime TV series of the 2000s. That same year, Oshii's sequel film, Innocence, was released, and can be described as being like the first film raised to the tenth power. It was also successful, despite almost going out of its way to alienate the average viewer.

I'm not going to discuss the original Ghost in the Shell manga, because Masamune Shirow is a complete hack whose success rests solely because his works have been made into animated features that are infinitely superior. I'm also not going to discuss Ghost in the Shell: Arise, the newest animated adaptation, simply because I haven't seen it yet. I've heard good things, though. Either way, the point of all this is to establish the presence Ghost in the Shell has made for itself in the US. Its success is above and beyond 99% of all other anime to have ever been released here.

Which brings us, finally, to the upcoming Ghost in the Shell film.

I'm not going to mince words: the existence of this movie is nothing short of baffling to me. To my knowledge, Hollywood has been trying to make this into a film since the late '90s, after the success of Oshii's film. It wasn't until 2008, when Dreamworks snagged the rights, that it became a concrete reality. Such drive to make a live action adaptation never made sense. I mentioned before that Ghost in the Shell is a phenomenon in American anime fandom. Even if we're to discount my notion that its success is a complete fluke, notice how I said it's a phenomenon in American anime fandom. We may have big conventions all over the country, but the fact is we're a pretty small percentage of people - outside of our fandom, very few people even know what Ghost in the Shell is. If they do, it's probably in the context of being one of the inspirations for The Matrix Trilogy. I'm guessing the decision to produce this movie is based on a mix of all that: anime is a fairly popular thing, and the Matrix movies made a lot of money once upon a time. This is still pretty risky, considering A) The Matrix is nearly 20 years old, and kind of fell from grace once the two sequels were released, and B) most anime movies released thus far have neither been successful nor good. In spite of everything, I guess I'm glad they're taking it though, since, if done right, a Ghost in the Shell movie could be great, simply because the source material itself is great.

The key is "if done right." There have been a lot of different versions of Ghost in the Shell made over the years - which one is the movie going to model itself after? Shirow's manga is so shitty that it's almost guaranteed to be out the window. Oshii's movie, as great as it is, simply doesn't have the mainstream appeal to translate into success - and, quite frankly, without an Oshii caliber director at the helm, it would be a complete disaster. I would assume a Stand Alone Complex-like adaptation, with its blend of cerebral futurism and intense action, would be the most successful. It would probably be the most satisfying, as Stand Alone Complex is arguably the best version of Ghost in the Shell to have been made thus far.

Even if it takes such a foundation, looking at the creative team behind the movie, I, unfortunately, have very little faith. Rupert Sanders is directing the film - the only other movie Rupert Sanders has ever directed is Snow White and the Huntsmen. That's a terrible resume, and it honestly makes me wonder how he managed to get the gig directing this movie in the first place. The main screenwriter, Jonathan Herman, was the screenwriter of Straight Outta Compton. That's a good movie, don't get me wrong - but that's also his only other film credit, and one wonders if the subject matter of Ghost in the Shell is too much for him to handle.

With all that being said, let's move on to the trailer itself. Here it is for those of you who want to watch along with me.

We start off with a short sequence of someone (we're not told who) walking inside a fancy Japanese-style office dressed in a bizarre geisha costume.

I don't know if this image is supposed to make me feel unsettled, but that's exactly what it did. Meanwhile, The Major, played by Scarlett Johansson, waits on top of a skyscraper, ostensibly the same one the office is in. Both scenes descend to chaos immediately, and both need to be taken in detail on their own. In the office building, a massive firefight breaks out, and this entire firefight is, I shit you not, shot in bullet time. It's extraordinarily bizarre, in 2016, to see a firefight shot in bullet time without a hint of irony. Let me go further with this - I mentioned earlier that Ghost in the Shell was a major inspiration for The Matrix Trilogy - is the cinematography intentionally trying to mirror that, in an attempt to do some sort of full circle, it's like poetry sort of thing? Just watching the trailer makes it impossible to know. All I know is the fight scene didn't impress me - primarily because so much of it was filmed from above the actor's heads, like it was Grand Theft Auto 2 or something.

Let's go on to the parallel scene. The major stands on top of the skyscraper, slowly turns her back to the edge, leans back, and falls.

The problem with this scene won't be clear to you if you haven't seen Oshii's film. This scene is a more or less shot-for-shot recreation of the first scene of the 1995 movie. Even if you haven't seen Ghost in the Shell, if you're an anime fan, you've probably seen footage of Major Kusanagi's fall. It's one of the most iconic scenes in anime history.

I'm wondering: why the hell are they recreating this scene from Oshii's film? Are they trying to actually remake that film? Are they just borrowing the scene as fan service, because it's so iconic? If that's their philosophy, it's a pretty lazy way to make a film, and I'm concerned the movie will just become an assemblage of fan service, kind of like how some people criticize JJ Abrams' Star Trek films as being much the same. If their philosophy is trying to remake Oshii's film, all I can say is good luck. But I don't think that's what they're doing - there's simply far too much action for that to be the case.

What makes this trailer so hard to talk about is that they really don't give away ANY of the plot. We would expect that to come next, but no - instead, we're given a series of, again, unsettling images of the city, with Johansson narrating cryptically in the background. I'll give them credit - some of the images are genuinely uncomfortable, like this one of a massive apartment complex.

The sprawl, the claustrophobic intimacy of the buildings - this is a wonderful image of the kind of cyberpunk dystopia that Ghost in the Shell has brought us since 1989. The other images of the city are also pretty cool, though I will say - unlike Blade Runner, which more or less took place entirely at night, this movie seems to take place entirely before a rainstorm. The sky is nearly always grey - I don't know if this is supposed to add to the atmosphere, but I just found it boring.

Moving on - I need to talk about Johansson's performance. I know she's supposed to be a cyborg going through some sort of existential crisis - that warrants an understated performance, sure. But Johansson's delivery - it's robotic in the worst way - I don't feel anything listening to her monologue. This doesn't bode well for the finished product. If the trailer is anything to go by, Johansson's character is going to dominate the film's run time. Having to listen to her drone on for however long this movie's going to be will be nothing less than a chore.

The rest of the trailer more or less consists of two things - action scenes, and more borrowings from Oshii's film. There's a very long and detailed recreation of The Major's awakening, again from the opening of the 1995 movie. Those of you who have seen it will no doubt remember this:

Yeah, it seems that entire scene is going to be included in this movie. I won't spend much time on this, since I'll likely repeat what I've said previously - all I'll say is that it doesn't make me feel any different about the idea of composing an entire film using nothing but fan service.

This part of the trailer requires the least amount of discussion, since it's more or less action, action, action. Some of it isn't bad, but there isn't a ton to write home about. A few things, though. The one other main character we get a real glimpse of is Batou, and I have to say, I cannot fucking stand how he looks in this movie. He literally looks like a third rate cosplayer who started crafting his costume a night before the start of a convention.

He's also a white guy, playing a character named Batou. That's all I'll say of the matter.

Another thing - the song they chose to play throughout the entire second half of the trailer is an absolutely atrocious cover of Depeche Mode's Enjoy The Silence. Seriously, the song reminded me of all those horrible nu metal covers of classic rock songs that seemed omnipresent in the early 2000s. Remember when Limp Bizkit decided to cover The Who's Behind Blue Eyes? Or Korn covering Another Brick in the Wall? Fuck, what a horrible time for music that was. In any case, if that's the kind of music they think best fits the trailer, are we to expect a similar atmosphere throughout the movie? If there's one thing Ghost in the Shell should not be associated with, it's shitty Middle School Metal - simply living in a dystopian future is dark enough to not require it being punctuated by this trash.

You may have noticed this blog went on a bit longer than usual. That's because this trailer raised in me feelings I've rarely felt while watching a goddamn film trailer. Usually, one of two things happen: I either decide I want to see the movie in question, or, in the case of the Power Rangers Movie, I decide I don't. I came into the Ghost in the Shell trailer confused and not knowing how to feel - coming out of it, I feel the same, only amplified tenfold. There are good facets that shine through on occasion, but so much of it is a mishmash of different things that may very well refuse to join together cohesively. Part of me thinks that this movie could be a disaster on the level of Battlefield Earth. Yet another thinks something in it is salvageable. I don't know, and the trailer did nothing to help guide my feelings. And that's fucking infuriating.

I'll end this entry the same way I did for Power Rangers: based on this trailer, am I going to see Ghost in the Shell? I feel like I need to, but not because I have any genuine faith in the final product. This movie fascinates me, and I need to know just how it's going to end, for better or for worse. Thankfully, Ghost in the Shell's pedigree in the US is so prestigious that, even if it does become the first bad Ghost in the Shell adaptation ever made, it won't damage the franchise one bit. It could, however, easily destroy Rupert Sanders' career. But maybe we'd be better off that way.