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Ghost In The Shell Live Action: Thoughts?


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I hate her voice. She sounds nothing like the Major from the Anime, subbed or dubbed. Listening to her talk to herself is unbearable.

 

I can understand how you feel. Although, please keep in mind that you are comparing an anime to a live-action film - even though they are a part of the same franchise. There are certain things that animation can achieve, that live- action cannot. The same goes both ways. On top of that, they are two completely different mediums, in which people go to expecting different things.

 

I think we as anime fans have all these preconceived notions on what an anime adaptation should be. Down to things like atmosphere, pacing and plot. We are expecting a live-action movie to give us the exact same things we got out of an animation, which is honestly quite unrealistic. Some, if not a lot of anime only work because of the medium it is present in. Shows are crafted to suit the way they will be portrayed in - the same definitely goes for anime.

 

In short, we shouldn't expect a live-action movie to be an anime. And the producers shouldn't try to make one either. Instead they should strive to create the best possible movie they can, with the materials they have, in the medium which isn't animation.

 

So I think it is unreasonable to desire a live-action movie to follow an animation to a tee. Besides, you can't have possibly wanted Maaya Sakamoto to do the voice acting, let alone act, for this movie.

 

Personally, regarding the movie - I quite liked it. Although it didn't capture the full essence of the original, I think it was a neat attempt. Anime fans are just bashing it too hard.

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I can understand how you feel. Although....

 

It doesn't need to follow it 100% to be good, and she doesn't need to sound exactly as the anime. But I dislike her voice as Motoko. The Major is an already established character, anime or not; they aren't creating her from scratch. And so yes, having my experience of the Major already been created by the already established character, any subsequent version of the major is going to be contrasted against these experiences and said character. Fair or not, I would have preferred someone with a better voice to fit the part better.

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As much as I love ghost in the shell in any form of medium. This was a fun film all the same. Who cares if the type cast wasn't to point. It still was a neat and rather convincing interpretation of a classic. I for one love Scarlet Jo as the Major and Danish American as she is. That's a winning combination for any character, Motoko or otherwise. She is beautiful and a great actress. This will do not as good as I would have hoped, purely on the hate it is getting from jaded fans... sighs.

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What I said about it in another thread:

 

I wasn't overly familiar with the series since I've only seen random episodes from when it aired on Adult Swim. Going into the movie, I still didn't really understand certain aspects of it. The world-building looked visually stunning and the characters and action were decent. Scarlett Johannson was a pretty good lead where I did feel for her character at times. I felt that it got a little boring in the middle though. Plus Michael Pitt was underused.

 

6-6.5/10. While it could've been better, it's definitely better than previous live-action adaptions.

 

Hmm, at the very most I'll bump it to a 7/10.

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I can understand how you feel. Although, please keep in mind that you are comparing an anime to a live-action film - even though they are a part of the same franchise. There are certain things that animation can achieve, that live- action cannot. The same goes both ways. On top of that, they are two completely different mediums, in which people go to expecting different things.

 

I think we as anime fans have all these preconceived notions on what an anime adaptation should be. Down to things like atmosphere, pacing and plot. We are expecting a live-action movie to give us the exact same things we got out of an animation, which is honestly quite unrealistic. Some, if not a lot of anime only work because of the medium it is present in. Shows are crafted to suit the way they will be portrayed in - the same definitely goes for anime.

 

In short, we shouldn't expect a live-action movie to be an anime. And the producers shouldn't try to make one either. Instead they should strive to create the best possible movie they can, with the materials they have, in the medium which isn't animation.

 

So I think it is unreasonable to desire a live-action movie to follow an animation to a tee. Besides, you can't have possibly wanted Maaya Sakamoto to do the voice acting, let alone act, for this movie.

 

Personally, regarding the movie - I quite liked it. Although it didn't capture the full essence of the original, I think it was a neat attempt. Anime fans are just bashing it too hard.

Basically this. Nothing wrong with the film itself, at all. I think it wasn't as good as the anime film, nor as deep, but by holding it to the same standards we miss out on a good hollywood action flick that, to be fair, is deeper than basically any other HOLLYWOOD movie out right now lol

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I already knew the movie was going to suck by seeing the trailers for it. Live action films for anime are always awful.

 

Hm... gotta disagree with you on this one - I found the live action Rurouni Kenshin movies to be a total blast to watch. :-/

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Kenshin live action? Was it basically just a more plot driven samurai flick?

 

The first movie was an adaptation of the series' opening, and features Udō Jin-e and Takeda Kanryū as villains. It's a bit condensed and features a decent number of changes to certain events and how a lot of the characters are introduced, but it works extremely well in my opinion, and made for a very nice and very stylized movie that wraps up quite nicely. Likewise with the second and third movies, which adapted the Kyoto arc.

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The first movie was an adaptation of the series' opening, and features Udō Jin-e and Takeda Kanryū as villains. It's a bit condensed and features a decent number of changes to certain events and how a lot of the characters are introduced, but it works extremely well in my opinion, and made for a very nice and very stylized movie that wraps up quite nicely. Likewise with the second and third movies, which adapted the Kyoto arc.

Got it... I'll have to check it out then!

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Got it... I'll have to check it out then!

 

Disclaimer: While I absolutely adored the movies, I wasn't really a fan of the anime and thus went into the movies without any preconceptions about how things should be. If you're a big fan of the anime, some of the changes made might bother you.

 

With that said, I think it was a solid adaptation overall and a very fun and approachable seriess of movies - I've introduced some folks to it who don't really like anime at all, and they found it to be a blast.

 

So... yeah, just an FYI... with that said though, I still definitely recommend giving it a look.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I still have yet to watch this movie. :/ I've been scared to watch it. I'm the type of person who gets my hopes up with things. It was like when there was a live action Blood+ movie. I had higher expectations that the film could not fulfill. That being said, I absolutely love the idea of them making the live action movie, as it brought Ghost in the Shell back into the light for a lot of older fans. I will admit that the trailers weren't too eye catching for me. I don't have too much of an issue with the casting as other people do, but then again I haven't watched it yet, so I don't know how well they will portray the characters or not. Regardless, live action movies are always going to be a bit different than the original series, so I have no issue with giving it a fair shot, I just have yet to watch it. I will have to come back to this once I do.

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  • 2 months later...

I personally thought it was pretty good, so much so that I saw it at the cinema 3 times :) I think that as a whole when it came out it done much better in other countries such as over here in the UK where I live than what it did in the USA :) I'm now looking forward to getting it on Blu-ray :)

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  • 1 month later...

I just saw it a few days ago. I'm not familiar with the original manga/anime, so I don't have anything to compare it off of, but it was better than I expected. Most of my expectations were colored by other people's disappointed opinions though, so I'm not sure how much that says ^^ It sounds like it may not have been as deep as the original, but like TAT said higher up, I found it more interesting and thought-provoking than a standard modern Western action film.

 

I thought the casting was fine, though Scarlett's voice bothered me a little too with how flat it was. I'm curious what the original creators thought about the whole racial controversy thing ... on the one hand, you want to honor that the original comes from Japan, and on the other hand, my limited anime experience also seems to indicate that the entertainment industry isn't as pressured about representation as American entertainment is. It WAS a little odd seeing non-Japanese actors with such Japanese names, but I mean, we've all seen plenty of anime characters that are the same way also. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ I'm sure a Japanese cast would've done just as well or better, but I guess it depends on who wants those moneez.

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Thought it was fine, even with the overblown complaints about being faithful to the anime in terms of race. However, I think casting all Japanese actors would've made more sense. Certainly, makes more sense than the casting for the FMA film. Though it makes me laugh when the same people who complain about being faithful to the original material are cheering the casting of Valkyrie, Domino, Johnny Storm, Heimdall and Jimmy Olsen.

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