Anime fans as some of you will have worked out by now i'm a huge fan of Ghost In The Shell i've seen every single film in this franchise and i've seen the original film more times then i care to count. So I thought instead of reviewing the film again which is what I was planning to do by the way i thought i'd do something a little bit different and that's compare the original 1995 film to the 2017 live action American remake since both use the same story elements it only makes sense.
Before I do that tho I want to lay down some ground rules and they are that I will judge things that both films could help so I won't be judging the visuals because of the limitations of the 1995 film. Secondly I will only be including the first movie so you won't be seeing me make any kind of references to any of the series that came after it nor will I be mentioning the animated sequel this is just the original film and remake only.
Major Motoko Kusanagi
Let us start with one of the characters that is pretty much the mascot for this franchise that being Major Motoko Kusanagi or in this film Major Mira Killian. Now while The Major in the live action film isn't that and of a character by any means in fact the same can be said for any version of the character I personally feel that the original film's take on the character is better because I honestly believe that she could kick all of our a**es where as here that's not the impressions that I get.
The impressions that I got from the live action version of the character is that she will punch you in the face but she'll ask you nicely first. Which to me doesn't seem like something any version of The Major would do she's the type to punch first ask questions later and nowhere is that more evident then in the sequence where she snaps arm she doesn't ask why he's shooting at them she just starts shooting.
WINNER: GHOST IN THE SHELL (1995)
Opening
I know that this is a weird thing to bring up here but I have to talk about the opening to both movies and that's because the opening does play a part in the whole robot theme that both films have. I have to be frank I like both openings because of how visually stunning they both are however the original does have one thing that the remake doesn't have and that's Kenji Kawai's hauntingly beautiful "Making of a Cyborg" which really does help set the mood.
That being said the remake does have a pretty sweet remixed version of it playing near the end of the sequence. While the remakes opening is pretty faithful to the original opening that is also it's biggest downfall because we've already seen it before so why should we see it again however I will admit that the CGI is pretty decent in that scene and is most likely in the whole film but I would have preferred a more original opening sequence.
WINNER: DRAW
Acting
One of the things that I liked about the remake and that was the acting which I honestly feel was better then the original. I'm saying that because i've only seen the original dubbed i've never heard it in the original Japanese and so I can only judge it based on the dub and that's why i'm saying the remake has better acting just because the dub is never going to be as good as the original Japanese dub.
I will say that the acting in the original film is indeed good but and while I do prefer those actors i'm trying my best to be fair. I will also like to say that Scarlett Johansson didn't deserve the hate she got for being cast in this film if the Japanese public are happy with her casting then it's good enough for me and to be honest she's one of the only people who could have played this character and yet still got people to see the film.
WINNER: GHOST IN THE SHELL 2017
Secondary Characters
It's all well and good having The Major but she wouldn't get very far with the rest of Section 9 and so we have to talk about them. I honestly feel that the Section 9 characters were better handled in the original film then they were in the remake mostly because I could actually tell them apart in the original which is something that I could barely do in the remake and that takes me out of the film because i'm trying to work out who's who.
Also adding to why i'm picking the original film here is the fact that i feel they were honestly used better in the original film. In the remake the Section 9 characters feel like side characters with alot of the focus going to The Major which is fine since she is pretty much the mascot for the franchise however she works better when she's with the other characters and not when she's on her own like she is alot of the time in the remake.
WINNER: GHOST IN THE SHELL 1995
Overall Quality Ghost In The Shell 2017
As an adaptation this film does a good job of representing what Ghost In The Shell is the issue is it waters down alot of things. There's no philosophical speech's from any of the characters which was a stable of the first film , the action while indeed entertaining also feels watered down and it's due to that that iconic tank scene looses alot of it's impact but it is still a good scene to see in live action tho because in the original you see alot of The Major's blood and I think some bone thus telling us that she's human here all of that removed.
Overall Quality Ghost In The Shell 1995
Without this film there would be know Ghost In The Shell franchise this is an iconic film and it's iconic for a reason. The characters are so well defined in this film it also has some great animation which still holds up to this very day. Where as some of the CGI in the remake looks really bad no joke during one of the early scene there's some CGI on screen which is so bad it caused me to yell out how bad it is plus it has a ton of iconic scenes.
OVERALL WINNER: GHOST IN THE SHELL 1995