Comparing Ghost In The Shell 2017 To It's 1995 Original

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

Letting You Guys Know Some Of The Animated Films That I Love

Boys and girls you've seen me rate alot of things from bad to worst over the past couple of weeks and mostly that's because there so easy to do. For this one I couldn't really use that title and so I had to ditch the concept so instead of rating some of my favourite animated films from worst to best i'm instead going to go a little bit more personal and tell you guys what some of my favourite animated films are and like my previous animation related post i'm going to be including anime in this post.

Anime

Ghost In The Shell

There's very little actually wrong with this film and that's because it does so much right it's a true classic in every sense of the word. Without this film we wouldn't have gotten The Matrix movies for better or for worse , what honestly sells me on this film tho is how well done the mystery aspect of the story is it's so rare for me to find a genuinely good mystery and that's what this film has in my opinion.

A Silent Voice

Now depending on where your seeing this post you'll know that i've just done a review of this movie and will thus already know what I think about it. To cut a long story short I think that this movie is easily better then Your Name and it deserves alot more attention from not only anime fans but fans of animation , to me this film is far more upsetting because of the fact that anyone who's been bullied would know what the main female lead Shōko is going through and will find the film more relatable.

Cartoons

Toy Story 1,2 and 3

Now then for obvious reasons I can't include the fourth one in this so i'm only counting the first three films. In my opinion these first three movies are the perfect trilogy they tell one complete story and they have fantastic animation which only gets better with each passing film. On top of what I just said the third and second films also have great emotional moments which work because we've gotten to know the characters and because of the fact that the films are so well written , so to say that the fourth one has a lot of live up to would be a huge understatement.

Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit

I can't believe that more people don't talk about this film since it has alot of things that make a great animated feature , it's has a great storyline , it has great characters , great animation and great jokes this film has everything that an animation fan would love. The only reason why i can see people not talking about it as much is due to the fact that it's British and films from Britain don't get talked about as much.

Early Man

Sticking with Aardman for there newest film which is also the latest film from animation legend Nick Park Early Man is a football comedy set in the stone age. Yes Americans I said football because that's it's name now that i've just insulted an entire country I best explain why I love this film I love it because of the fact it has all of the things we've come to expect from an Aardman film plus it's set in my hometown of Manchester ,  on top of all that tho it's a weird film that on paper shouldn't work but it some how does and I love it for that.

Moana

Now one of the reasons why I love this film I won't go into because it can also be said for the next film i'm going to talk about and I would thus be repeating myself. Another reason for me loving it is the fact that the animation is truly beautiful to look at , each frame is truly stunning and it's not often that I get to say that about any film. This film also made me cry alot and any film that made me do that is in my opinion a great film.

The Lion King 1994

Now i've had to label this film just to make it more clear that i'm talking about the original movie because I don't want people to think that i've somehow got my hands on a copy of the remake. This film was such a huge part of my childhood it's a movie that I loved as a kid and I still love it to this very day , heck I love this movie so much that I not only saw the musical but I bought the soundtrack and I saw it when it re-released in 3D. Like Moana this film has jaw dropping animation and it's shocking that animation this good came from the Disney B team and again like Moana this film made me cry and I cannot remember what I was going to say when I wrote the Moana segment for this post so yeah i'm ending it here.

  

Some Anime Films That I Love

Ladies and gents we anime fans talk alot about our favorite shows but for some reason when it comes to movies we never mention them well now I thought i'd do something a tad bit different and tell you some of my personal favorite anime films.

Maquia: When the Promised Flower Blooms

Out of all the films featured here this is the most recent film to come out and I have to say that it is simply stunning and it's a film where I can see my self going to get the DVD. That's how I know that a film is good so believe all the hype behind this film because it truly is worth it in my eyes.

In This Corner Of The World

Like a lot of the films featured in this post this is a film that has made me cry but to me this film is so much more then that. It's a film about heartbreak and finding the strength to survive at a time where that was impossible heck this film is so good i've not only seen the subbed version of the film but i've also seen the dubbed version of the film and I own it on DVD.

The Garden Of Words

Guys i'm going to let you know right now your going to be seeing alot of Makoto Shinkai's films on this list because the guy is mad talented. For now tho let's talk about what I think is his worst film which is saying something because the film is still really good there's really no more praise I can give this film but if your a fan of the director then you should check this out.

Mary And The Witch's Flower

The first film for any studio is always a hard thing because your film is not guaranteed to make any money. I think tho that Studio Ponoc's first film is truly something to behold I think that Hiromasa Yonebayashi and his team are truly talented and I believe that at some point ponoc could be on the same level as Studio Ghibli or Madhouse.

Your Name

Yup this film again lets face it guys the second you saw the name of this post you knew that at some point this film was going to making an appearance. Now I don't praise it to the high heavens like everyone else does and that's because by the time I got round to watching it the film had been hyped to hell. So no matter how good the film was it was always going to fail because the film was so hyped up in my mind it was this perfect film and yet when I saw it and found out it wasn't that it was shocking to me but it is still a great film.

5 Centimeters per Second

This for me is the best film that Makoto Shinkai has made it has everything that made Your Name the great film that it is and then some. I first saw this film a few years ago and it made me cry like crazy and I still choke up everytime I watch it that's how good it is there really is nothing more I can say about the film because it;s that good.

A Silent Voice

This film came out around the same time as Your Name and sadly it got really overshadowed by that film and that to me is a damn shame because this film is so worth watching.This is the only film in this post where i've read some of the manga before hand and the manga had me in tears I had no idea that manga could do that to a person. The film also had the exact same effect on me and it was in the exact same spot.

Ghost In The Shell

I cannot go on enough about how good this film is it truly is one of the best anime ever made in my opinion. Heck this film is so good that hollywood made a terrible live action version and that's how you know that a film is good. This film is so freaking iconic that to me you cannot call your self a die hard anime fan unless you've seen this film you don't have to have liked it you just have to have seen it.

My Top 5 Worst Films of 2017

Well then film fans we are so near the end of the near right now that i can actually smell 2018 and it smells pretty good and like what i did with the animated of this year i'm now going to look at some of the worst films of this past year so here we go.

5) Resident Evil: The Final Chapter

I'm not gonna pretend that the live action Resident Evil films are the best things out there but even this film just felt bottom of the barrel bad and it honestly felt like a terrible ending to a pretty bad but still entertaining series.

4) Ghost In The Shell

Now unlike a lot of people in the anime world i actually had hope that this film would at least be passable but the film let me down there as it felt like a hodgepodge of ideas from other and better Ghost In The Shell adaptations Scarlett does her best in the film but she's let down by the script and terrible direction.

3) King Arthur: Legend of the Sword

This film felt like a pure Guy Ritchie film and in some cases that's not a bad thing but when your trying to do lock Stock but with king Arthur then it's a bad thing because that doesn't work and what's worse is it felt like there was a decent film trying to come out.

2) Transformers: The Last Knight

My god is this film just plain boring that's all i can really say about how bad this film is because everything else i could say has been said. Everything in this film is boring as hell the characters are boring , they story is boring and worst of all the action is boring how the freaking hell do you make robots fighting each other boring? Well i'll tell you how you stick them in this movie.

1) Leatherface

This film commits the one sin that any good slasher film should never ever commit and that's making the villain the good guy why in the hell would they even consider that as an idea? It's a terrible movie and i hope to god Lionsgate bring in someone who actually knows the genre for the next outing and like with the animated film list the best of films list will be up shortly.

Ghost In The Shell 2017 Trailer Breakdown / Review

Well hello there anime and lovers and movie fans well that was a great surprise this morning wasn't it we were expecting a trailer for the new Ghost In The Shell movie but we also got the poster so let's go with this trailer breakdown / review of Ghost In The Shell 2017 and since i can't find many images from the new movie that were in the trailer i'm going to be including some from the anime as well.

As the trailer starts we get a nice reworking of the classic first scene from the 1995 movie but of course updated for a 2017 audience sadly tho we don't get to see them remake the scene where the major goes invisible.

Now i couldn't find the exact shot but during the opening we also see various shots of geisha maids attacking what looks like a group of business men i only say that because you can clearly see some of the men wearing suits and this scene is apparently what causes the major to jump of the building in the first place.

This seems like a good time to bring up the major's camo gear as like in the original movie it is skin colored so i just wanted to clear any confusion there. Also this scene does lead to a pretty badass action scene were we get to see the major's fighting skills in action.

We get a nice shot of the major's cybernetic body which for me also serves as a way to see if the film will have decent CGI and it looks like it will. Before i forget a few shots before this we get a nice shot of the Hanka building Hanka will apparently be the main antagonists of the movie.

We get a nice new look at Scarlett as the major and while she doesn't give two much away we do get to see some of her attitude in this scene which in liked.

I like the look of the city they've made it look like the anime but at the same time have also made it look a bit more modern and a bit more dare i say hip at the same time which was something that i really liked.

The next few shots are basically just the major walking through the city while a voice over goes over the scenes with her saying that people are connected to something that she isn't connected to this could most likely be a soul since the major is a full on robot she would not have a human soul.

We also get the same shot from one of the 5 teaser videos that got released but this time round we find out that the person that the major is talking to is indeed her girlfriend who as far as i know doesn't have a name yet.

After we get a shot of some Hanka workers we get to briefly see what the company is working on if you havn't seen the trailer yet i won't spoil it but it does lead me to believe that the puppet master will play apart in this film.

Next we get to see another scene from the anime remade for the film and i have to admit the effects are getting better and better for me and if you saw the Entertainment Weekly BTS video you get to see more of this scene as well.

The next few scenes are just brief action scenes that end with this really cool look at aramaki here played by Takeshi Kitano  apart from the major only he and Batou appear in this trailer so hopefully the rest of the crew will show up in future trailers.

A few shots later and we are treated to a very badass first look at Pilou Asbæk as Batou and i have to say in live action the character looks really badass so well done film makers for making him look great.

The very next scene is a remake of the boat scene from the anime and it looks like that the major and Batou will have some chemistry in this live action film we also get treated to a pretty cool action scene with Batou shooting a gun at some random unknown people

Now what's interesting is it looks like the film will give us some of the major's backstory and it looks like that backstory is a bit more adult for the PG-13 fanbase that this film is aiming for but it's still very interesting.

After that we just get a bunch of random action scenes thrown in there for good measure but what i didn't notice the first time i watched this trailer and have only just noticed is that one of those shots is from the final fight from the original anime only done in live action thus making me believe even more that the puppet master is involved somehow.

Lastly we get an unknown figure telling the major that someone has lied to her her whole life which i think is pretty disturbing we don't really get to see who this figure this but the scene does come with the shot of the major looking at a lot of dolls all hooked up to something which i think is really freaking cool.