As Hollywood’s running out of superheros and YA novels to adapt into would-be blockbusters, it was a matter of time before they tried plundering manga and anime for source material again. Despite the notable failures of DragonBall Evolution and Speed Racer, the newly released trailer for Ghost In The Shell warrants cautious optimism.
When VHS copies of the first Ghost In The Shell film arrived in the U.S. back in the late ‘90s, maybe some of us were compelled by the prospect of a post-cyborg identity crisis. But the visuals left most of us too flabbergasted to comprehend the plot. As was the case with Akira, Neon Genesis: Evangelion, and others, Ghost’s melding of the quasi-realistic and fantastic was an eon ahead of the American animation to which we had grown accustomed.
I don’t know if any flesh-and-blue-screen live action can capture the techno-grit of the original. And I don’t think you need to know anything at all about the Ghost In The Shell franchise for a lot of this trailer to feel oddly familiar.
Of course Ghost In The Shell looks like a Matrix redux, but that’s only ‘cos the Wachowskis ripped off the anime like crazy. And while it’s pretty fucked up that they cast Scarlett Johansson as the normally Japanese Major, at least she’s had loads of practice pretending to punch and shoot people while wearing a form-fitting outfit.
She’s also well-versed in walking around Tokyo while looking pensive.
So, in theory, she should be really good at those things by now, right?
For the time being, we’ll say Lost In Translation 2: Black Widow’s Revenge should be at least worth a RedBox rental. It hits theaters March 31.