There's something about Scarlett Johannson's walk that I just can't put my finger on. She struts around like a bulky, awkward man in tights, her every step a wooden, synthetic movement that feels strangely artificial. This could, of course, just be a result of her playing a synthetic human, a type of an Artificial Intelligence in this remake of Mamoru Oshii's cult sci-fi Anime. It could, also, just be the way Ms. Johannson is genetically programmed to walk (if it is the latter, than it's a damn shame).
Nevertheless, the superstar actress, who here resembles the Kick-Ass-First-Ask-Questions-Later Black Widow character that she portrays in Marvel's The Avengers franchise, remains surprisingly detached emotionally throughout from the audience. Her plight is a personal one - her entire personality is a fabrication as a result of her human mind having been morphed with a cyborg-like exterior, hence the term "ghost in the shell" - but we never quite feel her anguish the way director Rupert Sanders would have wanted us to.
Still, this Hollywood remake, for all its backlash and lack of box office success, is a marvel of production design and art direction. Not since Blade Runner has a futuristic city on the big screen looked dirty and beautiful at once. Ghost in the Shell may be more 'miss 'than 'hit', but it's still a hell of a lot more engaging than its overrated 1995 Anime predecessor.
C+
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