Why Ghost In The Shell Will Be Better Than You Think

One of the things that made the original Ghost in the Shell manga and anime so iconic was its costume design. Despite taking place in a familiar and recognizable world, the comic, original movie, and its anime sequels helped establish the cyberpunk aesthetic, one that would later be echoed by Hollywood in prominent movies like The Matrix. Of course, now that Ghost in the Shell is being adapted into a live-action film, the challenge becomes how to design costumes and clothing that faithfully adapt the anime aesthetic without seeming like a carbon copy of the outfits Neo, Morpheus, and Trinity wear.

Thankfully, the trailers have made it abundantly clear that the costume design by Kurt and Bart is top-notch. Scarlett Johansson's Major looks perfect, whether she's in her muted standard clothes or her tight uniform that helps make her invisible. And the Major's enemies look perfect, too, including a brightly-colored geisha robot whose clothing contrasts perfectly with its not-quite-human face, allowing it to straddle the uncanny valley. All in all, it looks like Ghost in the Shell's costumes will do an amazing job of transporting viewers from their world to somewhere different and dangerous.

The casting of Scarlett Johansson ignited quite a bit of controversy about the phenomenon of whitewashing in Hollywood (more on that in a minute). However, a simple glance at Johansson's extensive acting resume shows that she has the perfect background to pull off this role. For instance, she inhabited a cyberpunk world in the 2005 movie The Island. She established her credentials as a badass martial artist and gun expert by portraying Black Widow in five different Marvel movies. And, in perhaps her most pertinent role, she starred in Lucy, a movie about a woman who gains special powers and uses them to fight mob bosses in exotic locales such as Taiwan, all while learning about what it means to be truly human. Playing Lucy was basically Johansson's trial run for the Major, and the actress carried Luc Besson's sci-fi flick to great financial success. So the chances are pretty good that she'll excel at revisiting this kind of character in Ghost in the Shell.

Fans of superhero films often lament about Tinseltown's constant need to focus on a character's origin story. This is mostly because origin tales are usually pretty simplistic and, in many cases, have been told ad nauseam. For instance, you can only see Bruce Wayne's parents die on-screen so many times before you want to track down a Hollywood executive and scream, "Okay, we get it!"

Similarly, the trailers for Ghost in the Shell indicate the film may focus on the Major's origin, and surprisingly enough, that's a reason to get excited. Why? Well, the Major is a character we know very little about, especially in terms of her background. Despite the fact that the original manga started coming out in the late 1980s—and later inspired three films and two separate anime TV series—we still know almost nothing about the Major's early life or cybernetic transformation. The trailers for the live-action movie indicate this will be something the film explores, which means that after nearly two decades, we may finally get some answers about this complex character.

When someone comes along and tries to adapt a work of art—something with a unique vision and voice—fans always worry this new filmmaker will screw things up. How can a remake live up to the quality of the original? It's a legitimate fear, but fortunately, when it comes to the new Ghost in the Shell, the movie has the highest seal of approval. As it turns out, the original director loves it.

In a 2016 promo, director Mamoru Oshii seemed to have nothing but praise for the new film. Specifically, he said that Scarlett Johansson "has gone above and beyond my expectations for the role." The director also claimed that Rupert Sanders's remake "will be the most gorgeous film in the series so far." This is the highest praise possible, and it comes from the one person who might be most critical of someone else tampering with his vision. Fingers crossed that Oshii's excitement means this movie will be something unforgettable.

One of the strange side effects of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and its box-office dominance is that almost every blockbuster movie has become concerned with "world-building." Sometimes, this is simply to make a fantasy world seem tangible and real (think about the lengths Game of Thrones goes to in order to bring to life everything from food to fashion), but more often than not, it's to flesh things out for future sequels, prequels, and spin-offs.

And when it comes to creating a new universe, Ghost in the Shell has a pretty big advantage over other popcorn flicks. In short, this movie doesn't need to engage in much world-building. That's because much of the Major's world has been fleshed out over almost 20 years of manga and anime. The world is already firmly established, allowing the filmmakers to simply concentrate on bringing to life the most exciting and intriguing parts of the series. This means we'll get the Major in all of her butt-kicking glory, but without the distracting, sequel-building elements that were arbitrarily thrown into films like The Amazing Spider-Man 2. And we all know how well that worked out for poor Peter Parker...