Ghost In the Shell: Erasure Steals its Identity.

Despite that title there's nothing that say a live-action Ghost in The Shell film featuring a predominantly white cast has to fail. Sure it's probably not what you want everyone talking about, but still. It's true that the original manga, and subsequent film, touched on very Japanese themes of identity and transhumanism. However as technology has evolved those very themes have come to encompass much of Western culture. Hell if we're being picky Cyberpunk only began as part of Western culture, with the debut of William Gibson's Neuromancer in 1984, a full five years ahead of Masume Shirow's manga. At it's heart Ghost in the Shell is a detective story and much of the cyberpunk aspect is set dressing inserted to realise the story's themes.

But while there's no obligation for this to be bad it apparently won't stop the creative team from trying. Taking an original idea about identity in a technological world and sucking it of all creative and thematic distinctiveness.

It's a film that's bad at pretty much every level. From the writing to the cinematography, the editing, fight choreography, set design. Frankly I wouldn't be surprised to lean if the on-set catering wasn't up to scratch. Worse still it tries to take the issues of white-washing and handwave it away with 2nd act revelations that neither serve as a consistent theme nor impact the character beyond this.

The plot is as good a place as any to start with. After opening with a faithful recreation of the original film's title sequence we awaken to discover Mira Killian. A victim of anseen terrorist attack, Mira's mind has been successfully transplanted into a top of the line, android body by the typically sinister Hanka Robotics. A year later she's a Major in Section 9, a counter-terrorist taskforce whose main case is taking down a notorious hacker named Kuse (changed from the animated film's 'Puppet Master because that would sound way too cool). While Kuse consistently seems to be one step ahead investigating him uncovers a conspiracy within Hanka that has ties to the Major's true origins, forcing the Major and Section 9 to go rogue under fire from the corporation itself.

Simple enough stuff. The only problem is that it wants to make a big deal about the Major's real identity and her reclaiming it, but only in the second act. It's almost as if they only noticed the big sore point of casting a Japanese property with a predominantly white cast and decided to insert the Mokoto identity at the last minute. Indeed in the beginning the Major seems to have no concerns about her true identity, or indeed any motivation that makes any kind of coherent sense. She defiantly declares her determination to track Kuse as being 'what she's built for' even though she and the audience know that isn't the case.

Incidentally this statement about Kuse has nothing to do with the line of dialogue she's responding to. Rather than have scenes play out organically GITS seems to just shove whatever it needs into individual scenes to communicate their respective emotions. At one point, fearing he's come to kill her, the Major refers to Bato as a 'Company Man', even though nothing about his character suggests this distinction. Seriously, the guy lazes about during briefings, drinks on the job and obviously maintains a healthy personal life. He's far better established as the 'Major's Man' even if he gets the short shrift in terms of story.

That lack of organic storytelling is what permeates through so much of Ghost in the Shell to render it hollow. Rather than build intricately designed sets with obvious dietetic function the set designers just slap a little neon tubing over modern day objects. Rather than arrange someone's office to reflect its owner's personality or the scene's tone it just shoves a bit of future tech into the background, regardless of functionality. The result is scenes which look empty. These aren't bars or offices, they're sets. These aren't conversations between two people, they're clunky lines of exposition from a script. And those aren't the (oddly deserted) streets of Japan, they're a CGI rendering dressed up with Anime artwork.

Save for the admirable efforts of the actors nothing about this film feels real. As with the original the action beats are just a pick and mix of the more iconic moments from the Manga. This time though the gaps between each beat offer little in the way of new information. Something desperately needed for this detective story. Images like the Geisha-bots, the invisible foot chase and the Tank battle just ring of fan-service. Ideas inserted into the film with no thought into how they should fit into an over arching story. Which just leaves the film feeling hollow and confused.

The Mokoto b-story only serves to clutter the already overlong A-story and changes nothing about the Major's character or informs her final descisions in the climax. A climax which, by the way, is utterly undermined by removing the weighty issues of transhumanism the original film dedicated ample time on. Reducing one of the greatest films of all time into just another empty action move.