Ghost in the Shell

No, not the fantastic anime, but rater the hard received live action movie staring Scarlett Johansson.

But is all this flak necessary?

The story follows in large lines the source material, with Major being the fusion of a human brain into an enhanced cybernetic body.  She works for the anti-terrorist unit Section 9, but she also suffers from hallucinations, called glitches.
However, it soon turns out that these aren`t programming mistakes at all, but her human brain trying to recreate her past, which is totally something else from the stories she has been told about how she came to be...

Now, okay, there is the white-washing thing, something Hollywood is receiving a lot of critique for the past years (and ironically, the Japanese themselves didn`t get the controversy).  But what about the movie itself?
Visually, it`s a stunner, looking like a cleaned-up remaster with Tokyo influences of Blade Runner.  The android / human mixture looks convincing as well, so on that point we are good.

The story? Sure, it isn`t half bad at all if you want to watch a sci-fi movie as relaxation, just like me and the GF did with this flick.  But if you have seen the original anime material, well, it makes it a bit harder to watch it without drawing comparissons.  But if you haven`t, this film is actually good fun.

But there is one thing, and it pains me to say.  Scarlett.  Gorgeous Scarlett.  This movie isn`t her strongest performance to say the least, making Major look more like a walking automaton then an enhance cybernetic uberweapon.

But all in all, it`s rather alright, and definitly not as bad as a lot of "connaisseurs" out there make it out to be.