Ghost in the Shell – 4K UHD Blu-ray Movie Review

Major (Johansson) is the first of her kind: a human mind inside an artificial body. Discovering her creators lied about her past life to control her, Major will stop at nothing to unravel the mystery of her true identity and exact revenge.

Specifications

Paramount Studios
2017, Rated PG-13, 1 hour 47 minutes
2160p UHD, HDR10, Dolby Atmos (Dolby TrueHD), 1.85:1 Aspect ratio
Starring: Scarlett Johansson, Pilou Asbaek, Takeshi Kitano & Juliette Binoche
Directed by: Rupert Sanders

Rating

Entertainment:

Video:

Audio:

Extras:

Violence: Yes
Sex: Sensuality
Language: Mild

Based on a Manga story, I found this screen adaptation to be too dumbed down. Important philosophical questions about what it means to be human and when artificial intelligence transcends into consciousness were never fully realized. (By the way, the ghost refers to a person’s Spirit and the shell refers to the android body the Spirit is placed into).The film itself is pure eye-candy and the sound is sumptuous and enveloping, but the actual storyline? RoboCop. It’s a corporation that creates the body for Major (Johansson). They wipe her memories. Send her out to enforce the law. Later, her memories return which shows that the corporation misled her. She gets revenge and walks off into the digital sunset. So not only does the story NOT break new ground, it re-treads the same stuff we have seen before. I like Scarlett, but she is getting typecast lately as her Avenger counterpart. Why wasn’t an Asian female cast for this role? And could Binoche look more bored with a film? In any case, the look of the film seems to directly rip off Blade Runner with rainy dystopian street scenes at night and holographic advertisements all over the sidewalks. Everything seems reasonably believable to me except at the very end when Major battles it out with a Spider Tank (as in a squat 8 legged tank). Even RoboCop fought a better mechanical villain at the end.

If you want an action movie to idle away a Saturday night, this might be you cup of tea. It is just a shame that the story that could never be made into a movie WAS made; they just diluted the story so 12 year olds could enjoy it. Unfortunately, this shell of a film is empty.

I will admit that this film looks marvelous in UHD and WCG/HDR. The picture has some truly great shadow details and the colors almost literally explode off the screen with neon reds, blues, purples and greens, and the color red in particular are displayed in many different shades. Details are razor shape, especially noticeable in the opening sequence (ala west World). Sound is clear and dynamic with surround effects going on continuously. Thunderous bass will make you glad you invested in that high powered subwoofer (or wish you had).

Besides a BD copy, you get: Hard wired humanity: Making Ghost in the Shell, Section 9: Cyber Defenders and Man & Machine: The Ghost Philosophy.