Dreamworks/Paramount's Ghost In The Shell - Part 3

[Kevin Roegele]

Record low box office for the past 16 years to just after 9/11. Record low attendence going back 25 years.

But let's not blame ourselves for lazy rehashes (sequels, prequels, reboots, spinoffs), poor story writing, not understanding the modern audience and instead finger-point at Rotten Tomatoes, blame "piracy," streaming services and anything else to distract from the lack of quality movies being released.

All those things are a factor. Compare being able to chose and watch a choice of films or high-quality Netflix dramas without having to get up of the sofa; to travelling to a cinema to pay however much to watch a film you might not even like - of course that's a factor.

And I'm not sure why you put piracy in quotation marks.

 

[terry78]

Because we're all "pirates" at some point or another.

 

[kguillou]

Strangely, I kind of want to rewatch this again even after being so disappointed with it. I didn't think it was a BAD movie per se, but it was so extraordinarily 'meh'. There was nothing impressive about it, there was not bite to it like the anime had. Even if all of the existential/philosophical stuff flew over your head in the anime, you could at least enjoy it as a visceral experience. This movie just had no edge or bite to it.

 

[2kt09]

Strangely, I kind of want to rewatch this again even after being so disappointed with it. I didn't think it was a BAD movie per se, but it was so extraordinarily 'meh'. There was nothing impressive about it, there was not bite to it like the anime had. Even if all of the existential/philosophical stuff flew over your head in the anime, you could at least enjoy it as a visceral experience. This movie just had no edge or bite to it.

It had the same trappings as the RoboCop reboot, but that at least had someone, be it the director or one of the writers, with enough sense to develop its stance on the tech advancement (go from aiding disabled veterans to living drones) and overseas warfare.

The one interesting idea this movie had was that they were abducting runaways and turning them into soldiers...and the only actor really conveying that was Michael Pitt.

 

[chamber-music]

Record low box office for the past 16 years to just after 9/11. Record low attendence going back 25 years.

But let's not blame ourselves for lazy rehashes (sequels, prequels, reboots, spinoffs), poor story writing, not understanding the modern audience and instead finger-point at Rotten Tomatoes, blame "piracy," streaming services and anything else to distract from the lack of quality movies being released.

Obviously if they put out more Wonder Woman or GotG 2 type movies and say less, Alien Covenant or Ghost In The Shells the audience might come back.

I've been very underwhelmed by many major releases so far this year. I'm not surprised it has been pretty bad for Hollywood.

TV quality has gone up significantly as well. Some of the action and special effects on shows like Game Of Thrones rival that of the movies. There are also TV shows that have better writing than many major studio films do.

 

[Teelie]

All those things are a factor. Compare being able to chose and watch a choice of films or high-quality Netflix dramas without having to get up of the sofa; to travelling to a cinema to pay however much to watch a film you might not even like - of course that's a factor.

And I'm not sure why you put piracy in quotation marks.

Because we're all "pirates" at some point or another.

Piracy is quoted because it has become a scapegoat to blame whenever a movie underperforms regardless of the quality of the movie or whether it was recorded and posted online from a theater. If you've ever seen a movie recorded in a theater then you know the visual and audio quality are generally terrible and only the most desperate will watch something that awful.

The best examples I can think of right off are the first Wolverine movie and Expendables 3, both of which were terrible movies that leaked online before their theatrical release and failed at the box office. They would have flopped regardless of their early leaks.

While everything from RT to streaming services are partially to blame, they definitely are not wholly or even mostly to blame. People know now much faster when a movie is going to be bad and avoid it. The days where they can just throw crap out and recoup the losses in a weekend or two are long gone.

Ghost In The Shell wasn't a terrible movie. But it wasn't very good either. It was just there. I will watch it again but it was not worth a theatrical experience.

 

[kguillou]

Agreed, it was "just there" is an accurate assessment of the film. I just feel like they got lazy. There was nothing innovative about it, nothing that, at the very least, made you go "that was pretty cool." It had great visuals, that was it. The anime movie made you go "oh S**!!" several times. This had none of that.

 

[Neno_Kos]

I've been very underwhelmed by many major releases so far this year. I'm not surprised it has been pretty bad for Hollywood.

TV quality has gone up significantly as well. Some of the action and special effects on shows like Game Of Thrones rival that of the movies. There are also TV shows that have better writing than many major studio films do.

Majority of TV shows already have better writing than many major studio films. It sickening, but I realized studios dont care anymore about making good movies, they only care about making a profits from box office and then if it works, making a good movie. It isnt priority. Specially Sony. Also many movies started become predictable, we entered era of reboots, sequels, all similar to each other, something what already saw before on the screen. From stories, character arcs to plots and generic villains etc. Originality today belongs to television and only television.


On other hand tv shows given how good competition they have, they truly need to bring it and give you something special to stick with them for a season, and after it. To keep viewers and audience. To build a fanbase. It's rare for majority of movies to do that.

 

[Lobo]

I watched this not too long ago. Didn't hate it, or like it, it was just kind of there. I'd forgotten I'd even watched it until I saw this thread pop up when I clicked new posts.

 

[chamber-music]

Sony is definitely the worst of the major hollywood studios right now.

 

[Mysteryman]

Sony is definitely the worst of the major hollywood studios right now.

In terms of quality?

 

[Consona]

Obviously if they put out more Wonder Woman or GotG 2 type movies and say less, Alien Covenant or Ghost In The Shells the audience might come back.

But Alien Covenant was better then WW and GotG 2.

 

[nite-owl]

But Alien Covenant was better then WW and GotG 2.

 

[AVEITWITHJAMON]

Sony is definitely the worst of the major hollywood studios right now.

Wasn't this made by Paramount?

 

[TheVileOne]

Yeah this was a Paramount release, and Paramount hasn't been doing too well lately.

 

[AVEITWITHJAMON]

Yeah this was a Paramount release, and Paramount hasn't been doing too well lately.

True.

Just wondering what Sony had to do with GITS? Watched this movie again on BD and still enjoyed it personally.

 

[chamber-music]

In terms of quality?

Yep. I think most of their releases in recent years have ranged between awful and mediocre.

 

[Consona]

 

[Milk Tray Guy]

Late to the party but I just watched this. I came in cold having no knowledge of the comic, the characters, story, or anything else about GitS - I just took it as it's own thing. Visually I thought it was fantastic. I'm a fan of Scarlett Johansson and I also liked the rest of the cast - other than Michael Pitt, who I found pretty lacklustre tbh (I'll take a stab in the dark and say he listened to a lot of tapes of Stephen Hawking's speech patterns). But overall the film just didn't grip me. It wasn't exciting, I didn't feel any desire to find out who the mysterious Kuze was, or to see Major solve her mystery. I found the score pretty bland too. I give it a 7/10 for visuals and performances - but I'm glad I didn't pay to see this in the cinema.


Edit: Just watched the trailer for the 1995 anime. Interesting how they duplicated some of these visuals for the live-action.

 

[Airwings]

When you haven't seen this film for a while, and then try to remember the plot and the settings... do you confuse it with Rodriguez' Battle Angel?
Will it be hard to tell details apart from the two films?