BEFORE: This is it, my last film of the year. I worked out this schedule months ago to end here, roughly on or around this date, so I could still have a couple of days left in 2018 to write my recap post for the year. (Truthfully, I've already started it, but I'm going to need the next 2 days to finish it.). Like the U.S. government, I've been in shutdown mode for the last week or so, but that was necessary to celebrate Christmas in a different state (physically as well as mentally) and so I could concentrate on the holiday AND the work I had to do at the studio to get Kickstarter rewards mailed out before the break. You know, the job that pays me money and allows me to devote my leisure time to things like movies and comic books? Once in a while it has to take priority.
But why here, why now? Why end on this movie, which doesn't even really seem like it's up my alley? I've never paid much attention to manga or things derived from it. I got this film months ago, back when I could still dub films to DVD, and paired it with "Atomic Blonde", though now I think the two films don't have much in common except for strong female leads who fight bad guys. I guess we'll see. But this film got earmarked as one of my "one-linkables", meaning that at the moment, it only links to one other film on my list, which was "Rough Night". With a largely Japanese cast, that's not too surprising. But the last day of the year is a perfect place for such a film, because I'm going to start a new chain on January 1, and I don't require that the last film of one year links to the first film of the next - it's a time for renewal and starting fresh, right?
Of course, I could sit on this film for another few months, and eventually it would link up to "Avengers: Endgame", but I figure that film will have such a big cast that there should be at least a dozen different ways to link to it. So I'd rather clear the books of this one, with Scarlett Johansson carrying over from "Rough Night", and be done with it.
THE PLOT: In the near future, Major Mila Killian is the first of her kind: A human saved from a terrible crash who is cyber-enhanced to be a perfect soldier devoted to stopping the world's most dangerous criminals.
AFTER: Lord help me, what did I just watch? I kind of figured this movie might not be my cup of tea, but I barely understood what was going on throughout the whole film. I've got to pause here and read the recap on Wiki just to figure out what the hell happened....
OK, here's what I've been able to determine - this is set in a future-era Japan (or perhaps Hong Kong, because they never really say...) where humans are commonly enhancing themselves with cybernetics. Androids also exist, but their A.I. is still just not as good as human intelligence - so into this mix comes Major, the first human brain transplanted into a robot body. Though she can't remember her past, she still retains emotions and her spirit, which represent the title of the film, she's like a ghost in a shell. Her back-story is that she was the sole survivor of a cyberterrorist attack that she can't remember, but now she works for Section 9, an anti-terrorist government bureau. We see her and her team fighting against robotic geishas who attack a conference of businessmen from Hansa Robotics, which just happens to be the company that built her. This leads her to an entity that can "hack" enhanced people and make them do things, and eventually to Kuze, the man/machine behind it all. Then she gets framed for something and the plot gets all murky again, but she eventually learns who she really is - sorry, was - and naturally it's all connected to Kuze and how she came to be what she is.
If you don't know the manga story behind this, and I don't, then it comes across as sort of a pastiche of other films set in the tech-driven future, like "Robocop", "Blade Runner" and "The Matrix". And I think those films will stand the test of time, even if their sequels don't. History may not remember this one, because it's a re-tread of the future visions that have come before, and have not happened yet. It's funny, because technological progress has supposedly gotten faster and faster, like I have to tell people in their 20's about a time when there were no smart-phones and no internet, and they just stare at me like they can't even conceive of that. But then, why does the future with the flying cars, the cybernetic organs and the VR dreamscape always seem like it's still 20 or 30 years away? My guess is that Hollywood's entertainment conglomerates still make megabucks from dangling this future in front of us, but if it were HERE, well, then they couldn't really do that, could they? By the time the super-great future tech is here, I may be too old to enjoy it.
But back to the film. Major's story also reminds me of Wolverine's, another character who was turned into an enhanced soldier against his will, and didn't remember his past for the longest time. He also had a connection to Japan, so now I wonder how much of Wolverine's story was ripped off from typical manga plot points. In his solo comics he would often visit Japan or Madripoor (a fictional Singapore-like island nation with advanced tech, like an Asian Wakanda) and he even had a Japanese fiancée for a time, and he'd end up fighting with Silver Samurai or Viper or other Asian villains. And now that there's also a female Wolverine (sometimes called X-23) it's hard for me to know which stories are ripping off which.
This film got some bad press in the U.S. for casting a Caucasian actress in the lead role of an Asian character, then got even more bad press when it was revealed that they tested CGI that would make her look more Asian. Yeah, that's only going to make things worse. I understand that they'd think that Scarlett Johansson would put more asses in the theater seats, but then if they made her look Asian, then what's the point of casting her in the first place? Plus it's racially insensitive twice over - "we want an actress to look Asian, but not to actually BE Asian". Same goes for Tilda Swinton as the Ancient One in the "Dr. Strange" movie - sure, a white actress in her 30's can play an Asian sorcerer who's hundreds of years old, but is it really the BEST casting idea? Then if they had put her in heavy "old" make-up to look more like the character, that would just be like admitting the mistake.
I don't know, part of me hates to end the year like this, with a film I didn't really care for and barely understood. I turned down chances to see "Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse" (which could have linked from "Rough Night" via Zoe Kravitz) and "Aquaman" (which could have linked from "Office Christmas Party" via Randall Park) to leave the final slot open for this film, and now that seems like a terrible decision. Time will tell if I made the right decision as far as linking is concerned. Oh, well, at least I've got the 2018 recap post to look forward to - but I'll work on that tomorrow - and then a new Movie Year begins in just a couple of days. Where will that one start, and more importantly, how will it end? I have no idea about that last part - just as I could never have predicted when starting 2018 with "Pee-Wee's Big Holiday" that it would end like this, not with a bang but instead with a very confused whimper, and a shrug.
Also starring "Beat" Takeshi Kitano (last seen in "Johnny Mnemonic"), Michael Carmen Pitt (last seen in "Hedwig and the Angry Inch"), Pilou Asbaek (last seen in "Ben-Hur"), Chin Han (last seen in "Independence Day: Resurgence"), Juliette Binoche (last seen in "Godzilla"), Peter Ferdinando (last seen in "Snow White and the Huntsman"), Kaori Momoi, Kaori Yamamoto, Andrew Morris, Andrew Stehlin, Lasarus Ratuere, Danusia Samal, Anamaria Marinca, Michael Wincott (last seen in "Forsaken"), Yutaka Izumihara (last seen in "Unbroken"), Tawanda Manyimo, Daniel Henshall, Rila Fukushima (last seen in "The Wolverine"), Chris Obi (last seen in "The Counsellor"), Adwoa Aboah, Pete Teo, Hugh Han.
RATING: 3 out of 10 giant holograms
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