Overall Grade: D Family Friendly Grade: D-

I’ll just get right to the point: Ghost in the Shell is one of the most boring movies I have seen in many a year. It is almost as if the movie was made to get a glimpse at Scarlett Johansson (who plays Major) with as little clothing as possible. Afterward, when it was discovered there was no character development, no emotion, and zero suspense (and the story was summed up in the first 5 minutes), perhaps someone decided the action had to be stylized and cool…so they mimicked The Matrix and 300 by making every action shot done in slow motion. What happens when every action scene is in slow motion? It…be…comes…very…slow…

For whatever reason the writers (Jamie Moss, William Wheeler, and Ehren Kruger) decided to change the main character from a major in the police force to a runaway teenager, yet kept her name Major as well as the ability for tactical training. As a teen she was Japanese, but as a cyborg she’s Caucasian American, leading many to cry foul and throw around terms such as ‘whitewashing.’ Regardless of any racial issues, I guess one should not have high expectations from the director (Rupert Sanders) since his only major film experience was Snow White and the Huntsman – which in itself was not a disaster, but also was a major miss (pun intended) from being good.

At least the special effects for the robotics were well done. Atmospherically speaking, it seemed like someone was trying to create a demon child from crossing The 5th Element and Blade Runner (my apologies to Luc Besson and Ridley Scott for the comparison).

It’s my personal recommendation to skip seeing Ghost in the Shell in the theater – after all, there’s many better films coming out this month (and in the months to come) more worthy of your hard-earned dollars.