The man who gave us Metal Gear Solid is a Ghost in the Shell fan, and now he’s weighing in on the Hollywood adaptation of the iconic Japanese story.
"The respect that the movie shows in mimicking the anime is unquestionable," he wrote in an essay for Glixel, Rolling Stone’s video game publication.
"As a real fan of the original works, though, I can’t help but feel that the production was trapped in the shell of the original, and as a result, it fails to come into its own."
Kojima calls the 2017 movie "surprisingly loyal" to the 1995 anime, identically recreating many of the scenes in the same visual style while fitting well into "the shell of a Hollywood blockbuster."
But he, like many reviewers including our own Kallie Plagge, felt the movie missed the point of Ghost in the Shell altogether: exploring what it means to be human.
"This new movie replaces that theme with a far simpler question: ‘who am I?’ Without spoiling the plot, it’s basically The Bourne Identity in a futuristic world connected by a vast information network. It’s a story of the heroine played by Scarlett Johansson on a quest to find her identity," he wrote.
"Upon leaving the theater and returning to the real world, the characters stay behind, locked in their ‘shell,’ unable to break free."
Kojima acknowledges the film’s shortcomings may not be entirely the fault of the film’s director or its cast. The world is a very different place than it was in 1989, when the original manga was written, or in 1995, when the feature-length anime was released.
"In 2017, one cannot simply whisper ‘the net is vast and infinite’ and hope for the impact such a statement had 22 years ago when it was uttered by Motoko Kusanagi to such great effect. In 1995, the internet was a mysterious, brave new frontier; today, it’s a known quantity. Smartphones are glued to our hands, and we are constantly connected. For us, the net doesn’t feel vast or infinite.
In this modern world, then, where is the ghost of this latest Motoko Kusanagi to reside?" Kojima added.
Check out our full review of Ghost in the Shell 2017’s adaptation here, and read about a new Ghost in the Shell anime currently in production from the director of the TV series Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex.
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