Hollywood’s live-action adaptations of classic anime tend to disappoint, but Scarlett Johansson’s 2017 redo of Ghost in the Shell really took the cake. Given the widespread popularity of anime, it makes sense that Tinseltown has taken it upon itself to use live-action movies and TV shows to introduce those beloved stories and characters to a western audience. But as with most of Hollywood’s efforts to bring other mediums into the blockbuster space — book adaptations, video game adaptations, etc. — they usually fall far short of their source material (and often flagrantly betray their long-time fans).

The live-action Death Note movie felt rushed and restrained, and failed to take advantage of its truly twisted premise. The live-action Alita: Battle Angel movie had stunning visuals and a great performance by Rosa Salazar, but it was let down by a formulaic screenplay and giant, uncanny-valley CG eyes. The live-action Cowboy Bebop series lacked the quirky, dystopian originality of the TV series, and while it recaptured the fun of the ensemble, it missed out on the heart and soul. But none of these live-action adaptations were quite as heinous as 2017’s Ghost in the Shell.

Ghost In The Shell Deserved A Better Live-Action Adaptation Than The 2017 Film

The 2017 Remake Was A Pale Imitation

Set in 2029 in the sprawling metropolis of New Port City, Ghost in the Shell is a cat-and-mouse tech-noir thriller about cybernetic cop Motoko Kusanagi’s search for a mysterious hacker who goes by the alias “Puppet Master.” The story itself is relatively simplistic; what makes Ghost in the Shell a masterpiece is its groundbreaking cyberpunk visual style and its philosophical thematic exploration of self-idenтιтy. 2017’s Ghost in the Shell is mostly a straightforward remake of the original 1995 film’s story, just reimagined in live-action, but it misses out on the visuals and themes that made the original so great.

Ghost in the Shell already got a pitch-perfect live-action adaptation (albeit an unofficial one) 18 years before the remake. The Wachowskis have been very open about the influence that Ghost in the Shell had on The Matrix — not just visually, but thematically, too. They both take place in a dystopian world governed by technology. The Matrix recaptures the breathtaking cyberpunk aesthetic and mix of sci-fi action and social commentary much more effectively than the official remake. Ghost in the Shell fans are better off rewatching The Matrix than checking out the abysmal 2017 redo.

What Went Wrong With Scarlett Johansson’s Ghost In The Shell Live-Action Movie

Uninspired Visuals & Whitewashed Casting Doomed The Movie From The Beginning

Narratively, the 2017 remake takes almost every plot point from the original Ghost in the Shell movie and translates it faithfully into live-action. But it retells that story with uninspired visuals. Where the original movie pioneered an aesthetic of its own and practically created a new subgenre, the remake just borrows its tone, compositions, and color palette from every futuristic sci-fi movie of the 21st century. The original movie has more interesting lighting choices, despite the fact that the live-action version was working with real lights and not just shading.

There’s also the glaring issue of whitewashed casting. The original film has an all-Japanese cast, but the cast of the remake is mostly white. There are a couple of Japanese supporting actors, like “Beat” Takeshi Kitano as Chief Daisuke Aramaki and Yutaka Izumihara as Saito, but it’s mostly white actors playing Japanese roles, like Michael Carmen Pitt as Hideo Kuze and Juliette Binoche as Dr. Ouelet. They cast a Japanese actor, Kaori Momoi, as Motoko’s mother, Hairi, but they cast the white Johansson as Motoko herself.

What The Ideal Ghost In The Shell Live-Action Adaptation Would Look Like

A Straightforward Remake Was The Wrong Way To Go

Any live-action adaptation of Ghost in the Shell should avoid just retelling the same story. That story was already told perfectly in the original movie. If audiences want to see Motoko’s hunt for the Puppet Master depicted on-screen, they can just go back to the 1995 classic. Copying the original story was one of the fatal mistakes of the 2017 adaptation, because it was doomed to just be an inferior imitation of an existing masterpiece. Instead, if Ghost in the Shell gets another live-action adaptation, it should tell a new story.

It could be interesting to see a live-action movie that skews closer to the original manga than its anime adaptation, like Taika Waiтιтi is planning to do with his live-action Akira movie. The world of Ghost in the Shell is so vast and fascinating that it might be a good idea to move away from Motoko and tell new stories about different characters. It would be fun to see a live-action TV show exploring the Ghost in the Shell universe, similar to Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex.