Another Weekend, Another Dud Of A Movie

We tried watching the new Ghost in the Shell movie at Alex' two weekends ago. But first we had to wait because Joe took his sweet time showing up, and by the time he did, Alex was in the middle of a 30 minute shower, and by the time that was over, I was on the phone with another friend. So I missed the first half of the movie. It doesn't seem as though I missed much. The others were much more engrossed in watching one of the dogs trying to get a tennis ball away from Alex. Especially when Gus jumped for it and came down squarely on Alex' groin. That ended that game pretty fast, but everyone else got a laugh out of it. I wonder if Gus will store that away for future reference.

The others were frustrated the Major's boss speaks in Japanese when everyone else is speaking in English. In story, I assume all the characters have implants that translate between languages, and he's a much older gent who presumably never learned English, or is simply too old to bother speaking it. Hardly a deal-breaker, but the copy they had acquired (without paying for it, but if I had to pay money to watch this I never would) had Korean subtitles. So none of us knew what the hell the old man was saying. I wonder how much of a difference that makes. The plot wasn't too hard to follow, in that the Major was placed in that cybernetic body to be a super-awesome anti-terrorist soldier, and then learns she's been lied to and had her memories either blocked or altered by the people in charge. So then she's the threat to be eliminated. Bog standard.

Joe noted it felt as though they took bits and pieces from various stories from the manga, the animated films, the various tv series, and sort of jumbled them together. I kind of got the same sense, that there were scenes that people who knew the source material might react to with, "Oh, I recognize that!", and hopefully it would work for the rest of the audience. I don't know how well it would work for people with no familiarity with the source material. Clint and Darren didn't seem too into it. I'm no expert on Ghost in the Shell, I've watched a little, but the movie didn't really draw me in. Not really fair to expect that when I came in so late, but even the action sequences didn't do much for me.

Alex wondered how much money the Major spent on jackets, since I guess she repeatedly discards them on rooftops and such to get down to business in the stealth suit she wears some of the time. Pondering that was about as invested as I managed.