Ghost In The Shell: 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray Review
The Movie:
Major (Scarlett Johansson) believes she was rescued from near death. The first of her kind, Major is a human mind inside an artificial body designed to fight the war against cyber-crime. While investigating a dangerous criminal, Major makes a shocking discovery – the corporation that created her lied about her past life in order to control her. Unsure what to believe, Major will stop at nothing to unravel the mystery of her true identity and exact revenge against the corporation she was built to serve.
This film is adapted from a much beloved anime so already there was going to be a bit of hesitation about it. Throw in the controversy of Johansson’s casting and this film felt like it was going to fail before it was even out. After watching the movie myself I can say that in my opinion there was nothing to be worried about. A lot of times an adaptation like this can be a toss up but I thought it was done really well. It’s been a good while since I’ve seen the original anime but from the things that I do remember from it they got just right. The visuals are absolutely breaktaking and feel exactly like the source material even down to bright lights and colors of the city. I thought that casting of the characters was pretty spot on and they all look exactly like they did in the anime which is an impressive feat for a film. Like I stated before, the only casting choice that wasn’t entirely similar was that of Major but in all honesty I wasn’t really bothered by the fact that Johansson was cast. I thought she did fantastic in the role and really brought the character to life. I thoroughly enjoyed the film and think that people may need to give it a shot at least before they write it off. I do think that it may surprise some people. 7/10
4K Presentation:
The looked good but not entirely great in 4K. For a film that is so grandiose and colorful I would’ve expected it to be a bit more vibrant and sharp but it isn’t by any means terrible. It basically looks very similar to the standard Blu-ray version with small improvements. One of them being the black levels. A lot of the film is dark but compared to the standard Blu-ray there are definite improvements there with a lot of the scenery being more visible.
Special Features:
Hard-Wired Humanity: Making Ghost in the Shell – A really great look at the production process and includes a lot of information regarding the cast, visual effects, themes, production design and so much more.
Section 9: Cyber Defenders – A better look at Section 9 as well as themes, characters and plot.
Man & Machine: The Ghost Philosophy – A look at the story and how it pertains to modern day technology and the future of technology.
